"When I was diagnosed five years ago, I tried to find a cookie I liked," says Jill Colombo, owner of the Grain Exchange in Doylestown, a mostly wholesale bakery that sells products direct to consumers by phone. "There was nothing out there, so I decided to make one myself. Then I realized I should start trying to share it with other people."
These days, local specialty bakeries are turning out gluten-free products from lava cake to sticky buns. Main Line Baking Co., the tiny storefront that took up space in the Wynnewood train station about a year and a half ago, bakes spongy pumpkin muffins and cinnamon-dusted coffee cakes. At GoodEatz cafe in Reading, the doughy bounty includes apple dumplings, breadsticks, and focaccia.
There is even a very credible "Fauxtess" cupcake - chocolate with a cream center and chocolate icing - at South Street's Sweet Freedom Bakery that is not only gluten-free, but vegan, nut-free, corn-free, refined sugar-free, and soy-free as well.
As a science, gluten-free baking has evolved with better techniques and ingredients to create more convincing facsimiles. What used to be an unappealing selection of too-dry, too-crumby cookies, gritty, flavorless cupcakes, and rubbery breads, has given way to a new generation of goodies that could fool the most skeptical wheat-eater.
"Gluten is the thing that gives bread its structure - the very thing that everyone likes about bread, the middle part that bounces back when you pull it apart - is because of gluten," says Heather Aivaliotis, of Gluten Free Goodies Galore, a bakery that her mother, Karen Halm, opened in the spring in Manahawkin, N.J. "So we always have to figure out how to recreate that."
