Paleo bakery business Bedrock Bakers offers bagels, cookies, more

When he turned 50 four years ago, Steven Friedman of Plainview made the decision to go Paleo. His wife Nina soon followed, with the caveat, “If I’m going to do this, you are going to have to learn how to bake.” And that’s just what he did, experimenting with recipes from books, magazines, and blogs, in search of great-tasting Paleo and gluten-free versions of bagels, cookies, and muffins.

Friedman had a breakthrough at a wellness retreat in St. Lucia, where the resident pastry chef introduced him to Paleo-approved cassava flour, milled from the full root of the yucca plant. A few orders from friends at his CrossFit gym in Syosset grew to the point where Friedman knew he had a business. He built a website, started baking out of the kitchen co-op in Amityville, and founded Bedrock Bakers (the name references the hometown of America’s favorite Paleo family, the Flintstones) to serve a wider audience.

Bedrock’s signature product is the “pagel,” a paleo-friendly, gluten-free bagel made with cassava flour, potato starch, almond flour, honey, apple cider vinegar, yeast, and salt. Pecan chocolate chunk cookies contain almond butter, coconut palm sugar, egg, pecans, baking soda, vanilla, salt, and nondairy chocolate chips. Other items include almond butter blondies, granola, and banana chocolate chip muffins.

There’s no storefront. Instead, shoppers place orders online and pick them up on Mondays and Fridays at one of 10 distribution locations across Long Island. Pagels and granola can also be shipped. The pagels are also stocked at Mission Nutrition in Bethpage (1040 S. Broadway, 516-465-9665) and Get Healthy America in Plainview (148 Manetto Hill Rd., 516-931-1900). And Organic Krush, a café in Woodbury (108 Woodbury Rd., 516-224-4423), is using them in breakfast items on weekends.

To place an order, go to bedrockbakers.com.