Episode 65: Making Delicious Gluten Free Baked Goods with Jaimie Mertz

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Jamie Mertz:

I think the most important thing and the thing that I say to people the most often is that Gluten is a protein that makes things stretchy. So I think that there might be some preconceived notion that a gluten free cake or cookie is going to be dry or crumbly and you know, maybe there are bad products out there but I don’t think that gluten is necessary to a good cake or or brownie or something that you want always wanted to be nice and soft and tender. Anyway.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

We are excited to share this conversation with Jamie Mertz owner of the red bandana bakery, which is a gluten free bakery in Bethesda and her practice administrator Christine who is an herbalist and Yogi herself as well. If you’ve ever tried gluten free baking, you know what a challenge it can be. For many people, gluten free eating is a necessity that their health relies on. This conversation is all about how Jamie has brought gluten free baking to her community. And her top tips for making gluten free treats that you and your loved ones will absolutely devour. Please enjoy.

Christine:

Welcome, Jamie.

Jamie Mertz:

Thank you for having me.

Christine:

So excited to have Jamie from the red bandana bakery in Bethesda here with us today. red bandana bakery is on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda gluten free bakery. And Jamie is the founder. Correct?

Jamie Mertz:

That’s right. That’s me.

Christine:

Good. Welcome. So tell us the story of how you became a pastry chef.

Jamie Mertz:

So I graduated from college in 2011. And I knew that I wanted to do something creative. I studied painting in college and didn’t really have a job coming right out of that in that field. So I decided to go to pastry school at the Academy of Cuisine in gaithersburg. And they had a one year program that included an externship, and a lot of on hands on class work, learning traditional French pastry. So that was interesting to me. I I liked the artistry of pastry and you know, getting to make something new every day. But I always knew that I wanted to do something a little bit healthier than all the traditional butter and sugar and wheat and all of that. So

Christine:

it is an art isn’t it? When I think of I’m interested to learn more about that. I know, you just shared that you had this interest or background in art and what a great transference and to the world of pastry, right? There’s so much creativity there and, and on so many levels with ingredients and what you’re creating how it looks fancy, not fancy, you know? Okay, before I go down that rabbit hole, let’s talk about why you decided to open a gluten free bakery.

Jamie Mertz:

So actually, during the year that I was in pastry school, my little brother who’s 10 years younger than I was, was put on a gluten free casein free diet by his doctors, he had autism, he had Global Developmental Disabilities, but probably a lot of it was autism. And they recommend that to help with some behavioral issues that he was having. And he’d had a lot of allergies and intolerances growing up to at one point, he couldn’t do soy, it was on rice milk only and everything. But at that particular point in time, he was about 10. And he was put on gluten free, casein free. So I was like, that’s an interesting, creative challenge to try to adapt these recipes to use different chemicals and different ingredients to recreate those

Christine:

challenging two, I would imagine. I mean, what a great motivation to help your brother. I mean, that’s I love that story. So gluten, can you tell us a little bit I know you’re not a medical person. You’re not a doctor, you’re not a nutritionist? We do have those here at Capitol integrative health. But can you tell us a little bit about what gluten is and why some people decide to avoid it?

Jamie Mertz:

Right. So it’s interesting having the actual schooling of the culinary school part of it, they do teach you a lot about the chemistry behind why different recipes work. And we talk about gluten and Gliadin, which are both proteins and wheat and other grains. And they create stretchiness like toughness and a baked good. When you need a traditional bread dough, you actually hold it up to the light and try to stretch it and look through it and they call it a gluten window. So that the term gluten comes up, aside from you know, allergies that comes up and in certain breads, you’re trying to develop gluten. But then that doesn’t agree with some people’s stomachs, their intestines, particularly people with celiac disease. It supposedly breaks down the cilia in their intestines over time. I’m sure you know more about this than I do. And in Jack’s case, the idea was that his intestines couldn’t break down the gluten in the case and molecules sufficiently so that it actually when it gets into their bloodstream, it will get to the brains of kids with autism, ADHD, and it has effects on their brains. Interesting. Yeah.

