Muffin Man brings gluten-free wares to the Farmers market

In Victorian England, there really was a muffin man who lived on Drury Lane and sold muffins and crumpets door-to-door in London’s West End. But the muffins that Muffin Man Bill Scher sells at the Lakeside Farmers Market in Winstanley Park are gluten-free.

Although he began his adult life as an attorney, Scher spent the last two-and-a-half years learning how to bake gluten-free as a response to his wife’s gluten sensitivity.

“Over the years, I baked more and more of them and my wife liked them enough to urge me to sell them. But I asked her ‘Who would buy them?’ and she replied, ‘Just make them and you’ll see.’ So I developed this whole line of gluten-free muffins and related baked goods,” he said. “But the whole trick is not to make then taste like sawdust and to give them some really good flavor while remaining true to the gluten-free recipe. And it worked. It takes a lot of extra work and patience, but the result is really quite delicious. And for me, it’s much more fun than practicing law.”

Scher’s muffins include flavors like Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl, Blueberry Cheesecake, Lemon Blueberry, Bailey’s Irish Cream Chocolate Chip, Apple Carrot, Spicy Mexican Hot Chocolate, and Lemon Poppy.

As per BakerPedia.com, gluten-free flours from grains (like rice, corn, and sorghum, or nuts) and legumes (like almonds and chickpeas) have to be mixed with starches, proteins, and hydrocolloids - water-soluble carbohydrates and proteins that act as thickeners, gelling agents, stabilizers, and emulsifiers - to mimic the texture and structure that gluten provides.

Baking gluten-free involves a number of carefully crafted ingredients such as:

* Water to help activate ingredients like chia and flax seeds. It affects the dough’s consistency and the final product’s texture.

* Fats and Oils, which affect the mouth feel as well as the color of the appearance during baking.

* Sugars, which contribute to the moist and tender texture of products as well as the complex series of chemical reactions between the proteins’ amino acids and the sugars to cause desirable browning, aroma, and flavor compounds (know as the Maillard reaction).

* Starches and hydrocolloids which help bind the dough, minimizing dryness while retaining sufficient moisture.

* Leavening agents (like baking soda) to assist in providing the structure and framework of the muffins that gluten would normally add.

*Emulsifiers and enzymes to help improve the texture of the batter and mixability of the products, which enhance dough handling and stability.

The Muffin Man will be glad to share his experiences baking gluten-free and will also happily offer an opportunity to try free samples that accompany his amply-stocked table.

The Lakeside Farmers Market is open each Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Winstanley Park on Windermere Avenue, across from Chase Bank in Greenwood Lake. For more about the wide variety of vendors that stock the weekly market, log onto GWLNY.org.