Healthy Pies
Family tradition yields goodies for diabetics

Rochelle McKoewn rolls out the top portion of a pie crust Thursday while making a sugar-free cherry pie. McKoewn is the owner of the First Street Cafe on Santa Fe in Grants. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

Rochelle McKoewn rolls out the top portion of a pie crust Thursday while making a sugar-free cherry pie. McKoewn is the owner of the First Street Cafe on Santa Fe in Grants. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

GRANTS — Rochelle McKeown started baking pies 21 years ago for her children when they were small, following in her mother’s footsteps.

“My mother always had something for us in the house, even though she worked,” McKeown said.

Today, McKeown owns First Street Cafe on Santa Fe Avenue, and still bakes pies. Many of those pies are sugar free, specially made on order for the many diabetic customers she has from around the region. Sugar free cheesecakes are also available.

She bakes a wide variety of pies, even sugar free pies for nondiabetic customers because they like the taste, she said.

“I use Splenda, which is approved for diabetics,” she said.
Splenda brand sweetener is sucralose, which begins with sugar and is converted to a no calorie, noncarbohydrate synthetic sweetener which is approved by the American Diabetes Association.

McKeown said before she started First Street Cafe she baked pies for the Golden 50s restaurant and an Italian restaurant, both of which were in Grants and are now closed.

She has been in her current location, 1600 W. Santa Fe Ave. for only about a year, moving from the east side of the city, also on Santa Fe Avenue. The cafe got its name because she opened it originally on First Street and when she moved, she kept the name.

All baked goods homemade
She makes all the baked goods at the cafe, including muffins, Danish and cookies. McKeown can make sugar free muffins and cookies to order as well as pies.

The sugar free pies she makes are mostly fruit including: Cherry, apple, peach, strawberry, blackberry, blueberry, raspberry and rhubarb. Sugar free pumpkin is also on the list.

When first asked what kind of sugar free pies she makes for diabetics, McKeown broke into a huge smile and said. “I can make anything you want.”

She can make any combination fruit pies as well, she said

She said she has trouble finding Splenda by bulk from her restaurant suppliers, so she often has to buy it retail locally.

The pies cost $8 for a 9-inch pie and cheesecakes are $15-$18, depending on what kind and whether a topping is ordered, she said.

She said she has been unable to make a sugar-free pecan pie however. She cannot find a brown, sugar-free product or syrup that works. Pies must be ordered at least one day in advance.

Perfect pies
She makes the pies in a small room at the back of the cafe, with just room enough for herself, a couple of shelves and a cooking table. While making a cherry pie during this interview, she formed the crust first, and then mixed several cups of Splenda into a bowl of cherries and water, and hand mixed then poured the mix into the pie pan. It looked good enough to eat even at this point.

She places the top crust on and the sprinkles a handful of Splenda on top and bakes in the cafe’s commercial oven for 45 minutes.

There were a couple of pies already made, and the crust came out looking a perfect golden brown, a testament to more than 20 years of baking experience.

“I tried everything by trial and error in the early years,” she said.

She finally perfected the technique which is used just about every day now.

“I get here (at the cafe) early, about 6 a.m., every day, and start baking,” McKeown said.

Her busiest time of the year is at Thanksgiving.

“I let the restaurant staff handle everything, and I bake for three days straight,” she said.

“My mother, daughter and daughter-in-law all help out at Thanksgiving too, she said. “It is now a family tradition.”

In the early years, McKeown said she started baking just a little and then it grew.

“My husband became diabetic so I tried everything and he didn’t like the taste,” she said. And that started McKeown on the road to making sugar free pies.

“My friends and family all started telling me I should make pies for restaurants and to sell, so I sold pies at arts and crafts fairs for awhile,” she said. “Then came the two restaurants in Grants that only lasted a short while.”

When she decided to start the cafe, the baking just seemed natural, it wasn’t even given a second thought.

When Splenda came on the market a few years ago, she tried it and because of the sweet taste and no aftertaste, the sugar free pie business took off.

First Street Cafe is a full service restaurant serving breakfast and lunch and breakfast is served all day.

First Street Cafe is open Tuesday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. And Sunday from 9 a.m. To 2 p.m.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.