Christine:

I love that you made the leap from My brother has this I’m going to change some recipes to I’m going to open a bakery. Can you talk about that? Because I think it’s so beautiful that you’ve done this for the inclusion piece because there are so many children, not just children, but adults who are excluded, if you will, from celebration. Sometimes I go, Oh, I can’t eat the cake, or I can’t have the cookie because I has gluten. And so how did you make the leap from? I’m going to do this with my brother. Now I’m going to do this for my community.

Jamie Mertz:

Yeah, so I was after culinary school, working in different bake shops and catering companies and restaurants and kind of having the gluten free thing on the side, you know, occasionally play with things at work or like, at night, you know, work on different recipes and try to adapt things. And I was selling those at the farmers market in Bethesda. And kind of, you know, thought, well, we’ll do some healthy we’ll do some this we’ll do some that and really got a lot of feedback from a lot of people that they were looking for a place that was 100% Gluten Free to avoid the cross contamination.

Christine:

Yeah, that’s a that’s a thing, right? Because you can say gluten free but if you’re making things in a facility that has gluten people who are you know, really have to be super careful. That’s scary. Right? Can be scary. If you’re not. Yeah,

Jamie Mertz:

it does really get everywhere. That’s the nature of flower a lot of Yeah.

Christine:

Like everywhere, right? So. So yeah, so people can know that. Your bakery is totally gluten free, no chance of cross contamination, right?

Jamie Mertz:

No chance of getting two products confused or you know, using the same pan and and

Christine:

so are you a gluten free person? Or do you eat gluten free

Jamie Mertz:

or I don’t have any dietary restrictions or you know, particular sensitivities. I would say that since opening the bakery for sure. I very, very little gluten. I would say the biggest thing that it has taught me is to read ingredient labels and I definitely eat a lot more whole foods and you know, less processed foods in with that awareness now.

Christine:

Yeah, that reminds me you are not just a bakery. You have other food there too. Right? You serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yep. And what I love I just checked it out before before you got here, your menu just so I could chat with you about it a little bit more but you have the family meal which is so great, and how convenient and people can call ahead and get a gluten free. Some of them are vegan and dairy free as well meal for your family. Call ahead and just swing by and pick it up. Right? Yep, that’s so great. I saw gluten free pizza for the kiddos and some other like really good vegan options. So that’s so great. What you’re doing what I want to know a little bit more and I’m sure our audience does too is the difference between gluten free baking and conventional baking like it just never taste the same at home but at red bandana does taste amazing. I can tell you that audience but how do you do that? I mean, what is what is the difference? What’s different about gluten free baking?

Jamie Mertz:

Yeah, there are a couple differences. For example, we can’t just use one flour and plug it in as if it was wheat flour, we have a blend for most things that’s a combination of white rice, brown rice, potato and tapioca starch. But then you also have to adjust that based on you know, if you’re making something savory or you’re making something that you want to be thicker or chewy or you have to adjust those ratios a little bit, I would say that in general a pretty good rule of thumb is you want your batter to be a lot wetter. We use a lot more liquid in the batter’s because if you have a bread dough that’s tough and hard like you’re you’re used to with the gluten, it’s going to bake off very very dense and very heavy and hard. So you have to like our bread dough for our white bread, for example is like almost a batter like you can almost pour it

Christine:

that’s so interesting. So there really is chemistry behind this process. You have to really know your stuff.

Jamie Mertz:

Yeah, yeah, the chemistry is is looking.

Christine:

Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit more about the different kinds of flowers one might use and gluten free baking?

Jamie Mertz:

Sure, there’s a couple different directions you can go in. For example, with some of our savory baked goods will use more of like a bean flour blend. For example, the Bob’s Red Mill. All purpose flour blend that you’ll see at the stores is primarily garbanzo bean flour and fava bean flour. They do integrate some potato starch in that too. The starches are helpful for kind of making things sticky, stick together a little bit better, but if you use too much of just one of those, it could get a little gluey. And maybe some people have seen a baked good a failed recipe where the starch is just kind of a gluey, it almost looks like transparent in the inside because it doesn’t dry out enough. So you’ve got to have the right ratio there. We also make some things with coconut flour and almond flour. Typically for if somebody’s requested a paleo or a keto friendly baby Good, we would use those two. Usually in combination, the coconut flour is very absorbent. So if you go with solely coconut flour, you need to add a lot of liquid and then it gets kind of soupy. Or if you don’t add enough liquid, it’s very, very dense. But the coconut in combination with the almond is really nice. They’re both a little bit higher in fat, and they have a nice flavor. But the those baked goods do tend to be a little bit denser. So I wouldn’t use those to try to get the most traditional cake or cookie flavor. But everybody likes the flavor of almond. I think so. Yeah, it’s

Christine:

such a good flavor.

