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Steve Blanco and Heidi Karlsen show off their signature Sandcastle cookies.
Rye & Mighty
Written by Rebecca Flint Marx
LONG ISLAND CITY—Wheat may reign supreme in the baking world, but Steve Blanco and Heidi Karlsen are determined to make rye a contender for the throne.
And they’re doing it by building sandcastles. Or more accurately, Sandcastles, their organic, vegan update on the Moroccan ghoriba—or “sandie”—cookies whose recipe Blanco’s mother brought with her when she emigrated from Morocco. “When we met Steve’s mom in Florida,” Karlsen says, “she greeted me with this plate of cookies, and they were so good. Traditionally, they’re made with refined white flour and vegetable oil, and so we thought, Why not try making them with healthier ingredients?”
Blanco, who spent more than 15 years as a professional jazz pianist in what he calls New York’s “creative war zone,” and Karlsen, an actor who supported herself working in restaurants and baking in natural food stores, started experimenting in the kitchen of Blanco’s Long Island City apartment. They wanted to make a wheat-free cookie, and rye, with its high level of nutrients and low gluten content, seemed a natural choice. Karlsen was a fan of coconut oil, and so she and Blanco combined the two with evaporated cane juice and sea salt to create, after a period of trial and error, their Sandcastle cookie—and their own business, Black and Blanco.
Since perfecting their recipe, the couple has moved their base of operations out of Blanco’s apartment and into Long Island City’s Entrepreneur Space. “And then hopefully we’ll have a factory one day,” Blanco says. They plan to sell their cookies through local gourmet markets and high-end coffee shops, and online; eventually, they’d like to expand their company to include a range of non-processed, healthy Mediterranean foods.
In the meantime, they’re preparing to introduce their cookies to perhaps their most discerning customer: Blanco’s mother. “She’s in Florida, so we’ll take them to her on the next trip,” Blanco says. “She’s very excited about it. I don’t think she realizes that all of this is because of her cookie.”
WHERE TO BUY
To order, visit blackblanco.com.
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