About - Art of Gluten-Free Baking

Hi there! I’m Jeanne. I live in Seattle. A long time ago (2005), my blog was named Four Chickens (fourchickens.blogspot.com)–which referred to the fact that I had four chickens in our urban back yard). In 2010, I changed the name to Art of Gluten-Free Baking. I am still @fourchickens on Twitter and on Instagram. I am also a knitter and am @fourchickens on Ravelry if you want to link up with me over there.

We have had 2 flocks of chickens since I started this blog. After 18 years of owning chickens, I am sorry to say that our last chicken died in the summer of 2021. For the time being, we have decided not to get anymore chickens.

As of 2016, we have also have two cats! Henry and Snow. We got them from a shelter. They are Siamese kitties: Henry is a Seal-Point and Snow is a Flame-Point. They are brother and sister and the most charming kitties on the planet.

If you are a long-time reader of the blog, you know my daughter as Girlfriend. She was a little when I started the blog. Amazingly, she grew up and graduated from college in December 2022! What?? Yes! We are so proud of her. We do miss her like crazy, though.

A bit of my background: I’ve been baking gluten-free since the birth of my daughter in 2000 triggered my gluten-intolerance (I tested positive on the celiac blood test–even though I didn’t have the biopsy, my doc says the blood test is considered good enough for a celiac diagnosis).

Ever since, I’ve been experimenting with how to bake gluten-free goods that taste just like their wheat counterparts. There has been a lot of research and trial and error during this journey, but I am happy to share with you my successes! I also share my disasters when I think it will help folks. In addition, I like to share various baking tips to help my readers bake the best they can! I love to bake and I want my readers to have the best experience possible. I often tackle hard stuff (like puff pastry), but I try to make it as accessible to everyone.

Not only am I gluten-intolerant, I have a life-threatening allergy to wheat (apparently I am the only one my allergist has ever seen with an actual wheat allergy). I also react to oats themselves (even gluten-free oats). Read about this common intolerance that gluten-free folks often have at Oats and Gluten Intolerance: It’s Complicated. And I have have Oral Allergy Syndrome (OAS), which means that I cannot eat most fruits, vegetables, and nuts in their raw state (I can eat most of them well-cooked except for broccoli, avocado, eggplant, almonds, hazelnuts, and bananas, which I cannot eat at all). My daughter has a life-threatening allergy to peanuts and is sensitive to soy. Add to this a husband who reacts to almonds and lemons–and you can imagine how this combo platter keeps life interesting, to say the least!

I have a closed Art of Gluten-Free Baking group over on Facebook if you want to join it. I thought it might be nice to have a group for folks to ask questions and share experiences.

Also, I used to be the website editor for the site Canning Across America. It is now an archive of our activities–we were an ad-hoc collective of folks all over the US who want to keep the traditions of food preserving alive. Canning is fun and I love to do it with my family and with my pals. I then use my canned goods (mostly jam) in my baked goods. Win-win!

My second baking cookbook, Gluten-Free Wish List: Sweet and Savory Treats You’ve Missed the Most again with Chronicle Books, came out October 2015.

My first baking cookbook—Gluten-Free Baking for the Holidays–came out in the Fall of 2012 from Chronicle Books.

If you want to see what I really look and sound like, as well as how I approach gluten-free baking, check out my Google talk!

I am a board member of the Baker’s Dozen San Francisco collective. It is not a gluten-free group but it is for avid bakers like you and me! And we do monthly talks, demos, and chats–often on Zoom. Check us out (and join us)!

As an author, I am represented by Sally Ekus at The Ekus Group.

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My old bio and family photo: I have 1 daughter I refer to as Girlfriend; 1 husband I refer to as dAhub* (it’s a reference to Moby Dick and the hunt for the mouse-bats in our house–search “mouse-bat” on the site for more info); two chickens; one organic garden in a constant state of disrepair; 10 million books; 5 million cookbooks; a zillion unfinished projects rolling around the house; more knitting yarn that I can use in my lifetime; and 1 Ph.D. in an interdisciplinary, experimental theatre field. I teach gluten-free baking at various venues around Seattle, which is fun and allows me to help people know that gluten-free baking can be easy and delicious!

* in relation to the whole mouse-bat thing, you may call me Ishmael

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AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE (I try to put this on each link so things are super-clear, but I thought it would be good to have it here, too):

Jeanne Sauvage is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.