Gluten-free Bakery

I just finished writing a story about the Sweet Cake Bake Shop in Kaysville. I was very touched by the owner, Ali's, story. When she was in her twenties, finishing up her studies at Berkeley, and trying to raise two babies born 18-months apart, she was also fighting for her life. Her health was deteriorating and the doctors did not know why? She became so anemic that she needed regular blood transfusions. She developed type I diabetes and Crohn's disease.

She was sick. Her get up and go was gone. Sometimes she temporarily lost her eyesight leaving her in a sea of darkness. She was overcome with exhaustion and the doctors had scheduled a surgery to remove her intestines.

A few weeks before the surgery, a new drug was developed. It costs $2,000/month and she said she is lucky her husband has a good job and they can afford it. It is expensive, but, it spared her from a horrible operation with lifelong consequences.

Around that same time, she read an article about celiac disease and requested lab tests since her symptoms matched. The tests were positive. At last, she could understand what was wreaking so much havoc on her body.

And, then, an interesting thing happened. After the initial relief of having a diagnosis came depression. Ali had always loved baking and now she didn't know what to make. She missed being in the kitchen with her children. She missed taking part in social gatherings and holiday meals. She felt isolated at parties and Thanksgiving dinner. As she put it, "All the familiar foods in my life were gone."

She missed pasta and pizza and bread. Most of all, she missed chocolate cake.

Being the bright Berkeley graduate she is, Ali pulled herself out of the cloud of sadness that had encircled her for a little over a year since the diagnosis and went to work. She first experimented in the kitchen with all of the flours and recommended substitutions that were available. When none of those were satisfactory, she decided to invent her own flour. She had already tried the store bought gluten free breads and cookies and found them repulsive.

After hundreds of trial and error runs, she came up with the perfect mix of flours - such as almond and coconut and sorghum - that she could use to make all of her old favorites. She perfected breads and cakes and all of the cookie classics. She made shortbread and brownies and lemon crumb bars. She baked exquisite gluten-free treats. She made them so well, they tasted even better than the gluten containing counterparts. Along the way, she met others who could not eat gluten. She realized she was not alone. She baked for them. She baked so much that she opened a bakery in Kaysville. There, she met children who had long been deprived. She saw them eye the giant display case and ask hesitantly, "Is there anything here that I can eat?" Only to be told, perhaps for the first time in their memory, "Everything."

She made a grown woman shed tears over a chocolate chip cookie.

While Ali passionately relayed her journey to me (even choking up at times), I found myself reflecting on my own journey to a gluten-free life.

More to come . . .