Every week, I document another dish that impressed and satiated me during my food adventures around New York City
Unfortunately when a gluten-free bakery opens in NYC, it doesn’t get a lot of press or hoopla in the general food world.
That was not the case with the opening of 7 Grain Army, which has been in the works and through many iterations over the last year or so.
A big part of the excitement is that this new bakery is from Matthew Tilden who used to run Scratchbread, a much loved local Brooklyn bakery. He closed that business many years ago and has been waiting for the right time to do something else. Well, I guess in the middle of a pandemic was the right time.
Well, like many in the city, I rushed over to try some of his pastries. In addition to being interested in what he was doing, my wife also happens to be gluten free.
The takeout window offers an array of options from crackers to sandwiches and breakfast tacos to the standout muFins.
Yes, Tilden has rebranded muffins by calling them “muFins”. He uses a variety of seven different grains (hence, the name 7 Grain Army) to create these gluten-free pastries.
It was hard for me to choose one so I went with a pack of four, which included Corn Fonio, Lemon Millet, Banana Amaranth, and our favorite the Blueberry Oat.
They were all really quite good, but the blueberry oat was the most spectacular. Hard to tell that this was lacking gluten. Made with coconut yogurt, almond flour, and apple sauce, it was moist and flaky with considerable oat crunch throughout.
It came with a spreadable sauce. I chose the blueberry jam but if I had known what was going to be inside this muFin, I would have realized that extra jam was not necessary.
The big surprise was the generous filling of blueberry jam which had been piped inside the muFin. Think jelly doughnut, but in gluten free muffin form.
Once Instagram and the food world get a load of these muFins sans gluten, I can almost guarantee they won’t let a new gluten free bakery opening go without some sort of excitement. Price: $4.20
| 7 GRAIN ARMY |
| 88 Roebling Street (at North 7th Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn |
| 7grainarmy.com |
