• Caryn Stabinsky, formally pastry chef at Monkey Bar in Manhattan, and husband Geoffrey Fischer, who held both front- and back-of-the-house positions at Manhattan restaurants WD-50, IIo, and Montrachet, have opened Loaf Bakery and Café (387 Main St, Armonk 914-273-4320; loaf-café.com), proffering classic American baked goods. On the menu: red velvet, coconut, chocolate, crumb cakes; cookies; cupcakes; brownies; tarts; muffins; and a variety of breads, including their signature $7 Monkey Bread (brown sugar bread baked in a cake pan). Soups, salads, and sandwiches are also available for eat-in or takeout.
• Nary a preservative, food coloring, or additive is used to bake the goodies at Susan O’Keefe’s Baked by Susan (163 Grand St, Croton-on-Hudson 914-862-0874). Also sold at local farmers’ markets and coffee shops, Baked by Susan sweets include madeleines, whoopee pies, cookies, and apple crisps.
• Bedford resident, Randell Dodge, who learned her baking skills from her mother, uses 100-percent organic and primarily locally sourced ingredients at Red Barn Bakery (4 S Astor St, Irvington 914-231-7779; redbarn-bakery.com). The bakery offers muffins; galettes; cookies; scones; tarts (among them, a winning double chocolate tart); 25 varieties of pies; and a signature $6 breakfast cookie (filled with raisins, almonds, sunflower seeds, coconut, dried papaya, and dried mangos). Her products are also sold at Mt. Kisco Seafood, Erica’s Kitchen in Bedford Village, Stone Barns’s Farmers’ Market in Pocantico Hills (May-November), Bedford Gourmet, and Whole Foods Market in White Plains.
