The game-changing Philadelphia bakeries turning out stellar gluten-free breads, pastries, and desserts

When Omer Taffet began exploring the idea of opening a gluten-free bakery in the Italian Market more than a decade ago, the mass-produced breads he found on the market were like “eating a dish sponge.”

Lila Colello trained at the French Culinary Institute and was deep into her career as a pastry chef at restaurants like 10 Arts at the Ritz-Carlton and Wolfgang Puck Catering when she was diagnosed with celiac disease — an autoimmune and intestinal disorder triggered by eating gluten, which can stoke intestinal inflammation. Losing access to fresh croissants was like having a piece of her childhood stolen: “My food memories were gone.”

Gluten is a key protein found in certain grains — namely wheat, barley, and rye — that provides the structure to hold gas bubbles during fermentation and fosters a crusty chew. The often stark difference between standard and gluten-free baked goods is by far the hardest reality to reckon with in the transition to a gluten-free diet: When my baking-obsessed daughter Alice was diagnosed with celiac, she was devastated.

But in recent years, advances in gluten-free baking and alternative flours (including rice, potato, sorghum, cassava, and tapioca) and helpers like guar and xanthan gums (thickeners that help with crumb structure and retaining moisture) and psyllium husks (a naturally occurring fiber and absorbent gel that can swell to make a liquid-y dough kneadable) have given powerful new tools to creative chefs like Taffet and Colello.

“We never touched ingredients like xanthan gum and potato starch for baking in culinary school,” Colello says. “So I had to teach myself some food science, and I discovered the secret to gluten-free baking was not just about swapping out starch, but figuring out the protein content. That was my ‘aha!’ moment.”

Or at least one of them. Colello helped patent a special technique for laminating gluten-free pastry — recapturing her love of croissants — and also perfected a kettle-boiled bagel that is shockingly crusty and chewy for Flakely, the gluten-free bakery that she started as a wholesaler in 2017 before opening a Manayunk storefront in 2021. Taffet, whose bakery opened in 2011, now makes some of the best sandwich breads around, which are featured at a number of shops and restaurants throughout the area.

Colello and Taffet are just two of the leading lights of Philadelphia’s gluten-free baking scene. There are now GF doughnut makers galore. A GF soft pretzel from A&A in South Jersey that will fool you. And the classic takes on muffins, cakes, doughnuts, and cookies are so impressive at the Happy Mixer, a small local suburban chain of gluten-free bakeries open since 2013, they’ll require a suspension of gluten-free disbelief.

» READ MORE: A gluten-free guide to the Jersey Shore

Does gluten-free baking still have a ways to go? Absolutely. Gluten-free baked goods can also be startlingly expensive due to the cost of raw ingredients. But if you get a chance to try some of the highlights from this new generation of Philadelphia’s innovative gluten-free bakers, as I have with my family during the three years I researched this guide — as well as a corresponding one with more than 70 gluten-free restaurants — you’ll see that “dish sponge” loaves are largely a thing of the past.

Starred establishments are 100% gluten-free.

Omer Taffet has been baking crusty, gluten-free breads at this tiny Italian Market storefront since 2011, and his seeded long rolls and alt-flour loaves are essential building blocks for many of the best gluten-free sandwiches in town (Paesano’s, Middle Child, Liberty Kitchen, Woodrow’s, Joe’s Steaks). My family loves the quinoa sandwich loaf and challah for the Jewish holidays. Other bakeries on this list — Flakely and the Happy Mixer — also bake respectable breads, but Taffets remains my loaf of choice.

📍1024 S. Ninth St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19147, 📞215-551-5511; 🌐taffets.com

Carol Ha and Bill Kelly’s takeout window is a South Philly destination for creative, seasonally inspired doughnuts — that just happen to be 100% free of gluten and soy. Ha uses a batter of rice flour, tapioca, and potato starches for cake doughnuts with flavors that change monthly, from cranberry-glazed pineapple cake during the winter holidays to strawberry-rhubarb in April, or the occasional coconut-glazed pandan homage to Ha’s Vietnamese roots. A brioche-style dough is used for yeasted doughnuts that get fried to order. (“I am the doughnut robot,” jokes Ha, who hand glazes each one.) Okie Dokie also makes sneaky good savory snacks, including an irresistible GF fried chicken sandwich on an unsweetened doughnut bun.

