Lea este artículo en español aquí.
In just over a year, Tammy Freitas and Tiffany Zgragen have moved from selling chocolate chip and sugar cookies from a folding table in a Tres Pinos driveway to a brand-new farmstand built for their business, Kneaded Comfort, located on Southside Road and Fifth Street and set to debut on Feb. 13.
In addition to a more varied selection of gourmet cookies, the two will offer cakes, teas, flavored sourdoughs, focaccias, beef jerky, and soaps, all made with locally sourced ingredients. A colorful selection of homegrown eggs will also be available.
Zgragen lives in Paicines with her husband, Chad, on the Willow Creek Ranch, and Freitas lives in Tres Pinos, where she was once the postmaster. Appropriately, they met at that post office, and they instantly became close friends, with Zgragen later serving as caregiver for Freitas’ mother.
Both come from families filled with home bakers: Freitas learned to make yeast rolls in kindergarten, and Zgragen picked up tips from her mother, who worked in a bakery, and from her grandmother and great-grandmother, who she said were “incredible cooks.”
“I started taking over stuff by like seven,” Zgragen said. “I would have dinner ready for my grandparents when they got home from work, and then cook for all birthdays and occasions. And I’d ask my grandmother to critique so I could learn new skills.”
When they decided to capitalize on a mutual love of baking and cooking, they began a lengthy process to put their own stamp on the products they offer.
“We spent at least six months on all of our recipes,” Zgragen said. “We would take recipes we knew and critique them to no end; a little from this recipe and a little from that recipe until we came out with something decent.”
If they have as much fun in the kitchen as I did interviewing them, I am sure that the experimenting was pure whimsy, even when their first attempt at cookies, Zgragen said, was just short of “disturbing.”
“We started pretty basic,” she said, “and I think we forgot the flour. I don’t know how we did that. We confused some of the ingredients, and they turned out more like cookie puddles.”
As they developed their first offerings, Freitas said they devised a simple system for comparing the recipes and results by coding them with different colors of M&Ms. And then it was time for the final test.
“We just kind of started handing out cookies,” Zgragen said, “and getting people’s opinions. We had a ton of people volunteer, and Tammy goes to church in San Juan, so we’d be sending food over to Bible study.”
One of the biggest hurdles was mastering the fine art of sourdough, a six-month process during which they perfected the bread in a dozen forms, including savory breads, along with white chocolate strawberry and lemon-blueberry versions made with local fruits.
“There’s not a recipe per se for sourdough,” Zgragen said. “A lot of it is ‘Do this step until it looks right and then follow this next step until it looks right.’ There’s so much of ‘I don’t know, does it look right?’ and you bake it and go ‘nope, that wasn’t right.’”
The loaves are enormous, but small loaves are also available for those who cannot eat an entire one. But Freitas said the bread also holds up well to storage.
“It’s OK to cut them into slices,” she said. “If you put parchment paper in between, you can put them in the freezer. Then, if you throw a slice in the toaster, it’s like it just came out of the oven. and it’s incredible.”
Before they started selling baked goods, the pair sold white and tan eggs. They have since sought out chickens that lay eggs in a variety of colors, which they offer at the stand.
“We have found,” Zgragen said, “that especially if it’s women buying the eggs, they want pretty ones. So we started getting chickens that would give us colors like military greens and blues. We just got a batch in September and don’t know what color they’re going to be.”
The stand’s debut, the day before Valentine’s Day, will stick to the theme, featuring heart-shaped, frosted mini-chocolate-chip cookie cakes; brilliantly colored red velvet cookies with white chocolate chips; decorated, dipped Oreos; and sugar cookies topped with strawberry jam and sprinkles.
There is a charming laissez-faire attitude between the two, as evidenced in our interview, and they have such a delightful rapport that it suggests they are cooking more for the fun of creating together than for any other reason.
“It’s not about us making all this money off of all of this,” Zgragen said. “It’s really something we are trying to do for the community.”
Assorted goodies from Kneaded Comfort
Circus cookies – Starting off as a kid’s birthday party treat, the two were amazed when, after they first started offering them at the stand, they sold out in the first 10 minutes. “It’s just something fun,” Zgragen said. “They have lots of color to them, and it has turned into one of our main cookies.” The secret seems obvious when you bite into one: the cookie is packed with chopped-up pieces of pink-and-white frosted Mother’s Original Circus Animal Cookies.
Cowboy cookies – “I don’t even know what brought these to mind,” Freitas said. “It’s just an old family recipe. Everybody knows cowboy cookies, and they seem to love them. Made with pecans, coconut, oats, and chocolate chips, they are soft but richly textured.” Zgragen said they are a “guilt-free breakfast because they have oats in them,” but I will leave that up to the reader.
Dark Chocolate Coffee cookies – “We did a double-chocolate sourdough,” Zgragen said, “and we added some espresso. Then we started working on how much coffee to add so it wasn’t just a stronger chocolate chip cookie, but one you could actually taste the coffee.” The coffee adds a nice twist: there is just enough to register on the taste buds, but not enough to overwhelm.
Hummingbird cupcakes – A mix of coconut, banana, and roasted pecans, this is an award winner at the San Benito County Fair. Freitas said she found the recipe when she was trying to find alternatives to the standard chocolate and vanilla cakes. “One recipe said ‘Hummingbird,’” she said, “and I thought, ‘That sounds good.’ I love to make the cake, and it is a very simple cake to make.”
Beef Jerky – Something the pair offered almost from the beginning, current flavors include a reserve, sugar-free teriyaki, pineapple-based Hawaiian, and smoked steak. “All the moms and wives come in for their bread or their cookies,” Freitas said, “so we wanted something a little more aimed towards men.” The flavors are offered individually, in sampler boxes or jerky-and-bacon bouquets.
Elevated Tea – “We started off with just a couple of fruity teas,” Zgragen said, “and as time has gone by, we’ve started getting requests, like, ‘Can you do a blueberry tea or a lemon tea?’ They’re quite flavorful, and most of the tea bags you can use twice.” All the tea is made from locally dehydrated and crushed ingredients, and many add local fruits. The selection is wildly varied and includes items like Raspberry, Peach Passion, Black Cherry, Peach Berry, Mango, Lemon-Blueberry, Lemon-Orange and Blueberry-Peach. They have also offered Decaf Black, Vanilla Chai, Pumpkin Spice and Caramel teas, as well as “Sore Throat Soother” and “Get Better Tea.”
Kneaded Comfort Farmstand is located at the corner of Southside Road and Fifth Street in Tres Pinos. The stand is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays, though the two are considering expanding the hours and days of operation. Kneaded Comfort’s current offerings are posted on Instagram and Facebook, and products can be ordered through the website. Shipping is also available.
Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.
BenitoLink thanks our underwriters, Hollister Super and Windmill Market, for helping expand the Eat, Drink, Savor series and for giving our readers the stories that interest them. Hollister Super (two stores in Hollister) and Windmill Market (in San Juan Bautista) support reporting on the inspired and creative people behind the many delicious food and drink products made in San Benito County. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. Producing local news is expensive, and community support keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service nonprofit news.
You must be logged in to post a comment.