Gluten-Free Baker Tackles the World of Muffins

By Sarah Blecher

I love to bake. I am a pastry chef. I should love to bake. I love gluten. It makes everything so beautiful and tasty and doughy and crunchy… One problem, I can’t eat the gluten anymore! I was recently diagnosed with Celiac’s Disease and in major need of some baking help. After a few weeks of wallowing in post-traumatic gluten sadness, I decided I could make some yummy food that I could eat. I was asked to cater a party and while I was making all of the food for the next day, I though to myself, “Hey, Sarah, you can do this…you can make it taste good!” So in the midst of baking quiche and calzones for the party, I took a break and tried to make myself some muffins. I started out by studying my ultimate favorite muffin recipe. I studied it in a way I never have before, rather than just reading it and following it, I thought about all the proportions I learned in culinary school, how they relate to each other, and how this muffin would be able to stay together without the gluten. After a few hours and a few failed attempts at a simple muffin recipe, I resorted to something I almost never do. I used a bag of premade gluten-free bread mix I picked up at the store while I was having a meltdown about thinking I may never be able to eat sandwiches again. The mix is a blend of lots of different non-glutenous flours. It’s called Pamela’s Bread Mix and you can buy it Whole Foods. Anyway, I changed my recipe to include a bit more butter, an extra egg, some extra spices, and substituted this magical flour mix, almost at equal parts for regular All Purpose flour. Being the neurotic pastry chef that I am, I was a little skeptical about these muffins tasting good. I started to scoop the batter out of my kitchen aid into my muffin tin when some of the batter dripped onto my hand. I thought, “Maybe I should give this a taste…you never know;” I licked the brown batter off of my fingers like a little kid and was pleasantly surprised. The batter was really delicious! I put the muffins into the oven and could not be patient enough for them to finish baking. As soon as I pulled them out I ripped a hunk of muffin out of the tin and nearly burned my mouth off, but realized being gluten-free is not the end of the world! Food can taste good! These muffins were the best I’ve tried of any gluten-free product so far. For the first time in a while I was really proud of myself. For anyone that has allergies out there, don’t give up, you can make anything!