When Rachel Gladfelter found herself baking 22 pies for friends and family the night before Thanksgiving 2010 she realized she was on to something. Now she runs Rachel’s Pies while working her full-time job at a Chelsea gallery. Even though this means late nights and early mornings, the effort is well worth it. Her pies are made with hyper-seasonal ingredients from nearby farms, and her pumpkin pie is a proprietary blend of Neck and Cushaw pumpkins from her family’s Pennsylvania farm, where she learned her craft from her grandmothers, Ruthie and Janet. She often bakes up homages to her Pennsylvania upbringing with modern takes on classic farm sweets like a delicious bourbon shoofly pie, which is a molasses-based beauty still found for sale at Amish and Mennonite roadside stands. Most of Rachel’s pies are only available for a short time every year, but her Chocolate Cream Pie, with its dulce de leche-drizzled pretzel crust is so popular that she makes it year round. Once ordered, the pies are available for pick up in Brooklyn and have quickly become a shining star at Brooklyn’s Smorgusburg food market.
