Gluten Free Tea Cakes from MadWoman Foods
If you’re rolling gluten-free you can’t eat wheat, rye or barley. That pretty much eliminates bread, bagels, cake, pastries, scones etc. Also you can’t drink beer. As a paleo eater, I avoided that stuff anyway, but every once in a while I liked to eat a baked good with coffee. The one thing I thought I would miss as a gluten-free eater was an occasional cookie or scone, so I was glad to discover that there are many gluten-free options as long as you know where to look.
MadWoman Foods is a gluten-free bakery and market located at 4747 Nicollet Ave South. I spent some time there this week chatting with the staff and sampling the delectable baked goods.
The folks who operate MadWoman Foods sound a lot like CrossFitters. They talk about things like “metabolic effect” and “glycemic load” and have opinions about agave nectar vs honey. Usually when I evangelize the CrossFit nutrition prescription people’s eyes glaze over so it’s kind of fun to talk about food with people who know what time it is.
Anyway, I ordered four tea cakes. I greedily devoured the lemon poppy seed tea cake before I remembered to take a picture – that’s why there are only three in the picture. The other three disappeared down my food-hole about three minutes after I took the picture. Of the four, my favorite was the chocolate. It was basically the same as a chocolate brownie. Flavor-wise these pastries are just as good as anything you would get at a regular bakery. The only difference is that when you bite into them they feel more dense and after you’ve chewed for a while they feel more grainy.
The thing I found most remarkable about this eating experience was how I felt after eating. Usually eating baked goods gives me a brief rush of euphoria followed by a grinding headache and lethargy and then stomach-gurgling hunger. These gluten-free tea cakes had no side effects. I just went about my day as usual. As a matter of fact, an hour after eating the tea cakes I went to the gym and did 31 Overhead Squats at 95 pounds. Usually I have to lie down and take a nap an hour after eating pastries. Sweet!