Jamie Mertz:

Nice for that. Yeah. There’s also a couple different starches we’ll use with the rice flour. Just like I was saying to make things stick together a little bit. We use potato and tapioca starch the most but um, probably people can find in their stores and they would like arrowroot starch as well. I have seen that at the grocery store. Yeah, it almost looks like corn starch. You can thicken things like puddings and like a custard with something like an arrow root starch. I would say we like the Bob’s Red Mill for our things like our ancient grain bread, which we also use sorghum flour and millet and amaranth in those are like really nice ancient grains that have a nice complex flavor to like a little bit nuttier more of a whole grain. But you wouldn’t want to use the bean flowers or those in a like chocolate cupcake or a brownie because unless you’re going for that, but you will smell and taste some of those stronger flavors from those flowers. Yeah.

Christine:

Okay, so for all of you adventurers out there who want to dive into the world of gluten free baking at home, there’s some helpful tips from Jamie. Or you could just go straight to red bandana bakery. So I know when I go to the grocery store, because I do eat a gluten free diet. And when I go and I think, oh, gosh, I really just want a brownie like, well, we can talk about your bonfire brownies. You know, I love those but I just want to make like a really good brownie, but I don’t know where to begin and it never tastes the same. It’s because I don’t know I don’t I don’t know, the chemistry like I don’t know, I should add more water and things like that. So I know they have in the grocery store. This is what I was getting to the all purpose gluten free baking mix, is that something that you would recommend?

Jamie Mertz:

I haven’t played with a lot of them, I would say they are probably very good for home cooks because you don’t want to have to buy four different kinds of flour and then store all of that. So we do make our own blends. And that makes sense because I have a whole bakery to store different kinds of flour. I’ve heard good things about them especially for making things like cakes and brownies, which I think are a little bit more forgiving than like a bread dough or a pizza dough which is gluten makes things chewy right? It makes things tough and you never wanted a brownie or cake to be tough in the first place. So it’s well suited to those flowers. Even people home cooks might be familiar with cake flour, that is a low unnaturally low gluten flour. And there are different kinds of wheats. They call them winter wheats or summer wheat. Some of them naturally contain less gluten than others.

Christine:

That’s really good to know. So that’s bread flour that you could buy in the regular

Jamie Mertz:

grocery store. Bread flour would typically be a higher gluten flour. Okay, yeah.

Christine:

What was one you just mentioned? That would be lower cake flour, egg flour, okay. All right. Cake flour. Cake flour.

Jamie Mertz:

The White Lily flour that’s used for biscuits in the south are like swans cake flour are a lot lower gluten flour, okay, but still have gluten but just a lower amount. They’re made with wheat, but it’s a summer wheat, which is supposed to make baked goods more tender.

Christine:

Okay. All right. Good to know. So we talked about some of the gluten free flours and what each type is best for gluten free bakery that you have red bandana is serving the community in a way that no other in this area is I think so. What has the impact been on the community? Have you noticed? Is anyone shared?

Jamie Mertz:

Yeah, we get a lot of very gracious, grateful people who, you know, bring their kids and they say, Look, you can have anything you want here.

Christine:

What a treat. I can tell you as a gluten free person. This is amazing. I cannot imagine having a little person who has this need to have a gluten free diet and to be able to take them into a bakery and say, Pick what you want.

Jamie Mertz:

Yeah, we worked with Children’s National Medical Center celiac disease program and I It was eye opening to me that they have like a therapist on staff that works with kids who have just been diagnosed with celiac because they freak out. You know,

Christine:

is it such a good thing to know? Yeah.

