July 11, 2007

Gypsy Queen

The Gypsy Bakery

You’re standing at the copier. A dark, handsome stranger opens the door. Silently, with fire in his eyes, he pushes you against the wall. Your hair tumbles across your shoulders as he rips your heaving bodice …

Then drippy Chet from admin walks in. And wonders why your face is beet red.

Fantasies can be powerful things. Just ask Hélène Sautou, who quit her day job to pursue her passion for baking.

After sweet-talking a local bakery into letting her use the ovens after hours, the French ingenue set up shop at the Capitol Hill Farmers Market — selling delicately flavored naan, fougasse, biscotti, and cookies under the name The Gypsy Bakery.

The pillowy fougasse is perfect with goat cheese and honey, and the lavender biscotti is just right for dipping in a glass of moscato. Everything is made with free-range eggs, organic flour, and ingredients like anise seed, orange blossom water, and apricots. And it all keeps perfectly in the freezer.

Really. The mere thought of it is enough to make you weak in the knees.

The Gypsy Bakery, Sundays through November 18, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., at the Broadway Farmers Market, Broadway East, between Thomas and Tenth Avenues.