Benne's Sweet Treats

Hello everyone!! My name is Xan and I am the Founder and baker for Benne’s Sweet Treats. I’d like to share my journey with you about why I decided to start making allergy-friendly treats. One of my main reasons is because I have several allergy-sensitive, vegan, and vegetarian family members. I also remember there was a completely separate table at my school for kids with allergies and I always felt it was horrible that they were made to sit in isolation because of something that they had no control over. I had to watch kids be affected by allergies my whole life in one way or another and not be able to enjoy the savory treats that I’d always taken for granted.
My whole life, I have always watched my mom and great-granny in the kitchen cooking big family dinners and baking those sweet delectable desserts that filled the air with an aroma that I have always equated with home, love, and family. It was that feeling that always made me feel warm and cozy at home. You could tell that they put their love into everything that came out of the kitchen and it sure always tasted that way. Yuuummmmy!!!
From watching them at a young age, I became obsessed with the baking shows on Food Network and Netflix. Rae Drummond's "The Pioneer Women" and Paula Dean were two of my favorite shows. From them, I learned even more about cooking and baking. I loved the feeling of family that they had on their shows. This is something that I’ve wanted to bring to other people’s homes through my baking. So I started practicing my craft and was soon baking every week and would share my delectable treats wherever I could. I would share my treats with my neighbors, family, and friends. My family would even take my creations to work with them, and I’m proud to say they were a smash hit! Then when we started to get involved with charity work, my network expanded and I was able to share my idea of home, love, and community, with many of the people that live on the streets or that stayed in shelters within our community.
During my high school years, cooking and baking became my outlet and stress reducer. Baking a simple cookie became my solace. I started simply by the creation of the different baking war shows on Food Network my creativity grew and grew.
I, like so many others, have struggled with allergies my whole life. Originally I was allergic to only peanuts and seafood. However, now in my mid-twenties, I began to notice allergies to other products. It wasn’t until this past year, where I developed my own severe allergies to a lot of your everyday and basic cooking products. Many of the items that are in my/our most beloved baked goods such as, milk, all milk products, gluten, and peanuts. When all this began, going out with family and friends, was so challenging for me to find good food to eat. As an avid food lover, I enjoy all types of foods, yet I found that the same foods that I had always loved and enjoyed so much made me severely ill. I was devastated!! I felt that I was now severely restricted and could no longer do the one thing that brought me peace of mind. The food was challenging enough but the baked goods, the baked goods were a complete disaster. Finding good quality, moist, and delicious baked goods were now an impossibility. Or so I thought……
So, back into the kitchen I went, my family began to call it “The Lab” lol, and I got creative. I started playing with my old receipts and substituting all of the new vegan, plant-based, allergy-friendly items that I was now required to use.
It was then that I remembered all of those kids that I grew up with and how they couldn’t enjoy the simple pleasure that I had always taken for granted, and it lit a fire in me. I was determined to make something that I could enjoy again. This challenge gave me a new purpose in life. You could say I was obsessed with making something great again!
It took me months and a lot of searching, playing with products and combinations but I finally found the perfect balance. I decided to try my new product on my mother, who I’m going to add here, is the most finicky and picky eater on the planet who never tries anything new or different, so she would never try any of my desserts because they were “allergy-friendly”. So I swapped a batch of her reg desserts with a few of my own. When she came to tell me how good they were, BINGO! I knew I had achieved something great! If she said it was good and it was allergy-friendly, oh my! She couldn’t believe it.
So, I decided to start an at-home, online bakery that would allow, people like myself, the ability to eat delicious, sweet treats within their dietary restrictions. Thus the idea of Benne's Sweet Treats was born. We make everything from scratch and it tastes like it too. Our goal for the products that we make is to make you feel as if you were at home with every bite that you take. Everything in our store is plant-based and allergy-friendly.
Having allergies or dietary restrictions can be so frustrating. Going vegan or plant-based can be challenging because its something new and you don't know what to expect, but it can also be quite rewarding when you find a vegan restaurant or bakery, or a plant-based restaurant and/or bakery that makes you forget that you even have allergies and you think that you’re eating like you used! That is what Benne’s Sweet Treats aims to do. Make you forget you even have allergies, yet ensuring that you are eating within your dietary restrictions.