RANDOLPH, Vt. (WCAX) - When you walk into this Randolph home bakery, you’re hit with the smell of butter. Though the scent is savory, the treats are nothing but sweet.

“Just off the back of like a butter recipe card, a chocolate chip cookie,” says Courtney Gately with a smile. She’s the co-owner of Pembroke Bakery , and she’s been baking since she was just a little cookie herself. “It’s just been something that I’ve done as a labor of love. Almost like a joy in physical manifestation... just making people happy.”

For years, Courtney has baked for weddings or parties when asked, but it’s always just been a hobby. That is, until she and her husband, Tyler, moved to their ninth and likely final state, Vermont.

“We have this beautiful community that just kept really encouraging us to start our business and kept trying to buy from us,” Courtney says of their new home in Randolph. “So, we just thought like, well, I think the universe is telling us something here and maybe we should start our business.”

“The time felt right and we were like, ‘If we’re not going to do it now, when? So, let’s take a chance,’” says fellow co-owner, Tyler.

Courtney has a health condition that means she needs to limit her gluten intake. So while these cookies look and taste absolutely scrumptious, they also boast an allergen-friendly edge.

“I think there’s been a little bit of a void in the gluten-free community,” says Courtney. “Sometimes gluten-free has a bad rep for being bland or just kind of boring.”

That’s certainly not the case at Pembroke Bakery, offering flavors like salted toffee chocolate chip, brown butter cardamom pumpkin or maple toffee apple butter. All of these funky flavors are made with locally sourced ingredients.

“Just because you’re gluten free doesn’t mean that you can’t have delicious, scrumptious things that have unique flavors,” Courtney says. Not only have Pembroke Bakery’s products been warmly welcomed by the gluten-free community, they’ve been warmly welcomed by everyone. Tyler says only 50% of their clientele is gluten free.

“The biggest compliment is when somebody who is not gluten free tries it and you tell them and they’re like, ‘What? Really?’ Otherwise they might not have,” says Tyler. “Hopefully we’re helping to change that narrative too of what gluten free can be.”

Love and lots of time make all the difference with these cookies. And soon, they’ll be made in a much bigger space. This duo is currently chipping away at an upcoming expansion to a commercial kitchen at First Branch Coffee in South Royalton.

In the meantime, you can pick up these cookies from a variety of shops around Central Vermont, and you can order the cookies online to have them shipped directly to your door.

“People are always excited to get a cookie,” laughs Courtney. “You kind of help make their day a little bit brighter. You’re in the happiness business.”

Sometimes, that happiness is baked in Vermont.