Boston Bakeries: Sugar-Free Delicacies in Beantown

Sugar-free, no sugar added, made without sugar - these are key words that the place serves something made without sugar. Boston has a lot of "No" answers to people searching for sugar-free or no sugar added products, and the "Yes" answers are sparse indeed.

A word for the savvy, sugar-free pastries will cost two or three times more than the sugared variety, usually, due to a smaller quantity being produced. Also, pre-packaged nutrition bars such as Weight Watchers, or Atkins have taken over the sugar-free niche to a certain extent.

I hit the sugar-free treasure at Potluck and Pastries, on 47 Central Street in Peabody, MA. This bakery bakes and serves no sugar added warm apple compote, sugar-free apple ice cream, no sugar added apple turnovers, and no sugar added apple squares. Just the place to take your birthday girl or boy who is trying to avoid additional sugar in her or his diet, a fun place to get a no sugar added dessert.

Trader Joe's of Needham Heights, MA located on Highland Avenue - not a bakery, however, this storefront does stock sugar-free bite-sized chocolate chip cookies in a container, manufactured by Joseph's. Or, at least, some of these stores do, others are no longer carrying this product. Sugar-free chocolate covered almonds were also recommended, a candy, a topping for sugar-free desserts. The store is open hours that most bakeries are not, so this is an option if you or your guests must have a sugar free treat at this moment or a half-hour prior to this moment. The employee who answered the phone suggested that I call up the East Coast headquarters of Trader Joe's.. The employee I spoke to at the Trader Joe's on Boylston Ave. in Boston sounded less positive about sugar-free product and possibly more than just multitasking; being that this was a busy Sunday afternoon, I let it go at that. The scoop is this - the cookies from this vendor contain mallitol, and the employees are discovering that this gives a problem to the digestive tract. At least the store carries sugar free ice cream, sugar free candy, as well as sugar substitutes.

Whole Foods Market of Brighton, MA located on Washington Street does not have a lot of sugar-free bakery item choices either, apparently, according to the employee. Joseph's cookies, sugar-free, are available in the oatmeal and almond variety; plus Aunt Gussies cookies are sold in the chocolate chip, the vanilla spritz, and the almond flavors. Plus there are no-sugar added products, again, this is an option that is a definite go in a pinch for time and money. Whole Foods Market carries sugar-free candy as well as sugar substitutes, however, baked goods in the sugar-free variety are variable in availability - and this month, the products seem to have gone out of style around Boston. All the shops are more interested in carrying organic sugars.

For 24/7 service, the local Stop and Shop is there - however, the bakery at the Stop N Shop in Everett on Revere Beach Parkway does not carry sugar-free product, just no sugar added muffins and low sugar muffins. Again, this is a Sunday afternoon, and I think I spoke to the maintenance staff, who sounded pretty knowledgeable about the product; especially being that he was probably working three or four departments at the time. Hey, these no sugar added muffins do not have sugar other than what is in your fruit exchange for the muffin, so this counts as a "yes".

Shaw's Markets offer a "healthy sweets" selection to their bakery department goodies. Have been unable to contact anybody there to give me the 411 on products in stock that are sugar-free.

JP Licks, a local ice cream chain, with four locations including one on Harvard Square in Cambridge, offers specialty sugar-free ice cream cakes, if ordered 48 hours in advance, containing one or more of the listed flavors of sugar-free yogurt listed on the website, which may include vanilla, chocolate, coffee, mocha, or peppermint on a given week.

The Danish Pastry House on Boston Avenue in Medford, MA bakes a no-sugar added plain croissant, so bring along your bottle of stevia (a sugar substitute available in health food stores) and go.

It is the summer, and Christina's ice cream stocks a sugar-free vanilla ice cream for your slice of sugar-free cake, if you happen to be in the neighborhood of 1255 Cambridge Street in Cambridge, MA; this establishment will make up a sugar-free vanilla ice cream cake for you, too.

Health food stores (rough draft notes) such as Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, or your local town's greengrocer in places like Cambridge, Lynn, Everett, Quincy, will carry sugar-free Atkins low carbohydrate bars, and there are products in the works. The most prominent local manufacturer has been using a laxative in the sugar-free baked goods, so the retailers are no longer purchasing the product that contains the ingredient. If you are at the mall, there is frequently a General Nutrition Center at the shopping complex or The Vitamin Store, which carries sugar-free snack bars. I miss the General Nutrition Center's carob mint flavored high protein bar with no sugar added, however, this is no longer being manufactured.

I contacted Yada Yada Bakery, Modern Bakery, Mike's Bakery, Marie Pastry House, Patsy's Pastry, Clear Flour Bakery, Savoy French Bakery, Flour Bakery, and many other bakeries and pastry shops - all of these establishments denied carrying sugar-free or no sugar added product. I stopped after calling up a few numbers listed as international baking companies, and decided to leave the rest of the research for another month. Even Cooking Light magazine has stopped listing sugar substitute containing recipes, which is a bit of an unpleasant surprise.

The Weight Watchers club has three offices in the Boston area, and offers a free meeting on their website - these meetings are held four times per week at the Holiday Inn on 1200 Beacon Street in Brookline, MA: on Monday at 5:45 pm, on Tuesday at 6:30 pm, on Thursday at 12:15 pm, and on Saturday at 8:30 am and 10: am. Weight Watchers carries a wide variety of product and is available at local supermarket chains.

Another recommendation: order up a case of sugar-free pastries from someplace like Tastykake, which are $71.99 via mail order for 144 cupcakes, and will last in the bags for months or more - the Tastykake Sensables are available in a variety of flavors, and the help will not eat them as is for some obvious reason, prior to being soaked in Torani sugar-free syrup or espresso, these things taste like food for junior high school aged diabetics. The cupcakes are available in the following flavors: sugar free cream filled chocolate cupcakes, sugar free cream filled koffee cake cupcakes, sugar free orange finger cakes, sugar free chocolate chip finger cakes, and sugar free chocolate chocolate chip fingers.

The International House of Pancakes carries a sugar-free syrup, it is pourable on biscuits, and gives them a sweet taste without sugar, ask for a dish of nuts, and it tastes (almost) like baklava.

Finale Dessert Company is the dessert chain to visit in the Boston area, the extensive menu is almost perfect, containing gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan products. However, the sugar-free department, seemed to be limited to fresh fruit. Desserts out very infrequently at a place this elegant are sort of ego boost for most of us more than slightly deflated people who are doing our best to avoid things like dairy, meat, sugar, and gluten. The Finale menu lists fresh fruit; and I would hope that sugar-free would be available alongside the others, given the $7 - $25 ticket price for dessert, however, as of this writing; getting a no sugar added dessert depends on who your server is, and who the kitchen help on a given night are. Still, the atmosphere is beyond compare, the air is sugar-free.