📍1439 Snyder Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19145, 📞267-237-3786; 🌐 okiedokiedonuts.com

This lively bakery in deep South Philly is both gluten-free and vegan, with doughnuts (red velvet and chai spice were favorites), cookies (try the Snack Attack, filled with crushed potato chips, GF pretzels, and chocolate chips), excellent quiches, and the craveable cream-stuffed finger cakes called Jawns. Just as notable are the hearty pizzas available Friday through Sunday. Baked to a crisp in cast-iron pans, the herbed dough is dense but still has rise, with an array of veggie toppings and impressive cashew-based cheeses from South Philly’s Bandit.

📍1929 S. 17th St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19145, 📞267-854-3450, 🌐 highfidelitybakery.com

Laminated dough is one of the hardest things to find in gluten-free form, but Lila Colello has found the secret at her Manayunk bakery, where customers clamor for frozen, bake-at-home trays of flaky mini-croissants stuffed with chocolate and savory variations filled with spinach and cheese, as well as danishes and pop tarts. Other popular items include cinnamon bun kits, and chocolate-dipped maritozzi stuffed with cream. Flakely’s kettle-boiled bagels are also notable — both crusty and chewy — and the best I’ve tasted outside of New York’s famed Modern Bread & Bagel. This spring, Colello also plans to debut vending machines to sell frozen croissants and bagels around the region, beginning with Salt & Vinegar’s new store in the Italian Market (905 S. Ninth St.).

📍Pink Door, 220 Krams Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19127, 📞484-450-6576; 🌐 flakelygf.com

I have a soft spot for this organic, vegan, and gluten-free bakery-cafe off Rittenhouse Square where my celiac daughter once worked as a pastry assistant. But there’s no denying Andrea Kyan’s team has been influential with some of the most beautiful GF cakes around. Sign me up for a tahini chocolate chip cookie, please, but I also crave the savory items, especially the spicy stewed chickpeas and Mohinga soup that reflect Kyan’s Burmese heritage.

📍1706 Locust St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19103, 📞215-985-1706; 🌐 psandco.com

“Get the peanut butter delight!” “We travel here for just the cream-stuffed doughnuts!” “The lemon pound cake is the best.” The devoted regulars behind me in line at the Wayne branch of this local trio of gluten-free bakeries enthusiastically chimed in with friendly advice. And guess what? They were all correct. The Happy Mixer, founded in Chalfont in 2013 by baker Tim Mourer and his wife, Lisa, is one of the closest experiences a gluten-free eater can have to walking into an old-fashioned bakery, from the sweet smell of icing in the air to the wide array of classic sweets that are convincing counterparts to their classic, gluten-laden references. The peanut butter delight was my favorite, followed closely by the zesty and moist lemon pound cake, red velvet cake muffin, and rolled kiffle cookies stuffed with fruit.

📍4275 County Line Rd., Chalfont, Pa. 18914, 📞267-663-7209; 📍 Summit Square Shopping Center, 12 Summit Square, Langhorne, Pa. 19047, 📞215-860-1989; 📍Gateway Shopping Center, 103 E. Swedesford Rd., Wayne, Pa. 19087, 📞484-580-6680, 🌐thehappymixer.com

“Are you sure this is gluten-free?” That’s the ultimate praise my daughter can offer a pretzel. And the soft and chewy twists from A&A carry it off. This longtime pretzel family would know, having been in business since 1929. The Oaklyn location opened in 2021 by fourth generation baker Anthony Panara and his wife Charlene Panara, bakes only gluten-free pretzels; they come in many forms, from twists to buns, stuffed with hot dogs or as “pretzoli” pockets, filled with everything from cheesesteak to pepperoni and cheese. Standard gluten pretzels made at the Camden location are also sold on-site, but are carefully stored and handled to avoid any cross contamination. Preordering is strongly recommended, especially on weekends. Anthony plans to begin selling his signature all-purpose gluten-free flour mix this summer.

📍511 White Horse Pike, Oaklyn, N.J. 08107, 📞856-338-0208,🌐 aandasoftpretzels.com

Ice cream shops can be prone to cone and cookie cross contamination, but this popular parlor with old-timey vibes in Old City has a knowledgeable staff and safe protocols (glove changes, clean scoops from fresh tubs), and 95% of its flavors and toppings are gluten-free, as are most of its ice cream cakes.

📍116 Market St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19106, 📞215-627-1899, 🌐 franklinfountain.com

» READ MORE: Philadelphia’s essential gluten-free restaurants