From her dedicated gluten-free commercial kitchen at the Dunham family farm in Greenwood, Suzanne Dunham bakes up loaves of fresh bread and sandwich wraps, pizza crusts, pancake mixes and batches of gluten-free granola.

The granola — made with gluten-free oats, nuts and slivers of toasted coconut — is sweetened with the Dunham Farm’s own maple syrup, tapped at the farm and cooked down in their sugarhouse called Velvet Hollow Sugar Works.

I met Dunham on Maine Maple Sunday, when she and her husband served up breakfasts of eggs, bacon and stacks of — yes, you guessed it! — gluten-free pancakes to more than 75 customers. “We’re the only (maple syrup) producers who served gluten-free pancakes (that day). And we had lots of ‘thank-yous’ from people who appreciated that we offered them,” said Dunham.

“I had several motivators to produce gluten-free products,” she said. “I wanted to make it affordable, healthier and fresh.”

For Dunham it’s also personal, and she loves to share the “living gluten-free” knowledge she has gleaned over the years. “I found that the most confusing and hard-to-deal-with period in going gluten-free is when one initially finds out they have to go without wheat, barley and rye. I remember when I first found out in the mid-1980s, and feeling lost and alone. I’d go into a grocery store and think there is nothing here I can eat. It can be overwhelming. My focus was, and still is, to help people over that initial hump.”

One of the major differences between Dunham’s products and many commercially made gluten-free items is that she adds both nutritional value and flavor by using a combination of what she calls “alternative” flours. She relies less on rice or tapioca flours, and started using more buckwheat flour and cornmeal, both of which are made in Maine.

Dunham shared her recipe for gluten-free pizza crust, because, as she said, “a lot of people miss having pizza” once they’ve eliminated gluten from their diets. She’s also noticed they often miss desserts and baked goods such as coffee cake — her second recipe. Dunham’s third recipe today is a mainstay in any cooking, but slightly more challenging if you are eating gluten-free: a basic white sauce, used for thickening purposes.

An assortment of Dunham’s gluten-free delectables — along with peanut butter bars (delicious little morsels made with an almond meal crust), coconut bars and other treats — can be found at the Fair Share Co-op in Norway, The Local Hub in Locke Mills, the Good Food Store in Bethel, periodically at the Morning Dew health food store in Bridgton and seasonally at Pie Tree Orchard in Waterford. Dunham’s carrot cake can also be found on the menu at Pat’s Pizza in Bethel.

For those who missed the pancake breakfast, you might pick up a package of her pancake mix to try out at home. The mix is made with garbanzo bean flour, fava bean flour and gluten-free oats. I personally found the mix delightful, and easy to embellish with a few walnut pieces, blueberries and a little ground flax thrown in for good measure.

Dunham admits she has done a lot of gluten-free experimenting in her cooking and baking over the years. As an example, she said, she accidentally found out how to give her breads — such as her round crusty loaves of rosemary bread — a heavier, crisper crust when she failed one day to follow the directions to cover the dough while it rose.

If you’re new to gluten-free cooking and baking, Dunham has many bits of advice to help you expand your gluten-free culinary repertoire — admitting, “A lot of people try it out with less than stellar results.”

One tip, she said, is to try to find a store that buys bulk products, allowing you to purchase smaller amounts as you begin to explore gluten-free baking.

Another: Guar gum or xanthan gum will be needed to replace the natural elasticity of the gluten. While it doesn’t add flavor to the recipe, it helps give your dough or batter the “stickiness” usually achieved by the gluten. She noted that xanthan gum isn’t necessary in all gluten-free baked goods — “I don’t use it in most cake-type baked items, like my carrot cake.”

A third tip: “To get a good flavor in an alternative bread, you really need a mixture of flours. You might also need to add a small amount of apple cider vinegar or sugar to boost up the fluffiness of the bread,” she said.

For practical purposes — without making a huge investment in gluten-free baking supplies — she suggested you could start with a commercially made baking mix such as those made by Bob’s Red Mill, and use recipes on the back of the package or from the company website.

Dunham warned not to expect your gluten-free baking to be the same as your “old” style of baking. Using her pizza dough mix as an example, she said the end result will be much stickier than regular pizza dough. “Don’t expect a ball of dough. You can’t roll it out with a rolling pin,” she said — you’ll need to oil your hands first, in order to pat the dough down into your pan.

