Erin McKenna Revolutionizes Gluten-Free (and Vegan) Bread and Butter

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Erin McKenna, founder of Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC (formerly called Babycakes NYC), aims to please anyone with allergies and dietary restrictions; all of the pastries inside her bakery cases are gluten free and vegan. Most recently, the retro baking goddess has taken on bread and savory pastries. She's rolled out bagels, breads, and her buttery spread to her bakery locations, which span from NYC to LA to Disney World Resort in Orlando. Even if you can't visit one of the bakeries, you can bake GF bread at home! Erin just released her latest cookbook, titled Bread & Butter: Gluten-Free Vegan Recipes to Fill Your Bread Basket ($25). We chatted with the baker herself to find out why she tackled bread and which recipes even her 2-1/2-year-old gives a yummy seal of approval.

POPSUGAR: You've mastered gluten-free pastries. What inspired you to take on gluten-free bread?
Erin McKenna: I felt like I really had done everything I had set out to do with sweets, and the only big challenge was something that I had never even tested before, which was a savory bread. For me, it is pretty easy to do a sweets recipes, because I know the ingredients and formulas like the back of my hand. Bread is such a whole different beast — the portion of flour to starch is so different. So because it was the unknown, it was really interesting to me. I also think that the gluten-free bread that is out there is usually frozen and tastes really uninspired. I really miss that freshness that you get at a restaurant or going to your local grocery store for local bread.

Clarke Tolton

PS: Which of the recipes are you most proud of?
EM: Bagels for sure. They are superaddictive. I asked my daughter, who is 2 1/2, what her favorite recipe in the whole bakery was this morning, and she said the bagels. The bagels, and I would say the puff pastry, which we use for the sticky pecan rolls in the cookbook, and the focaccia for sure. Those are my prized recipes.

Clarke Tolton

PS: Which was the most difficult to develop?
EM: The puff pastry for sure. It was really hard, because before I came up with the recipe for butter, I was relying on coconut oil, which isn't very malleable. It was a lot of trial and error with our coconut oil, trying to get it to blend into the dough the way you would cut in butter for a regular pastry dough. I finally just said, "I have to make my own butter for this to work," so there were many steps involved in getting to the polished puffed pastry recipe.

PS: What's a great recipe for beginners or for making on weeknights?
EM: It sounds counterintuitive, but the white bread recipe is so easy. I wish I could demo it more. It's like making cake batter. You put it in the pan, let it sit for 45 minutes, and then throw it in the oven, and it's done. It is the nicest, crustiest white bread and really soft in the center. It almost tastes like Italian peasant bread. It freezes well and is superversatile.