It’s the holidays, a time of cheer—and a time of yummy baked goods. But if you’re a person who’s gluten free, dairy free or vegan, it can be difficult to partake in that particular sort of cheer.
Never fear! We talked to multiple bakeries around Ann Arbor to determine which ones have allergy and intolerance friendly treats for people with eating preferences or restrictions, and featured below are some of our favorite options.
Many of them do note that they use shared facilities, but are very straightforward about the processes they use to keep ingredients separate, and will be able to help you ascertain if they’re safe enough for you.
The Enchanted Oven
A variety of allergy- and intolerance friendly treats are available here. They assured me that they are also able to make treats available for special order. They can do special orders of cookies and holiday pies gluten-free (GF) and vegan and they can make Bushe de Noel, cakes and cheesecake GF as well.
Readily available GF items include a chocolate Swiss roll, a rainbow cake and Greek almond macaroons. Vegan options include salted vanilla cupcakes. And GF and vegan combined options include chocolate chip cookies and banana oatmeal cookies.
Zingerman’s Bakehouse
Zingerman’s Bakehouse sells a variety of intolerance- and allergy-friendly foods, such as fresh-frozen GF and vegetarian bread; a townie brownie cake and a townie brownie that’s wheat free, nut free and vegetarian; and Julie’s Big Idea apple pie, which is nut free and vegetarian.
TeaHaus
They have so many intolerance- and allergen-friendly options available. They are extremely allergen friendly as they note the allergens on all their items, and they also have full lists of ingredients and are happy to talk about their cleaning process if anyone asks; the employee I spoke with was very forthcoming. They are not a dedicated facility; they prep and wash everything beforehand and are very conscientious, and have some customers with celiac disease.
They have a lot of GF options: macarons, carrot cake, almond cake, bundt cake, a variety of cookies and more.
Vegan options include vegan cookies and a fruit crisp that’s vegan, GF, and nut free.
Luca Pastry
Laca Pastry carries two types of GF cookies, and their macaron cookies are GF as well. They also carry a variety of nut free items; most of their pastries are nut free. They are not a dedicated facility but take their ingredients seriously and are happy to answer any questions a customer may have about their process.
Big City Small World Bakery
This bakery has a variety of GF and vegan free options as well as traditional fare. Their Ding Dongs—vanilla frosting between two slices of chocolate cake, covered in chocolate ganache—come in both a vegan and GF version. Large cakes are their specialty; the employee I spoke to personally recommended the carrot cake—and the cakes they do in-house are mostly vegan. For more GF friendly treats, they do a number of tasty cookies, and they also do a delicious lemon bar and raspberry bar.
RELATED: Creating an Allergy-Friendly Shindig for Everyone in the family
Ann Arbor has a variety of allergy- and intolerance-friendly options when it comes to baked goods, which is especially wonderful during the holiday season. Everyone deserves to enjoy a tasty treat around the holidays, no matter their eating restrictions or preferences.
