Jan. 18, 2008
By Amy K.D. Tobik
The Voice
Sheila Sollie smiles warmly as she recalls the story of the gingerbread man cookie that made a little boy’s holiday dream come true. The child has eight known food allergies and had never eaten a cookie in his life.
“This woman called me, desperate, because she missed our cutoff date for shipping and she asked if there was any way she could get a gingerbread man cookie for Christmas,” Sollie explained.
Despite being overwhelmed with holiday orders at their newly opened, allergen-free Liberty Bakery, Sollie and business partner Laura Costanzo knew they had to find a way to fulfill the holiday wish. The treasured cookie arrived in Louisiana by 2:30 p.m. Christmas Eve.
Sollie and Costanzo can empathize with a parent’s plight to find allergen-free food. Between them, they have five children with severe allergies to a combination of corn, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, strawberries, eggs and casein. And they each have an autistic child on a gluten-free diet.
After putting their careers on hold to raise children and concentrate on providing an often-challenging allergen-free environment, Sollie and Costanzo opted to help other families in dire need of food options.
Costanzo, a lifetime baker, wanted to make her recipes available to other families, but could not run the company alone. Once Sollie offered to handle the business side of the bakery, they were on their way.
The 2,000-square-foot facility off Aloma Avenue has been specially constructed to prevent contamination and cross-contamination between ingredients. About half the space is dedicated to the kitchen, with three barriers between the storefront and the kitchen and two between shipping and receiving. Separate air handlers are used with filters and the women change their clothes and shoes before they enter the sealed area. Every batch of cookies is prepared individually. Equipment is not shared and bowls are specially cleaned between batches.
Liberty Bakery offers a large selection of baked goods from home-style bread made with brown rice flour to several types of muffins, such as blueberry, pumpkin, spice and chocolate chip.
The display of brownies, cupcakes, vanilla cream pies, gingerbread cookies, chocolate wafer cookies, chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies is tempting, and taste-testing is allowed upon request. Decorated birthday cakes are also available.
“I thoroughly enjoy the experimentation. That’s just a fun part of it — finding something that works. One chocolate chip recipe took 13 revisions,” Costanzo said with a laugh. Most importantly, every ingredient used is clearly noted on the label.
“People who don’t have food allergies have no idea what you go through,” Costanzo said. And sometimes, both women agreed, people don’t understand the health risks of exposure to an allergen. Companies are not required to list ingredients contained in a product if they constitute less than 2 percent of the whole, but such a small amount can still trigger a severe reaction in some people, Costanzo explained.
One of the greatest rewards of their new business, both women agreed, is having customers share their personal stories with them.
“In the beginning, it was almost emotionally overbearing,” Costanzo said.
Sollie agreed. “I would tell [Costanzo], ‘this is your 15 minutes to cry,’ and we would think of the best five or six stories that came through the door and cry and get it over with.”
Sollie recalled the customer with celiac disease — a wheat gluten allergy — who excitedly bought a loaf of bread to make his first ham sandwich in 15 years.
Customer Sandi Ward makes the drive down to Liberty Bakery from Apopka to accommodate her 10-year-old daughter’s new gluten- and casein-free diet.
“It can be hard when children cannot eat the same types of foods as the people they are with,” Ward said. When the family recently went to Busch Gardens, however, Ward said she was able to bring Liberty Bakery cookies and brownies for snacks and blueberry muffins for breakfast at the hotel, so her daughter wouldn’t feel left out.
“My daughter’s birthday is next month and now I know I can get a cake for her,” Ward said with enthusiasm.
Sollie said having the bakery has been an eye-opening experience.
“It’s an odd but blessed feeling when people come in and are so grateful you have opened your doors,” she said.
Allergen-free bakery
Liberty Bakery, specializing in allergen-free food, is at 2781 Wrights Road, Suite 1229, in Oviedo, just east of Highway 417 off Aloma Avenue.
The bakery is open 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. The bakery is closed Wednesday and Sunday.
Call 407-657-5342 or visit www.LibertyBakeryOnline.com for more information.
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