Vanille Patisserie prepares gluten-free treats

May 10, 2014 (CHCAGO) (WLS) -- May is "Celiac Awareness Month," encouraging education and outreach for people who cannot digest gluten. That means no bread, beer, or even soy sauce.

Chicago has added a lot of gluten-free dining options recently, but for Mother's Day, sweets pose a unique challenge, however a well-known Lincoln Park bakery makes more than a half-dozen gluten-free treats.

They're composed of little more than egg whites, almond flour and sugar, filled with either buttercream, jam or ganache. Macarons are the "it" treat at Vanille Patisserie in Lincoln Park, which has two other locations in the city, and they're one of a half-dozen options without gluten.

"And we just have a lot of products that are naturally gluten free," said Sophie Evanoff. "We're not trying to change anything or reinvent the wheel. They just taste the best that way and that's how they've been done for years."

Some of Evanoff's entremets, or individual, plated desserts, also are free of gluten.

"The tiramisu is a marscarpone mousse, a coffee crema and an espresso-soaked chocolate flourless cake," Evanoff said.

The manjari is a choco-holic's fantasy: Beginning with a chocolate flourless cake dome that's stuffed with a dark chocolate mousse, it's also got a chocolate crema; each one is showered in a dark chocolate glaze the color of night, before getting their own tiny baseline perimeter of fresh coconut.

There's also a mammoth macaron, stuffed with passionfruit curd, pistachio cream and fresh raspberries.. But Evanoff says there are also candies they make that are great if you're gluten-free.

"And we have pate de fruit, which is a French-style jelly; it's a lot chewier than a normal gummy bear for instance. The nougat bar is also chewier, with almonds and pistachios and chocolate bars, and also we do handmade caramels here as well," said Evanoff.

There are at least a half dozen different options for gluten-free here at Vanille, but if you wanted to stop in and pick up a last-minute Mother's Day gift, a couple of options for that too.

There are two other Vanille locations in town, one on Clybourn just north of Webster, the other in the French Market at the Oglivie Train Station.

For more information: http://www.vanillepatisserie.com/home.php