The only full-service gluten-free bakery in both Westchester and Putnam Counties is now open: Three Dogs Gluten-Free Bakery (510 N State Rd, Briarcliff Manor 914-762-2121). The chef/owner is 28-year-old Yorktown resident Karen Miller who, along with approximately one out of every 133 Americans, has been diagnosed with Celiac Disease and needs to avoid all baked goods made from gluten-based flours (wheat, rye, or barley). Customers from Connecticut to Central and Southern Jersey have already become regulars.
“Finding sweets that don’t make Celiac sufferers sick is tough,” says Miller, who was diagnosed at age 22. The disease is a hereditary autoimmune illness in which gluten stimulates the body’s immune system to attack the lining of the small intestine, resulting in both acute and long-term health problems.
All of the goods at Three Dogs use non-gluten flours, such those made of soy, white rice, brown rice, sweet rice, tapioca, and potato. Along with the requisite cookies, muffins, pies, cheesecakes, custom-decorated cakes, and pastries, a signature line of bar cookies in flavors such as piña colada, chocolate-peanut butter, and cardamom-lime are also available in the shop.
“My bakery is for anyone who enjoys quality baked goods,” says Miller, “and it just happens to be safe for those on a gluten-free diet.” According to Miller, there’s no difference in taste with products using conventional flours. “The texture may be a bit different in my bread-based products, a little more crumble to the muffins, but most everyone never knows they’re gluten-free.”