Jamie Mertz:

It’s very rewarding. To be able to do this especially for kids. We do birthday party He’s on site. I have two birthday parties booked for this weekend, which is going to be That’s great. Tell me about that. What does that look like? So they invite their friends and we make a recipe of cake together. So they all kind of contribute and get to add ingredients. And we talk about why we add certain ingredients. And then we have little mini cakes that we’ve pre baked that we bring out. And then they all get to decorate their own little mini cake. And then of course, we bring out the birthday cake. And we cut and serve that. And we also have a party with pizza where we do the same thing. We make the pizza dough together. And then everybody gets a little ball of pizza dough and rolls out their own little pizza. And it’s very cool to me that their friends typically are not gluten free. You know, just because you’re gluten free doesn’t mean everyone you know would be and it normalizes it for all of them. You know?

Christine:

Yeah, that’s, that’s such good work you’re doing. I had no idea.

Jamie Mertz:

This is so good. Yeah,

Christine:

thank you for offering that to our community. It’s so important. Thank you for that. I was wondering and thinking about you and your business during COVID. And I was wondering the impact and I thought, oh my gosh, it was right in the middle of COVID. I think we here at ch needed a cake for something. I forget what it was for a baby shower or something. And it’s like, oh, my gosh, let’s call Jamie at red bandana and see if she can do it. And I thought, oh my gosh, I hope she’s okay during COVID. So, how did you guys manage? Yeah, like, like most

Jamie Mertz:

businesses that made it through it was just a lot of innovation and trying to do things a different way. We did online baking classes, where we put together ingredient kits, and we either could deliver them or people were picking them up curbside. And then we would do like a Facebook Live event where we put the recipe together live and people can ask questions, we got much better at delivery. I know we’ve delivered a couple cakes over here. And that was something that I hadn’t really figured out logistically before COVID But because that was much more important to people. Now, you know, even when people are comfortable coming back into the shop and picking things up having that up my sleeve has helped me expand the business ultimately,

Christine:

way to go. i How about the cooking classes online? Are you still doing that?

Jamie Mertz:

So we did them every weekend for like a year. And now we have recordings of like every recipe I know how to make. Yeah, so every once in a while if somebody wants to do like live one with their friends, you know, just for them, we’ll schedule one but we also you can just call an order the bacon kit and bake along with the pre recorded videos at this point whenever you want.

Christine:

Okay, and the birthday parties you mentioned there in conjunction with children so this is not something that you typically do you don’t go to someone’s home and do parties or do you?

Jamie Mertz:

Um we’d not not that is not true. I’ve done them at people’s homes but we have them at the bakery for for anyone

Christine:

can have a birthday party where they can decorate their own cake and all that at their at the bakery. Yeah, it’s so fun. It’s so good to know. So outside of COVID I’m sure there have been other challenges in your business. Are there any of those that stand out in your mind that you’ve met and head on an overcome?

Jamie Mertz:

Yeah, I would say staffing as difficult as it is for every business. You know, having the right people who care as much as I do, and have the right mix of baking experience and, and being good with people too. It’s a small enough team that everybody has to do a little bit of everything. So that’s always tough to figure out. And I would say a big challenge for me. The whole time has always been that I’m so personally and emotionally invested in this and when you run a business not everybody’s gonna like everything and it is difficult for me when I get pushback. But um, that’s just something you have to you have to do in any career right is not take things too, personally.

Christine:

Yeah. I remember the first time I met you was at a fair a kind of I don’t know what that was. It was a an herb festival or something like that. But I was so thrilled to be able to get a treat. Like oh my gosh, I can go get a treat because it’s gluten free. So are you still doing things like that farmers markets and fairs and taking your wares around?

