It’s March 14th and you know what that means…it’s Pi Day! While we all remember π or 3.14 from math class in school, we’re also fans of actual pie! Here in Allen, pastry fans flock to The Moonbeam Bakery (an Authentically Allen pie shop) and for good reason. Rachel Dymond serves up yummy treats like red velvet bars, cinnamon rolls, and of course, pies of all flavors! We caught up with Rachel (and her sweet son, Adam!) to learn more about her bakery:
How long have you been baking?
I started when I was little. It’s always been a passion and I dreamed of opening a bakery. I baked with my grandpa who passed away when I was in middle school. His nickname for me was Moonbeam. I considered going to culinary school after high school, but no one in my family had a college degree so getting a college degree was very important to me. I got a degree in hospitality management, but I started professionally baking in 2018.
Why did you choose to open your bakery in Allen?
I had been working in Allen for a few years and the opportunity presented itself to kind of walk into the bakery space. It was fully furnished. The people that owned it before were looking to make life changes and asked if I was interested. The rest is history.
Do you have any family recipes on your menu?
Yes! Our brownie recipe—I started tinkering with it in middle school and perfected when I was in high school. Our red velvet bars are adapted from a cookie my mom always makes around Christmas. I changed it a little bit to make it into a bar (think brownie-like, not so much fluffy, like a cake.) And the lemon meringue pie, which we do seasonally, is one of my grandpa’s recipes.
Is there anything on your menu that you wish more people would try?
Our peanut butter pie! It’s definitely our most underrated pie.
What’s your best seller?
Our key lime pie. People expect it to be super tart or super sweet and it’s actually really well balanced.
What’s your most unique or favorite thing you’ve made?
I think our cheesecake pie. We experiment with it a lot. Our tropical cheesecake might be our most unique flavor. It’s got pineapple, coconut, and maraschino cherries. It’s not super dense and thick like a normal cheesecake; it’s a little bit lighter and we bring it out during the summer.
What would you say is the most challenging thing about owning a bakery?
We like to keep everything local, so I would say sourcing good quality ingredients for a good price. With everything that’s happened in the last few years, it’s been hard to find good quality ingredients while still keeping my prices reasonable.
What are you most proud of?
I’m most proud of the fact that four years later, we are still open. We opened in the midst of the pandemic in April 2020 when they were saying it was going to be six weeks. And I was like “we can do this” and we made it through.
Visit The Moonbeam Bakery at 1008 W. McDermott Dr. #400, Allen, TX 75013
