Featured Adobe Stock / vm2002. All other photos courtesy of Blissful Table
A White Plains baker crafts small-batch granola as a way of bringing people together over sweet, soulfully nourishing treats.
As a kid in White Plains, Bliss Burrell-Fager enjoyed free reign to experiment in the kitchen, spending hours putting nuts in the food processor, “just playing around all day and making a mess.” School breaks were savored in Texas with her grandmother, learning what she calls “the art of a well-crafted meal” and discovering how soul-fulfilling it can be to connect with others around a table. “Food was a very central part of my life and I always knew I’d pursue it.” Mid-pandemic, in the fall of 2021, she looked at her husband — and her fire-engine-red vintage chambers oven — and declared: “Let’s do this.”
Having already honed her cooking cred with buckles, blondies, and cinnamon-strewn coffee cake, Burrell-Fager settled on granola as the foundation of her home-based-baking dream. “It’s very forgiving,” she says, “and you can make it in so many ways to please different palates.”
She sourced rolled oats from River Valley Community Grains in northwestern New Jersey and paired them with puffed brown rice and crispy quinoa to create what is, today, the base of two-dozen flavors of all-natural, handspun granola that regularly sells out at pop ups and farmers’ markets in Larchmont, Rye, and NYC. Other core ingredients include organic maple syrup, local honey, and non-GMO canola oil.
Dotted with jumbo cashews, dried blueberries, and infused with fresh vanilla bean, Blissful Table’s vanilla blueberry cashew granola is a popular pick, alongside her First Batch offering that features oversized pecans, shaved coconut, and cranberries. Chocolate Hazz is a luscious blend of hazelnuts, coconut, agave, hemp seed, and the kiss of dark chocolate chips, while Coffee Buzzz is laced with espresso, almonds, cacao nibs, and flax seed. A savory, spicy pumpkin concoction makes a seasonal appearance.
“We try to think about how each one tastes and how does it make us feel,” she explains of the process she shares with her husband. Handcrafted granola bars and a “naked” muesli cereal are nourishing complements, with nut-free blends always in the mix and a grain-free varietal on the way (at press time).
“These are foods you’ll place on the table to bring your family together,” says Burrell-Fager. Indeed, it’s a family affair in her home (though commercial kitchen-use is planned), with her two young daughters crafting granolas that conjure the taste of old-fashioned ice-cream sundaes and drive home the motto on each artfully tied-up bag: Gather, eat, and love.
Blissful Table
blissfultable.com