Jamie Mertz:

Yeah, I am. I think we’re doing one with American University next week. We’re doing pace to Bethesda this weekend, right? Yeah. Very fun. Yeah, all those events are coming back now especially the outdoor ones. So very good minor,

Christine:

we have to put in a reservation for a cake coming up for a special occasion here. So make sure we do that before you head out. Good. So recommendations or top tips you have for those of us who are trying to bake Gluten Free Recipes at home. Is there any special little trick? I know we can get the gluten free mix and you know, make brownies with a mix. But if we want them to be like, like the red bandana, like are there any tricks you can pass along? Yeah, I don’t want your secrets but just something that maybe maybe a helpful hint for those of us who are trying to do some gluten free baking. Yeah, I

Jamie Mertz:

would definitely say Whether batters thing, if you eat eggs more eggs like always helps with the leavening and also just like the softness and tenderness of the batters. And also just serving things warm. Of course, like a fresh croissant, a fresh pastry is always going to be better than a cold one. But the gluten free flowers, I think tend to bloom and be a lot more tender when they are warm, as opposed to, you know, even an hour out of the oven or whatever.

Christine:

Okay, and what about reheating if we went into put it in like a toaster oven for a second, then? Yep, would come right back to that squishy. Yummy. Yeah, exactly. Good to know. All righty. What is one thing you wish everyone knew about gluten free baking? Is there such a thing? I mean, is there one thing that you can think of, I

Jamie Mertz:

think the most important thing and the thing that I say to people the most often is that Gluten is a protein that makes things stretchy. So I think that there might be some preconceived notion that a gluten free cake or cookie is going to be dry or crumbly. And you know, maybe there are bad products out there. But I don’t think that gluten is necessary to a good cake or or brownie or something that you want always wanted to be nice and soft and tender anyway. So I would say that it’s a it’s a stretchiness thing. You don’t need stretchiness in all your baked goods.

Christine:

Okay, very good. And I can vouch for the cake thing. We had a the cake that you brought over for us for whatever special occasion it was. And we were all in the break room. And everyone had their slice of cake. And they were like, Oh my gosh, this cake is amazing. And someone said I can’t have it because I’m gluten free. Yes. And yes, you can. Yes, you can. And everyone couldn’t, they couldn’t believe it. They’re like, Oh my gosh, this cake is so delicious. The texture, everything that taste was just like, wow, you would never know. So I’m glad

Jamie Mertz:

to hear that we do we do wedding cakes too. And oftentimes, you know, the bride or the groom, or the mother of the bride is gluten free. And they just order a gluten free cake for everybody to eat. Because it’s just as

Christine:

good. You can’t even tell Yeah, you really can’t. So kudos to you. It’s amazing work you’re doing. I think that when we get right down to it, those of us who are gluten free, we really just want to be able to have what everyone else has, you know, so I don’t want to skip over the other things that you offer at the bakery. Do you want to share a little bit about that? Sure. You mean like the different menu items? Yeah, yeah, we

Jamie Mertz:

do breakfast sandwiches and lunch sandwiches. And like you said the family meals were open every day, except for Monday. So you can always just come in some sometimes people think they have to preorder everything. And if you need a big cake for 30 people or whatever, it definitely helps to know ahead of time, but if you just want to pop in for a sandwich, or a coffee or a cookie, we have all those available every day.

Christine:

So good. Yeah, thanks so much, again, for being here and for sharing what you’re doing. how can listeners learn more about you and find your business? Sure. So

Jamie Mertz:

we have a website, the red bandana, bakery.com. And that’s a good place to look up menus and all of our order forms are there so you can pre order cakes and stuff like that. The baking kits we talked about are available on the website. You can book a birthday party on the website. And then we’re also on Instagram at the red bandana bakery. We’re on Facebook at the red bandana bakery. And then we’re on Twitter.

Christine:

Very good. And so for. I’m sure the podcast will be launching before you are after you do the taste of Bethesda. But anything, I guess maybe a couple of months out from now where people might find you.

Jamie Mertz:

Christmas. We do like the sugar cookie decorating kits. Oh, that’s so fun gingerbread houses.

Christine:

That’s gluten free gingerbread houses? Yep. Amazing. Oh my gosh, see, you are so much more than bakery. I feel your passion and your love and commitment to the work that you’re doing. So thank you again so much, Jamie for offering your gifts and talents to our community. And thanks for being here at Capitol integrate about today. Thank you.

Jamie Mertz:

This has been great. Take care.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Thank you for taking the time to listen to us today. If you enjoyed this conversation, please take a moment to leave us a review. It helps our podcasts to reach more listeners. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss our next episodes and conversations. And thank you so much again for being with us.