Every great recipe beings with love. My formulas were born when illness hit.
In 2014 my son developed crippling acute arthritis. It was the summer from hell. We traversed every corridor of Children’s hospital bouncing from one test to another. Medications eventually tamed the beast raging in him and meanwhile I turned to food, and I don’t mean a pint of ice-cream for me daily, as tempting as it was!
I turned to tests & explored his food intolerances and quickly figured out what agreed with his body and what provoked reactions.
Gluten & wheat were out! Dairy was an adios also. (I was vegetarian since 17 and detested cow’s milk, but to bake without these staples and allow him to enjoy his old favorites was a whole other ballgame.)
Any given Naturopath or holistic doctor:
“What do you do, mom?”
Me:
I’m a wedding cake designer & pastry chef of 20 plus years.”
“Fantastic!” they said.
“You’ll have no problem!” they said.
I disagreed. My classic French pastry diploma was firmly built on the cornerstones of butter, cream, flour and eggs. Oh, yeah, eggs were gone too! (This boy was sensitive to the works!)
I love a challenge and so, the trials began.
It has taken me years to reach the standards I aimed for and nothing delighted me more, as both a food-lover & a professional, when I could make a dietary-restricted or a vegan customer do a happy dance.
There’s nothing like warm soft bread or buttery hot donuts!
My pie dough has created quite the following and my aim was not just make gluten-friendly goods for the restricted, but something the whole family can enjoy.
PS, I learned that the recipes I created worked nicer than any flour-laden ones and the naturally GF flour combo makes for a light & flaky crust, a soft flatbread and of course delectable donuts.
I hope you enjoy making them in your homes half as much as I enjoyed he challenge of formulating them.
More about Paula:
Graduate of The Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts: Diploma in Pastry Arts.
Certified Holistic Chef
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“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” George Bernard Shaw.
