Brookey bakes both sweet and savory treats in new 25th Street shop
Brooke Barragan opened Brookey Bakes on 25th Street on July 26, 2021.
Baker Bethany Disque mixes a batch of cookies at Brookey Bakes on 25th Street.
Some of the baked goods made at Brookey Bakes on 25th Street.
Chocolate chip cookies at Brookey Bakes on 25th Street.
Hand pies are made with fresh fruit at Brookey Bakes on 25th Street.
A batch of chocolate chip cookies ready for the oven at Brookey Bakes on 25th Street.
Brookey Bakes owner Brooke Barragan poses at the display case while baker Bethany Disque mixes cookies in the background.
Unlike many professional bakers, Brooke Barragan did not grow up learning cookie-making in the family kitchen.
“My mother was a single mom with nine kids, so she was always working to make sure we were surviving. She wasn’t in the kitchen a lot,” Barragan said. “It wasn’t until after my first child was born that I fell in love with baking. My in-laws bought me my first Kitchen Aid mixer.”
After years of perfecting her skills, last month Barragan opened Brookey Bakes at 290 25th St. Walk into the sunny shop and you’ll find a case proudly displaying her signature hand pies, plump with local fruit and dusted with sparkling sugar crystals. You’ll also find cupcakes and chewy cookies studded with chocolate chips or sprinkled with colorful “jimmies,” as well as savory mini-quiches and “Little Chicago” personal pizzas.
In the background, baker Bethany Disque is busy mixing cookie dough, and customers can sit at tables out front and see some of the baking magic happening behind the counter.
Barragan started as a licensed business using her home kitchen. She took orders through a bakery app, and then began using her Instagram and Facebook pages. She contacted coffee shops, and now has her products in several local places.
She also partnered with Tagge’s Fruit Farm in Box Elder County. “We buy their fruit and they sell our hand pies at their stands,” Barragan said.
After three years, the business outgrew her home. “Having my own shop was always my dream, but it became a necessity. The kitchen was always hot, and there were pies everywhere,” she said.
But, the bakery almost didn’t happen.
“My business was doing really well, but the SBA (Small Business Association) funding had slowed down,” Barragan said. “There were a few different credit unions where I started the loan process, and then they stopped returning my calls.”
She shared her frustration in an Instagram post, and tagged each of the credit unions.
“Within an hour, the executive of the SBA lending at America First called me,” Barragan said. “They had dropped the ball, but they wanted to take care of me. And they’ve been taking such good care of me ever since.”
Next came finding the right location, on the corner of 25th Street and Grant.
“Actually, the location chose me,” Barragan said. “We had a place under contract, but it fell through. So I was feeling sad, driving down 25th Street on a gray winter day, and I looked and saw it there on the corner.”
According to the National Register of Historic Places plaque, the building was built around 1890-95 and was once the Creston Hotel and Grand Pacific Restaurant. More recently, the location was the site of Making Scents Emporium.
When it came to choosing a name, “I didn’t love it, because I would rather not be the center of attention, but my husband and I thought that “Brookey Bakes” just rolls of the tongue.”
She hired Disque to help with the baking. “I’ve known her since she was in high school, and I knew she was a strong worker,” Barragan said. “She managed Jake’s Over the Top for years. I taught her my recipes and she’s been nothing short of amazing. She’s energetic, happy and positive.”
The shop is known for its hand pies, similar to a turnover. The difference, Barragan said, is that turnovers are made with pastry crust or phyllo dough, and hand pies are made from pie crust.
Barragan started exploring pie-making while trying to make a birthday dessert for a friend who didn’t like cake — but loved pie. She will often make tiered birthday and wedding pies, in addition to traditional birthday and wedding cakes.
“When people come in for wedding tastings, we let them know you don’t have to have a cake. You can do pies or brownies, or individual treats,” she said.
Her fruit hand pies are made with fresh local blackberry, cherry, strawberry and rhubarb in the summer; raspberry and peach in early fall; then apple and caramel apple flavors in later months, each for $4.
She also makes cream-filled hand pies, and savory ones filled with beef or chicken pot pie, also $4 each.
Individual quiches — bacon and tomato, or veggie — are popular breakfast items. “We’re usually sold out of them by the end of the morning,” Barragan said.
Also on the savory side are “Little Chicagos” or individual Chicago-style pizzas, a nod to the city where Brooke grew up.
What gives her products cachet, Barragan said, is that “We aren’t willing to skimp on ingredients to have a better bottom line.”
She uses high-fat butter (yes, there is such a thing), quality cake flour and Utah-made Redmond Real Salt.
“I used to bake with grocery store butter, salt and vanilla, and I found that there’s a big difference,” she said.
She also bakes in small batches for quality control. “I don’t believe in scaling up,” she said.
BROOKEY BAKES
Location: 290 25th St., Suite 103
Hours: Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., adjusting to any 25th Street events
Prices: $2 individual treats, $20-$30 per dozen; $4 hand pies, individual quiche or pizza, $40 per dozen; cakes and pies, $15-$55
Contact: 385-626-6585; https://www.brookeybakes.com