Abby Dumont has always loved baking. Whether she’s decorating Christmas cookies with her family or baking a cake for birthday parties, Abby has always enjoyed making people smile with her assortment of delicious desserts. And when people bite into her cakes, cookies, brownies and donuts, they don’t even realize they are all gluten free. Even though her business, Pinch of Salt Pastries, has weathered some challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, she has continued to grow with her pastries, all from her commercial kitchen in Southlake.
I HAVE ALWAYS… baked at home with my family. That’s been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My mom has always been passionate about it, and we would always bake everything from scratch for holidays and birthdays alike. We would always open up the recipe book, test out our favorites and try new things. It made me appreciate the mistakes as well as the perfections of baking.
THE KEY TO SUCCESSFULLY BAKING IS… experimenting. It’s sort of like a science. If you’re already familiar with the basics, like how to cream butter and sugar and make a basic cake or cookie batter, then you already have the foundations to stack bigger building blocks on top of it. You really have to take it recipe by recipe and make adjustments as you go. You won’t always get it perfect. You just have to practice and learn from your mistakes and try and try again.
I GOT MY FIRST BAKING JOB… in 2012 after I graduated college from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton. I was working part time at a bakery in Colleyville, and I was totally loving it. We had a lot of free rein in doing new recipes, trying new flavors and being unique and creative. I think that’s what gave me the confidence in myself to really take ownership of what I was doing.
I GOT TO A POINT WHERE… I digestively wasn’t feeling very great, and I needed to make a change in my life. I found out that I never really digested gluten, and I needed to take it out of my diet. I really needed to rethink how I approached eating and took a deep dive into the real foods world.
I HAD SOME GLUTEN-FREE PASTRIES WHEN I STARTED THIS JOURNEY… and I wasn’t happy with them. They tasted like cardboard, the texture was all wrong and they were leaving behind a weird, funky aftertaste. I figured if I wanted gluten free to taste the way I wanted it to, then I was going to have to make it myself.
GLUTEN-FREE BAKING… isn’t so much different from regular baking. Whether it’s a cookie or a brownie, I go through the same series of tests I do for any recipe to decide what’s going to make something chewy, cakey, fluffy or creamy. It could take another egg or another cup of milk — you just keep making modifications and testing it until you get it right.
I REALIZED… there was a gap in this area and that coffee shops were looking for a wholesale option when it came to gluten-free desserts. It wasn’t just individual people that needed a gluten-free birthday cake here or there. There were local businesses that really needed it, and they’re going to reach more people than I ever could on my own. So I secured my own booth at the Grapevine Farmers Market in 2015 and just expanded my business from there.
WE MAKE... cupcakes, cakes, breads, pound cake, cookies, brownies, sausage and cheddar kolaches, cinnamon rolls, pies and a whole bunch of other pastries. We have dairy-free, paleo, vegan and nut-sensitive options. We really make it all.
IT SHOCKS ME… how much Pinch of Salt Pastries has grown every day. We went from being a vendor at the farmers market to supplying for 16 coffee shops across the Metroplex, including RE:defined Coffee, Brew & Batter, Beanvoy Coffee, Buon Giorno, Summer Moon and Union. Our newest partner is a coffee shop in Arlington that opened over the summer called Inclusion Coffee. We’ve been able to grow organically and slowly, so it’s been manageable taking on a new shop or menu item.
WE’VE HAD TO ADJUST OUR APPROACH… due to COVID-19. In addition to our wholesale orders, we’ve also rolled out to-go and custom orders that people can pick up for contact-free curbside delivery. They can preorder donuts, muffins, crumble bars, bread loaves and more from our to-go menu online Monday through Saturday.
MY FAVORITE PART OF THIS JOB… is providing that baking experience for those who have been missing it. I can’t tell you how rewarding it is to hear that excitement from our customers when they share what they’re eating. Some of them haven’t eaten cinnamon rolls or sweets in 10 years, and they love just being able to taste it again without worrying about their health. The passion I have to serve those who can’t have any gluten or cross-contamination is a big motivator for me to keep giving people what they’re looking for. That’s been the most rewarding part of all of this.