'A cookie should make you happy': Woodbridge-based company offers gluten-free treats
In 2012, after nearly a year of abdominal swelling, hair and weight loss, fatigue and indigestion, Carolyn Haeler was diagnosed with celiac disease, a chronic disorder triggered by foods with gluten.
The then-32-year-old quickly realized that her days of being able to eat anything she wanted were over.
Gluten is in pretty much everything, and at the time, gluten-free options were limited. Five years later, she bought a pack of expensive, artisan, handcrafted gluten-free cookies made by a pastry chef — and they were so disgusting that she threw them away before she left the store.
“I needed a cookie that tasted like a cookie,” Haeler said. “A cookie should make you happy, not sad. Cookies should be comforting. And when you have celiac, you start to realize how important comfort foods are because so many of them are taken away from you.”
So she left her job in finance and started testing gluten-free cookie recipes in her Manhattan studio apartment. Six months later, her new Woodbridge-based Mightylicious gluten-free cookie company had a deal to sell its products at Whole Foods.
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Mightylicious makes soft-baked and Kosher-certified cookies free of gluten, wheat, rye, barley and bovine somatotropin (or rBST). She uses all-natural, non-GMO ingredients, including Grade A butter, real vanilla, real sugar, grape juice, rice syrup and natural sweeteners.
Gluten-free diners with a sweet tooth can find the products online and at Walmart, Whole Foods, Costco, King’s and more, with seven varieties such as brown butter chocolate chip, salted peanut butter, double Dutch chocolate chip and oatmeal coconut. Two vegan cookie varieties are also available. A 7.5-ounce bag of 10 cookies is $7.99.
The base of gluten-free baked goods is often rice flour. Mightylicious partners with a company that mills its rice flour fine enough for baking, Haeler said.
It wasn’t easy for her to find the perfect cookie recipe, but she was committed.
“I lived in Italy and Switzerland and I ate every croissant, pie, pastry and baguette that I could get my hands on, so I know what food should taste like,” Haeler said. “When I created my product, I went about it with empathy because I am the one who is eating this product. Making something that was okay was not good enough. I wanted something that was exceptional.”
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Mightylicious will launch a gluten-free flour blend and a vegan flour blend this year.
“I see ourselves evolving into a lifestyle brand similar to Udi’s that has products in every aisle of the grocery store,” Haeler said.
Info: mightylicious.com.
Contact: [email protected]
Jenna Intersimone has been a staff member at the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey since 2014, after becoming a blogger-turned-reporter following the creation of her award-winning travel blog. To get unlimited access to her stories about food, drink and fun, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Woodbridge-based Mightylicious offers gluten-free cookies
