Daniela Weiner is the celiac cookie queen (2024)

Daniela is a trained pastry chef with celiac who spent the lockdown developing the meticulously researched and photographed blog, the Gluten Free Austrian. While cookies are her specialty, you’ll also find outstanding recipes for cakes, breads, bars, and pastries–all GF. Her advice? Splurge on chocolate. Be thrifty about everything else.

Why did you start the Gluten Free Austrian?

One of the reasons I started to blog is because I’m a trained pastry chef. I spend a lot of time reading other blogs, and sometimes, you read the first two sentences of a recipe and realize it’s not gonna work. Or, it calls for an eighth of a teaspoon of an ingredient you’ve never heard of. Being gluten-free is already expensive! During the pandemic, especially, everything’s been so up and down. I don't know what your grocery store looks like, but mine is hit or miss. There are days when there’s cream cheese, and then there are days when it’s like, what is cream cheese? So my goal is to create recipes people can make with what they have on hand or can easily find.

My goal is to create recipes people can make with what they have on hand or can easily find.

During the pandemic, right before the holidays in 2020, I’d just been laid off from my job, and I was like, well, what's there to lose? I posted on social media that I was holding a small bake sale and sold products I’d had in my bakery because I already knew how to make them in bulk. I was shocked by the reaction. People started following me on Instagram. People outside of Chicago wanted to buy my baked goods and asked if I’d share my recipes. At first, I hesitated. I’d worked so long and hard on the recipes. But then I thought, everybody should have the opportunity to eat good gluten-free products. So, I put together a website and called it the Gluten Free Austrian.

You have a beautiful, appetizing aesthetic to your photography. What’s your approach?

I do all my own writing, photographs, videos, and social media. I’m a one-girl show. I didn’t pick up a real camera until about a year ago. Until then, I was just using my phone. But then a friend of mine was like, if you want to step this up, you’ve got to step up the pictures. And, it’s true! When I look at recipes and the pictures don’t look appealing, I’m probably not going to make them. I’m a visual learner, so I try to take pictures step-by-step. Sometimes it's a lot easier to see a picture of something, especially when people don’t know what it’s supposed to look like. I want to reassure them that it will work out–it's just looking like this right now.

How did you become a gluten-free pastry chef?

I grew up in Austria. I’d always been interested in baking and cooking. When you go out to dinner, nobody ever talks about the appetizer or the second course. It’s the dessert people remember. But, my mom always said that I needed to get a “real” job. So, I went to nursing school and worked in hospitals until I moved to the U.S. While I was waiting for my work permit, I spent a lot of time at home baking, and finally, I decided I wanted to go to school for it.

When you go out to dinner, nobody ever talks about your appetizer or the second course. It’s the dessert people remember.

My first kitchen job was at a big steakhouse in the pastry department. They knew that I had celiac and were very supportive. I never had to make recipes with a lot of flour. Fast forward a bit, I moved to Traverse City, Michigan. After the restaurant where I was supposed to work closed overnight right before peak season, I started baking at home to stay busy. People said, you should sell this stuff! I ended up starting my own bakery. I did that for years and made a name for myself.

Do you view recipe writing as a creative or a technical process?

At first, I figured, the less information you give people, the better. But, I found that people asked so many questions. So, I started really deep-diving into recipes and giving options, like what flours you can substitute. I learned that I had so many readers, all over the world–even in Australia and England–and they don’t have access to Bob’s Red Mill or Cup4Cup. They’d email me available flours, and we’d compare them to products in the U.S. The process was really fun for me! Within a year, I’d built this community. My goal is to share recipes that work for everyone and won't break the bank. The creative part comes with developing new recipes and ideas. Once in a while, I put a question box on Instagram and asked my followers, what do you want to see? For example, there's been a big interest in gluten-free pretzels recently. It’s kind of funny. Personally, it’s not really something I miss.

You currently have nearly 50 cookie recipes on your blog–why cookies?

Who doesn’t love cookies? A lot of times when people find out they are celiac or have to eat gluten-free, they’re afraid. They're being forced to give up their recipes. Like, for years they’ve made Toll House chocolate chip cookies, and now they're being told they can’t anymore. So I figured, let's start with cookies. And, I’m amazed at the number of cookies people bake! But it’s one of those things that's easy to put together and cheap. And, a lot of times also with gluten-free baked goods, we have to remember it doesn't last as well as other products. So it's better to make smaller quantities. Cakes are beautiful, but I live by myself. What am I going to do with a three-layer chocolate cake when all I want is one slice?

Can you share some tips on how to set up a GF pantry?

• Chocolate: As someone who worked in the chocolate industry, I always recommend spending some extra money on good cocoa powder, chocolate chips, and chunks. Get the Dutch-process cocoa. You will taste the difference. A lot of stores like Kroger and Mariano’s even have their own brands. One other tip is to look for “Belgium” on the label. That’s a sure sign it’s good chocolate. Though, it’s totally okay to buy regular chocolate from Aldi, Trader Joe’s, or your local market.
• Flour: Gluten-free flour is such a personal preference and completely depends on the recipe.
  • Delicate, sweet recipes: If you plan on making more delicate things like my biscuits, I’d use Cup4Cup. It’s a lighter mix and gives biscuits a nicer rise. If I used Bob’s Red Mill in the same recipe, it would just be denser. But I also put together my own mix with just a handful of ingredients because it’s like half the price. Premixed gluten-free flours are like three times as much as wheat flour, and you’re paying for a product that’s mainly cornstarch. It’s a lot of money! That’s why I also offer different options on my blog, let’s use what you already have in your pantry.
  • Savory recipes: I think there’s also a big difference between savory and sweet recipes. For savory, if you can tolerate it, the Caputo flour made with gluten-free wheat starch works well in my dinner rolls and focaccia. But I tried using it for cinnamon rolls, and it was disgusting. It just didn't work.

What’s your favorite recipe on the blog?

Right now, my favorite recipe is actually the small-batch chocolate chip cookie recipe. It’s made with brown butter. It’s perfect for when you’re craving a cookie. Within 30 minutes (from start to finish), you'll have three chocolate chip cookies.

What's the most challenging recipe that you've developed?

The cinnamon rolls. I made them 17 times, over and over, with different flours. A long time ago, a friend told me she added pudding mix to some recipes. Pudding gives a cake a more tender structure. So when I was working on the cinnamon rolls, I had a box of pudding mix in my cupboard. I knew I wanted to add cornstarch to the recipe, and I thought the pudding mix would give a better flavor because it already has a bit of vanilla. Plus it’s a cheap ingredient. It’s available 99% of the time, even in little stores. It makes the recipe a little bit more unique. A lot of times, when you’re developing recipes, you want to find something that makes it stand out.

How do you navigate being a celiac baker?

Just because you have celiac doesn’t mean you can’t eat good food. When I first started my blog, I’d laugh because a lot of people were commenting, I can’t believe this is gluten-free. Well, what did you expect? We still have this picture in our head from like 15 years ago when you would see sad gluten-free bread that’s a half-inch-tall cement block. It’s not like that anymore! Gluten-free can look good and be delicious. It can be even better than wheat recipes. Now, people who don't have celiac come to me and they’re like, can you help me make this recipe with wheat flour? That’s great. I feel like that’s what it’s all about. At the end of the day, who cares what diet you have? All we really want is good food. This is not to say someone who doesn’t have celiac can’t create great gluten-free recipes, but I think it’s radical to have someone in the community, someone with celiac, who knows how it is, creating recipes for us.

Favorite GF restaurant in Chicago?

I don’t eat out much, but I like Defloured Bakery in Chicago.