Sugar Giant
Shannon Mahoney
“You have to meet Shannon,” I was told a number of times when I started working (way too briefly) at Skordo last fall. “You two have a lot in common.” Shannon and I worked at the shop together one day, which turned out to be my last (freaking pandemic). But I thoroughly enjoyed the few hours we spent together, and we definitely spoke the same language, that of food, baking, and especially sugar.
So when I heard that Shannon landed the job as baker for Sugar Giant, a new, to-go only, offshoot of Little Giant, I wasn’t surprised. She answered an ad Little Giant owner Ian Malin had placed. “I have a little bit of a crazy idea,” he told her. Ian wanted to provide baked goods for the West End neighborhood, and beyond, with local delivery or pick up, starting at 7 a.m. “That’s when people are getting up to start their day,” Shannon says.
She wowed him with a picnic basket of baked goods that included cookies, cake, profiteroles, a homemade Snickers bar, and a cinnamon bun. “He accepted it all!” she says. An opportunity for her to showcase her work was born, and so was the largest cinnamon bun I’ve ever seen.
The recipe for the bun was born around the same time as Little Giant, created first by pastry chef Darcy Poor, then adapted by Morgan Ditmars. Shannon ran with it, making it her own in a couple of ways. She uses Ceylon cinnamon for deeper flavor and ground cardamom, sourced from Skordo, creating a nice synergistic alliance for both her employers. Shannon also adds an orange-scented cream cheese frosting for the buns, that you can schmear on yourself after heating them slightly at home. As for the size? “Let’s just see far they can grow,” she and Ian decided. Not to be held back by a mere sheet pan, the buns are baked in a Pullman loaf pan, allowing them to grow tall instead of wide. One batch of the enriched dough contains nine pounds of butter, and makes 60 buns. Don’t do the math. But seriously, each bun could feed three or four people.
Shannon considers her style to be nostalgic and classic. “It’s that birthday cake you had when you were seven or the chocolate chip cookie you used to get from the bakery on Sundays, all crunchy, chewy, melty, chocolaty,” she says. “It’s all very familiar. We’re not doing crazy, out-there flavors. We want to make people happy in these times.”
Who wouldn’t be happy with a gigantic chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich? This one is easily divided into four generous pieces. Eat one now, share the rest or put them in the freezer for another day. Right now, there’s vanilla in the middle, but I’m told Parlor Ice Cream will soon be filling that sweet spot with other flavors. “I can’t believe how many people love this in the depth of a Maine winter,” says Shannon. Her chocolate cake is available by the slice (or you can preorder a whole one), and it’s lovely - rich chocolate layers with a light coffee mascarpone Swiss buttercream and chocolate frosting. I enjoyed the dense rye bread a lot, with its anise, caraway and fennel seeds plus a tiny bit of orange zest that’s a delightful surprise. The white bread loaf is being used for French toast at Little Giant’s brunch, with lots of cinnamon and cardamom.
Shannon is surprised by the number of regulars Sugar Giant already has. “I’m shocked by how well-received this has been,” she says. “It’s beautifully overwhelming.” Ian has been very encouraging, allowing her freedom and creativity. “We match energy,” Shannon says. When they started just a few weeks ago, Ian told her, “I don’t know if it’ll work, but I want it to so let’s try it.” This young baker has hit the ground running since she arrived in Portland not too long ago. She’s getting a GIANT step in a delicious career.