Kim gregory doesn’t have a favorite baked good.
Though Gregory, owner of Beverly- based Pure Pastry, spends every day churning out fudgy gluten-free brownies, berry-laced coffee cakes, and cupcakes topped with swirls of buttercream, she just can’t pick one she likes the best. It’s not the eating so much as the simple act of baking itself that has her hooked, she says, the process of transforming local eggs, organic flour, and fruit grown in her own backyard into something new—and delicious.
“I just love to bake,” says Gregory, who launched her wholesale bakery business two years ago. “I love turning on that oven and just doing it.”
Gregory has a long history in the food business. She owned an organic cafe? in the early 1980s and later worked as a caterer. Desserts, however, were not on her radar until she became a mother and suddenly had someone to make birthday cakes for.
Her first attempts at baking were not very impressive, she admits, but she kept at it and quickly improved. A former professional bodybuilder, Gregory has always been focused on healthy eating, so she made sure to keep her treats low in sugar and fat, and as organic as possible. She also started developing gluten-free, nut-free, and even egg-free recipes for people with food allergies.
These recipes taste at least as good as the conventional versions, Gregory says. In fact, her gluten-free brownies far surpass the traditional, wheat-based kind, she says.
“I am such an Italian. I need my taste and my texture still there,” she says. “I really take pride in working on recipes with very low sugar, very low fat, but having a decadence to them.” Gregory sells her wares at the Ipswich and Beverly farmers’ markets, as well as several area retail outlets including Common Crow Natural Market in Gloucester, Vidalia’s in Beverly Farms, and Sol Bean Cafe? in Middleton.
Pure Pastry still operates out of Gregory’s home kitchen and sources many ingredients from her backyard, where she raises chickens and bees and grows apples, peaches, blueberries, and zucchini. The business has expanded so much, however, that Gregory is in the market for a small farm where she can build a commercial kitchen and grow even more of her own ingredients.
Though meeting the rapidly growing demand keeps Gregory busy, she says she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I love being in the food business,” she says. “A simple cupcake can make the world a better place.” kimgregorypurepastry.com