We learn the secrets of great gluten-free baking with Melanie O'Malley of O'Malley's Oven in Troy, NY. Show time is 2pm and 800-348-2551 is the number to call with your question. Sarah LaDuke hosts.
Melanie tells her story:
I am a completely self taught baker, aside from early lessons in Grandma’s kitchen. A little over 20 years ago my mother, brother and self were diagnosed with Celiac disease. At the time it was a nearly unheard of ailment, and a “gluten free” diet didn’t exist yet.
We were fortunate to have to adapt before this was on any industry radar. We learned to incorporate ethnic foods, as many cultures are not as wheat/gluten based as the US. We learned to thrive on a newly curated diet – as opposed to being substitution based. In the years that followed a a trickle, then a deluge of products flooded the gluten free market, most of which were very expensive, and tasted of cardboard and broken dreams. Anyone diagnosed at that time had the available option of convenient substitution, but it was a depressing reality full of expensive soul crushing disappointment.
The need for gluten free foods that truly spark desire came out of this culinary desert. It began with the craving cream puffs that I now consider the gateway to our bakery. The profiteroles my family craved needed to be gluten free, and we yearned to not settle for “oh, that’s ok for being gluten free.”
