Business for Hamilton baker both sweet and savory | Food

By mid-morning, the doughnuts for her Sara’s Sweet and Savory business are done, picked up and delivered, leaving her free to move onto baking cookies and breads the rest of the day.

“I don’t like things sitting around,” Harrison said. “Everything is fresh.”

It’s a philosophy — and a career path — honed early on in Harrison, who grew up in Hamilton, moved to Pennsylvania as a senior in high school and made her way back “home.”

Harrison points to the example of great bakers in her family — her mom, grandmothers and mother-in-law — and learning from her first boss, Carol Brown, then-owner of the Nauvoo Mill and Bakery.

“Some of those techniques never left my head, little tricks that you have to learn when you’re doing all the things in a bakery,” Harrison said.

That came in handy in 2020, when she left a job in health care, with her husband Matt’s encouragement, to follow a long-time dream of opening a bakery.

“I started in November 2020 in my kitchen,” Harrison said.

She sold her baked goods online, starting with what she called “Tuesday Bakes” and quickly filling her dining room table with baguettes and loaves of bread, and in-person at farmers markets in Carthage and Warsaw to build a customer base. Then she shifted the business this summer to a commercial kitchen, still located on the couple’s Green Grass Farm and Garden just outside of Hamilton, and broadening its scope to distribute baked goods to coffee shops and other businesses.

Doughnuts and baguettes remain popular items, but what Harrison makes the most is cookies using detailed recipes for all the baked goods often made with help from her husband, an Army veteran who now works for the Veterans Administration.

“He is my muffin guy and pretty much does all of them. He runs the doughnut machine,” she said.

“We’ve always baked together, but the business was a learning curve for us. I have to be so careful making sure things are all the same size so when I bake I don’t have any ‘misfits.’ I do market misfits, and people buy them. They still taste just as good.”

The couple gets to eat some of the baked goods, but not as often as he would like. His preference is the sweet treats, while she prefers the more savory items.

“Sometimes the only thing I get is when she doesn’t sell it somewhere,” he said.

“I will have good intentions of having an extra loaf of bread that I’m making in an order for us, then inevitably somebody will message and I always sell it,” she said. “Most of the time we have to go buy bread.”

Harrison enjoys cooking as much as baking, with cooking a hobby for husband and wife.

He also enjoys caring for the farm’s livestock, a herd of meat goats and a flock of chickens to provide eggs for the bakery business.

“I think I’m probably a better chef than I am a baker,” she said, but some of the same rules apply to both. “You have to have a great palate to taste when you’re cooking. You have to be creative. You have to be able to think outside the box.”

Easy Quiche provides a quick, healthy and satisfying meal perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner whenever their kids, Sydney and Preston, are home, Harrison said, and Sweet Potato Casserole holds special childhood memories.

“My mom made it with every holiday meal,” she said. “I honestly believe it’s one of the reasons my husband fell for me. My mom made it for one of the first family dinners he was invited to, and he couldn’t stop eating it!”

Family-favorite Refrigerator Bran Muffins are “perfect for preparing and having for a quick morning breakfast,” Harrison said. The batter “can last for up to five weeks in the refrigerator.”

Her personal favorite always has been Peanut Butter Cookies.

“They pair so well with a great cup of coffee or a cold glass of milk,” Harrison said.

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

Layer cheeses, meat and onion into prepared pie shell.

Mix together eggs, milk and seasonings, Pour over meat and cheese mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

3 cups mashed sweet potato

Combine together with a mixer. Spoon into a 9×13-inch baking dish.

Mix together, and spread topping over sweet potato mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

½ cup packed brown sugar

Mix together sugars and butter. Add peanut butter, vanilla and egg. Mix in dry ingredients.

Roll into 12 balls, and place on a cookie sheet. Use a fork to form a “crisscross” on top of cookies. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 375 degrees for 6 to 9 minutes.

Refrigerator Bran Muffins

2 ½ teaspoons baking soda

Cream together sugar and shortening; add eggs. Mix in dry ingredients, then add buttermilk. Set aside.

Place cereal into a bowl. Pour boiling water over cereal, and let stand until cereal has absorbed water. Blend cereal mixture in batter. Fold in raisins.

Place batter in refrigerator overnight.

Dip batter without stirring into prepared muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.