When on the verge of giving up her business due to ill health, Ailsa Hayward met Jeni Fallone. She turned out to be the perfect baker to take Artisana Brownies forward.
Dundee-born Ailsa set up her business after being made redundant from a fintech company in Dubai. She used the money to enrol at Le Cordon Bleu in London and Artisana was born in 2016.
Last year, Ailsa noticed her health was deteriorating and she was struggling to manage her business.
One of her customers, Fallone’s Pizza and Gelato, came by to pick up brownies at just the right time. The baker told owner Mike Fallone and wife Jeni that she would have to sell the business.
At the time, Jeni was head of IT at DC Thomson and had worked through two demanding years of Covid. The 48-year-old was looking for a career change and Ailsa needed a successor.
Jeni says: “I was coming out the back to two hard years. We lost Mike’s mum, I lost my dad and the kids wanted me around more, which I couldn’t do with that kind of job.
“I took a few weeks off to spend time with the family and get my health on track. That coincided with me having time to spend with Ailsa.
“I helped out, did a few brownies and I realised I loved it. I loved baking with my mum, but I always thought it’d be a hobby — even if my husband left DC Thomson to start up his pizza dream.”
Local produce secret to Artisana Brownies
Because of Fallone’s Pizza and Gelato, Jeni already had access to a production kitchen perfect for baking, so she left her job to take up making brownies.
From pure chocolate to Isle of Skye sea salt caramel, Artisana brownies boast several one and two-star Great Taste awards. Therefore, it was important to Ailsa that the new baker appreciates local ingredients and great flavours.
“I was really pernickety about who was going to take Artisana on, because it was my baby,” she says.
“I took it from a little idea and grew it to a decent sized business. Even though it’s got nothing to do with me any more, I want Artisana to be massive.
“It’s still my child, but it’s left home and is with a new family now. I’m seeing the changes Jeni’s making and I think there’s great things ahead.”
Still at the heart of every brownie are quality local ingredients. Eggs are delivered “warm from the hens’ bums” from Inverarity Farm and butter comes from North Street Dairy – soon to be Kerr’s Family Dairy.
While cocoa and chocolate are hard to source in Angus, berries from local fruit farms star in both Artisana’s rosewater & raspberry and liquorice & blackcurrant brownies.
“Luckily there’s a lot of eating that goes into experimentation,” laughs Jeni.
“One of the first things we think about is what can we get locally to make us unique. I love using local fruits from the fruit farms.”
Brownie Barn honesty box reopening
As well as an online store, stockists and upcoming local markets, the “exquisitely decadent” brownies are on sale in Ailsa’s Brownie Barn – an honesty box outside Inverarity.
After Covid hit, she set up a small box at the end of her driveway. However, the brownies were so popular the 47-year-old filled the box up every 15 minutes.
To meet the high demand from customers taking daytrips from around Scotland to pick up brownies, the honesty box was moved inside the barn at Hatton farm.
The Brownie Barn will reopen with a new Artisana section – including brownies and hot chocolate – on Saturday March 4. Jeni will also be at markets in Carnoustie, Forfar, Arbroath and Bowhouse selling her bakes.
This year, the baker plans to take Artisana brownies to the next level.
She says: “I’m looking to take on more wholesale stockists and grow the online shop.
“We supply a couple of shops now where customers say these are the best brownies they’ve ever had.
“We’re doing a lot of weddings with Fallone’s and have a busy season ahead, so I’d like to take on a staff member and provide brownie towers or wedding cakes.
“Last year, we launched our vegan tablet. It sells out in the first 10 minutes of every market, so I’d like to grow our vegan offering further.
“Our brownies are so good I’m not sure I can do much to improve them, but I’ll keep the flavour ranges current. That means plenty of opportunity for snacking.”
Conversation