While she won’t go so far as to proclaim herself a gluten-free expert, Dunham said she has conducted “extensive research into gluten intolerance and celiac disease, and related autoimmune disorders. In 2005, I started intensifying my research into it, and giving seminars and cooking classes.”

You can learn more about gluten-free living with Dunham at two upcoming classes at St. Mary’s Nutrition Center in Lewiston. The first, on bread baking, will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 23. And on Thursday, May 30, she will present a workshop about gluten cross-contamination and the evolution of wheat. For more info or to register, call the center at 513-3848 or email them at [email protected].

For more info about Suzanne Dunham, go to www.dunhamfarmstead.com.

Suzanne Dunham’s gluten-free pizza crust

(Dairy free too.)

1 cup garfava flour (a mixture made from garbanzo beans and fava beans)

1 cup white rice flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1 tablespoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1-1/2 cups lukewarm water

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

1-1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 packet Red Star rapid yeast

3 egg whites (or egg substitute)

Mix all dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix all liquid ingredients in another medium bowl with yeast. Then add dry mixture to the liquid and mix well until blended. Scrape dough mixture onto a cookie sheet and spread evenly. Place in warm area and let rise for 25 to 30 minutes. Bake in a 400-degree preheated oven for 10 minutes. If desired, you can freeze the crust (after it cools) to use at another time. Otherwise, put your toppings on the baked crust, place back in the oven at 450 degrees, and bake until cheese is melted. Remove from oven, slice and serve.

This recipe makes two 12-inch pizzas. Dunham said she always makes two — she’ll put toppings on one to eat immediately and freeze the other.

Suzanne Dunham’s sour cream coffee cake

1 cup butter or margarine

1-1/2 cups evaporated cane juice*

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 cup mashed potatoes, cooked and cooled

2 cup white rice flour, sifted

2 teaspoons gluten-free baking soda

Pinch of salt

3 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder

1 cup gluten-free sour cream (you can substitute the soy-based Tofuti sour cream if desired)

Topping:

1/2 cup evaporated cane juice (natural sugar)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

*You can substitute with another sweetener in the mix such as honey or agave, etc. For the topping sugar, you will need to use a granulated type sugar.

Cream butter with the sugar. Stir in eggs, vanilla and lemon juice; add mashed potatoes. Sift together flour, soda, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients alternately with sour cream to egg mixture. Pour half the batter into a greased 10-by-13-inch baking pan or two square 8-inch pans. Mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle half on top of batter. Pour remaining batter; sprinkle on the remaining mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until tests done.

Gluten-free white sauce

(Use for casseroles, cheese sauce base, chowder thickener, creamed vegetables, meats or poultry)

2 tablespoons butter or canola oil

1 tablespoon cornstarch or arrowroot powder (or use white rice flour for a creamier texture)

1 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

In a small saucepan, heat butter or canola oil; add cornstarch or rice flour. Gradually stir milk into cornstarch until smooth. Add remaining ingredients. Stirring constantly, bring to boil over medium heat and boil 1 minute. Makes one cup.

More tips for the happy gluten-free baker

Suzanne Dunham says that when working with gluten-free doughs/crusts, roll out between two pieces of plastic wrap. To put in a pan, remove the top layer of plastic, lift rolled-out dough and flip it over into the pan. If you’re spreading with your hands, oil hands first, or put a plastic bag on your hand and oil the bag before spreading.

Some gluten-free pastas (rice, corn) need lots of rinsing unless you use the Tinkyada brand rice pasta. Corn pasta falls apart easily if overcooked. Leftover rice pasta should be used within a couple days; it tends to get a little hard beyond that time.

Cornstarch and arrowroot powder (arrowroot is more expensive, but cornstarch is more apt to be from a GMO crop) are good thickeners for puddings, custards and Asian food gravies. White rice flour is good for gravies, stews and casseroles (because it’s creamier).

Xanthan or guar gum can be replaced with flax seed meal, softened in a small amount of water, or chia seed/meal.

Most gluten-free baked goods need to be freshened and/or softened up by heating slightly in a microwave, oven or toaster.

Dunham suggests using parchment paper when baking breads and cakes, especially if using metal baking pans. Gluten-free baked goods are more apt to stick than wheat-based baked goods. She usually uses glass baking dishes for the same reason: less apt to stick.