Sarah’s Treats Bakery specialty: ‘healthy muffins’ | News Free

Healthy foods that taste good are sometimes hard to find.

Sarah’s Treats Bakery, a small batch bakery owned by Sarah Coday and opened in March of 2020, specializes in gluten-free, no sugar added, all-natural muffins.

“I guess the No.1 thing (that I want people to know) is that it is gluten-free, it does not have any flour, sugar, butter, oil or salt in my product,” said Coday. “That’s what makes it very unique and also it is such a good treat for people who are diabetic or have celiac disease or simply gluten intolerant. I actually have quite a few customers who have those situations and love (the muffins). But I think particularly I want them to know that at least they don’t have to feel deprived that they cannot have a sweet treat. So that my muffins provides that for them, they can eat something knowing it’s not going to hurt them in any way.”

According to Coday, it all started approximately 11 years ago when she met her husband who “did not eat anything healthy.” However, with Coday being raised in the Caribbean on the island of Trinidad, she was constantly surrounded by home grown, healthy foods.

“I tried getting my husband to eat healthy, and he just wouldn’t give in, so one day he told me, ‘you know what, if you can create something that is going to be good and healthy and I can eat it on the go, I would eat it,’” said Coday.

“So I decided, OK, I’m going to try to make an oat and banana cookie, and it didn’t quite work out being a cookie. I put it on the cookie sheet, once the heat got to it, it just kept spreading, and it looked like a pancake. I thought to myself, maybe if I put this mixture in a muffin tin it would kind of contain itself, and that’s how I came up with the gluten-free muffin.”

And so the journey began to create something delicious, yet healthy for her husband.

“I started out with just one particular flavor, which was the oat and fruit that I did,” said Coday. “It took me like a year to perfect the recipe, and then I just kept making that same one flavor and my husband kind of took it around with him wherever he traveled and people just loved it.

“Over the past 10 years it’s been all over the Middle East, the Caribbean, all over the United States and people kept saying to him ‘why doesn’t your wife make this and offer it to the public?’ and I just kept saying ‘no, no, no I don’t want to do that because that means I would actually have to work’ (laughs).”

According to Sarah’s Treats, after finding out in early 2020 that a close family friend’s 10-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a gluten intolerance and was sad that she would no longer be able to enjoy some of her favorite foods like donuts, Coday decided it was time to make her muffins accessible to everyone.

Sarah’s Treats now has seven different muffin flavors: oatmeal raisin, peanut butter and blueberry (PB&J), pumpkin spice, pina colada, zesty orange chocolate, carrot cake and strawberry cream cheese.

Everyone can now find Sarah’s Treats in seven different locations, including the Kaffee Haus at Branson’s Center Stage, Nature’s Wonders, Bayside Market at Still Waters Resort, Sunfest Market Branson, Price Chopper, The Herb Shop in Branson West and Nature’s Sunshine Health Foods.

On top of creating a delicious, healthy muffin, Sarah’s Treats also gives back to the community by providing a meal, through Christian Action Ministries, for one hungry person in the Ozarks with each dozen muffins that are purchased.

“I give to Christian Action Ministries here, and that’s how I give back directly to my community,” said Coday.

Sarah’s Treats gluten-free, no sugar added, all-natural muffins were also recognized by winning silver in The Best of Branson, Best Dessert category.

Visit ‘Sarah’s Treats’ on Facebook or at sarahstreatsbakery.com