Gone Pie Bakery: Vegan Baking as Direct Action

Oh life
Much too great to sacrifice
Come and have another slice
Ah life goes on and on

Oh life 
May you live a long life

From Gone Pie by Patti Smith

Vegan baking, says Barbara Sitomer, is not only direct action; it’s also “pure rock and roll.” And what better name for a bakery than a song title by the legendary artist and embodiment of creativity and the rock-and-roll spirit: Patti Smith!

Barbara was baking in New York City’s East Village 25 years ago—starting out with a storefront bakery called Bread and Rose . Back then, little was offered to the artists and activists flooding into the Lower East Side, so Bread and Roses was envisioned as a hang-out where people with quirky tastes could get good eats.

Running Bread and Roses exposed Barbara to the concept of dairy-free baking . At first this was motivated solely by customer allergies . But later , having been influenced by the growing vegan community on the Lower East Side , and upon reading the book by Marjorie Spiegel , The Dreaded Comparison , she became vegan . Needless to say , experimentation ensued .

Her background in botany has informed her rather scientific approach to the development of custom recipes; the gluten-free flour blends are developed and mixed by hand. For Barbara, there’d be none of the commercially prepared flour mixes that most bakeries use.

Overall, the idea that animates Gone Pie is traditional baking with a healthful twist and innovative ingredients . If you associate baking with overly sweet, over-processed baked goods, Gone Pie will change your view . The baked goods rely on whole-grain flours, local and organic ingredients, and have a gentle sweetness that doesn’t rely on sugar . Barbara views sugar as a cook views salt.  It is an ingredient there to bring out the flavor, not overwhelm it. 

The ingredients (wonderfully supplied on the website) feature coconut oil, natural organic sweeteners such as agave nectar, maple and brown rice syrup . Fairly traded , organic products are used as much as possible . No margarines or palm oils are used in Gone Pie products.

Texture and flavor are challenges in gluten-free baking . Barbara's custom blend uses properties of various flours and starches to replace the gluten in a nutritionally balanced way . This distinguishes Gone Pie's products from other gluten-free products on the market, which are often nutritionally lacking . Blended i ngredients are typical of the Gone Pie way of baking in general . Different forms of an ingredient hit different points on the palate and provide the most well - rounded flavor . U sing coconut , for example, means using coconut flour, coconut milk, coconut oil and shredded coconut.

Anyone who’s ever tried a gluten-free recipe that relies on one of those commercial gluten-free flours will be surprised to taste how utterly different—and delicious—a gluten-free Gone Pie product can be . It’s a testament to Barbara ’s hard work and attention to detail (and probably the influence of rock and roll in the kitchen).

Over the past decade, Gone Pie has emerged as a wholesale and online bakery that is all-vegan, with an emphasis on wheat- and gluten-free baking . Gone Pie specializes in working with clients and, with a minimum order, can customize almost any product to one's particular needs or wants . When making an online order, you can choose a gluten or gluten-free version of most anything . Whichever you choose, you and those who help you eat these gems will be impressed . They’re as good as or better than baked goods with the avoided ingredients . Priscilla Feral, President of Friends of Animals -- a cookbook author, avid baker and Gone Pie fan -- sums it up perfectly: “Barbara Sitomer is revolutionizing vegan wheat- and gluten-free baking -- making the food superb tasting whether or not one typically avoids gluten or wheat.”

Many people with allergies find Gone Pie online by doing a search for “gluten-free baking.”  Although many customers find the bakery on their own, Barbara also spends time promoting the business through word of mouth, and especially by using social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook , where her frequent quotes and musings have introduced her to many new vegan and curious friends .

In addition to doing all the baking, she delivers the delicious results to Manhattan customers, and ships other orders by mail—anywhere in the United States (and to Canada, although it’s more expensive to ship there).

Integral Yoga Natural Foods, Manhattan’s only meat-free health-food supermarket, sells a wide variety of Gone Pie desserts . The pies and brownies are often gone almost as soon as they hit the shelves . Lula’s Sweet Apothecary, an East Village vegan ice-cream shop, also features Gone Pie brownies in their decadent, handcrafted sundaes.

Meeting Gone Pie

The phrase “Gone Pie” started out as a hipsters’ joke, “gone” being an expression that means fantastic.

Hipster: “What kind of pie do you have today?”
Baker: “The pie is gone.”
Hipster: “Good. I’ll take two slices.”

We were lucky enough to get even more than that when Gone Pie arranged a tasting party at Friends of Animals’ New York City office. Barbara brought a heavenly array.

With summer now approaching, let’s first tell you about the organic Berry Cheesecake. Its base is a lightly spiced, absolutely amazing gluten-free crust -- a mix of gluten-free flours and B razil nuts . Bursting with pride at this new creation, Barbara has shared the recipe on the Gone Pie  blog: http://gonepie.com/blog . The crust is topped with a citrus-infused pie filling which is then coated in the most delicious berry topping spread we’ve ever tasted . Gone Pie could easily market this berry spread itself, and we’d stand in line to buy it, with its blend of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and other mouth-watering ingredients.

Next, we tried the chocolate treats . We enjoyed two kinds of brownies: a traditionally decadent spelt walnut brow n ie and a heavenly spiced pumpkin variety . Each was served with a delectable fudge sauce . The sauce , with its coconut milk and blend of chocolates in the recipe, gives an extra rich and fudgy kick to each bite.

The walnut brownies were fudgy and delectable, very moist, and we weren’t left with the heavy feeling brownies can often leave you with . These manage to be luscious and light at the same time, and they have a refined sweetness, owing to the exceptional and uncommon ingredients such as tahini, chickpea flour, dates and pero grain beverage. The result is a memorable , richly layered brownie . The Pumpkin Brownies are as wonderful as the chocolate ones , with a lighter , cakier texture and the most magical blend of spices . Have you ever had pumpkin and chocolate as a combination? It’s a delightful surprise . Both varieties are available year round .  

The organic Sweet Potato Pie was exquisitely creamy and gently spiced, on a light, crunchy crust of Brazil nuts, barley flour and oats . It’s not too sweet, so the integrity of the sweet potatoes shines through . The richly hued sweet potatoes simply presented make this pie lovely art as well as something we would happily eat year round.

We’ve also enjoyed the fig fruit bars . Barbara recommended warming them up slightly, which would allow the flavors to “pop.” It was more like an explosion of subtle flavors; they are incredible . The batch we tried was custom-prepared for us, with the figs steeped in ginger tea and the crumble on top featur ing home - made , crystallized ginger -- a passion of Barbara’s.

We can’t recommend Gone Pie’s sophisticated and healthful line of desserts highly enough . The bakery is able to cater to custom orders and creates seasonal cookies . These, the macaroons and other desserts can all be found on the website . Online orders are packaged in a minimal way that’s mindful of the integrity of the dessert, and our Earth itself . Gone Pie, when it comes right down to it, gets to the heart of veganism — respect — one delicious bite at a time.

No wonder there’s already a buzz about Priscilla and Barbara teaming up to publish some recipes together . In the meantime, place an online order . Try the pecan pie . It’s new -- and it’s real gone.

GonePie desserts can be ordered online at : www.gonepie.com and Barbara can be contacted a t gonepie@gmail.com, or 917 - 887 - 5106. Gone Pie delivers throughout New York City, and ships all over North America.

 Follow Barbara on Twitter.com/GonePie

Disclosure note : The writers were offered review samples at no charge for the benefit of this article.