Elizabeth Weir has been baking since she was a little girl, when she would enter her baked goods in the county fair in Sonora. But four years ago, at age 34, after years of digestive issues, she was diagnosed with Candida, an overgrowth of yeast in the body. Weir completely changed her diet, cutting out all processed foods and eating only whole foods. This major lifestyle change left her with one question: “How am I going to bake?”
That dilemma led Weir to discover alternative and healthier baking ingredients, and to develop a passion for health and wellness. Soon after her diagnosis, she and her husband Jack used their newfound knowledge and passion to start Whole Treats, a wholesale bakery in Truckee that offers healthier baked options. In August, the Weirs opened a storefront off of the bakery, and now the Whole Treats café serves up “goodies without the guilt” six days a week.
After her Candida subsided, Weir continued to research healthier ingredients to incorporate into her diet. She found she could replace white sugar and flour, which she calls “empty calories,” with coconut palm sugar and spelt flour; instead of potato flour for gluten-free treats, she could use coconut or almond flour, which are high in protein and fiber.
“It helped me understand that people can have their treats with better ingredients,” she said. “I don’t want to put [bad ingredients] in my body, so why should I serve it to the public?”
The Weirs started their wholesale bakery four years ago after Jack lost his construction job. Their first client was Truckee Book & Bean, and soon the couple began selling their muffins and cookies to coffee shops all over Truckee, Grass Valley, Auburn, and Nevada City. This year, they expanded to Whole Foods in Reno and Raley’s in Incline Village.
When the opportunity arose this summer to take over the rest of the space where their commercial kitchen is located in Citizens Bank Plaza, the Weirs decided to open the café.
“Changing your diet is scary,” said Weir. “I wanted to teach people through the bakery.”
In addition to baked goods like dairy-free whoopie pies, red velvet cupcakes, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (with homemade chocolate chunks so Weir can control the type of sugar used), Whole Treats also serves breakfast burritos and scrambles, salads, and wraps.
The café’s paleo-friendly menu has become popular with Crossfit members, of which Weir is one. She even named one item after the workout — the Crossfit Jibboom Recovery, an egg scramble made with sweet potato hash, house-made organic turkey sausage, organic eggs, and pesto drizzle. Whole Treats’ signature dish is the French Toast Casserole, made with gluten-free bread that is soaked overnight with organic eggs, coconut milk, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, pure vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and topped off with a cinnamon crumble and homemade whipped basil mint butter. Is your mouth watering yet?
The bakery also offers loose-leaf tea by Tahoe Teas and organic Ethiopian coffee served in a French press. No espresso machines here.
“I feel good that they [my customers] are getting a meal in their body they are going to be okay with after eating, and not get a stomachache,” said Weir, whose digestive issues have been resolved since changing her diet. “We are trying to stay true to who we are and what we believe.”
Whole Treats is open Monday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., 12047 Donner Pass Rd., (530) 582-1554.
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