{"id":406964,"date":"2026-01-14T16:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/406964\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T16:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:38:13","slug":"chelsea-approveds-gluten-free-baking-mixes-suit-many-diets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/406964\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea Approved\u2019s Gluten-Free Baking Mixes Suit Many Diets"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2014, Chelsea Curtis of South Burlington headed off to school, excited to play center midfield for the women\u2019s soccer team of what was then Johnson State College. Her dream was dashed by crippling fatigue, severe abdominal pain and other incapacitating gastrointestinal symptoms. After a battery of tests and many doctor visits, Curtis, now 29, received a diagnosis of Crohn\u2019s, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease.<\/p>\n

Doctors recommended medication, but Curtis and her mother, a registered nurse, resolved instead to try controlling her symptoms through diet. The list of permissible foods was, in Curtis\u2019 words, \u201cincredibly restrictive.\u201d In her family\u2019s fridge, \u201cChelsea Approved\u201d<\/a> labels marked what was safe for her to eat. The approach worked for seven years, until Curtis started medication, which enabled her to relax her dietary rules a little.<\/p>\n

The experience inspired her to become a registered dietitian \u2014 and to partner on a business that would help people with restricted diets enjoy freshly baked treats without worrying that the small indulgence would make them sick. In January 2023, Curtis launched Chelsea Approved baking mixes with her older sister Emily Austin and Austin\u2019s boyfriend, Adam Bouchard. Their product line is not only certified free of the top nine allergens, including gluten, but also vegan. (Austin and Bouchard are vegan for ethical reasons.) The trio, who all live in Essex Junction, built the recipes for comfort-food favorites such as chocolate chip cookies and banana bread from simple, whole ingredients.<\/p>\n

\"\"Chocolate chip cookies made with Chelsea Approved mix Credit: Courtesy<\/p>\n

Chelsea Approved bagged mixes \u2014 which sell for about $7.99 to $9.99 and make roughly a dozen large cookies, one loaf of banana bread or an 8-by-8-inch pan of brownies \u2014 have taken off. After debuting with online sales and at some Vermont farmers markets, the business landed its first retail account, South Burlington\u2019s Healthy Living<\/a> market, in April 2023. Close to 1,000 bags a month on average now sell through about 110 stores in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Curtis is intimately familiar with the stress of monitoring everything you put into your mouth, especially as a young adult. \u201cIt was really, really hard mentally,\u201d she recalled. \u201cEvery social situation, every time there was food around, I had to think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When her sister and Bouchard started experimenting with recipes that would work across the \u201cVenn diagram\u201d of things they could eat that were also \u201cChelsea Approved,\u201d their first target was chocolate chip cookies, said Bouchard, 36. Nestl\u00e9 Toll House cookies were a favorite baking \u2014 and eating \u2014 project of the sisters when they were kids.<\/p>\n

Bouchard said their goal was to create recipes with results anyone would be happy to gobble up, not ones relegated to the \u201cspecial diet\u201d corner of the potluck table.<\/p>\n

When they cracked the code with their not-so-secret ingredient, buckwheat flour (which, despite its name, is not wheat), Curtis was thrilled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so liberating to be able to have something to eat like I had grown up with,\u201d she said. \u201cTo eat a chocolate chip cookie again was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frozen chocolate chip cookie dough balls, sold only to food service customers by the 10-pound case, are the fastest-growing area for the company right now, Bouchard said. Introduced last year, they sell briskly to about 30 accounts \u2014 mostly in higher education, such as the University of Vermont \u2014 that bake them fresh on-site. For 2026, Chelsea Approved\u2019s distributor has projected about triple the demand, or\u00a060,000 frozen dough balls.<\/p>\n

Bouchard, who is currently Chelsea Approved\u2019s only full-time employee, blends, forms and freezes the dough balls in West Meadow Farm Bakery\u2019s<\/a> certified gluten-free facility in Essex. He uses the cookie mix that is produced for the retail line by a certified allergen-free co-packer in New York\u2019s Finger Lakes region. It is located near the buckwheat mill that supplies the company\u2019s main ingredient. Bouchard said no certified allergen-free facility in Vermont matches the capacity the growing business needs.<\/p>\n

Curtis juggles her dietitian practice in Burlington with social media responsibilities for Chelsea Approved. She remains the face of the business, as well as its No. 1 fan \u2014 in moderation.<\/p>\n

While medicine now helps control her Crohn\u2019s, she said, it is not guaranteed to work forever, and she remains vigilant about what she eats. \u201cLearning how to deal with diet and lifestyle without medications was really important to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When Curtis opens a bag of her favorite chocolate chip cookie mix, she bakes up a batch of 12, nibbles on one to start and freezes the rest. Like a squirrel storing nuts for winter, she pulls one out at a time to defrost on the counter, allowing herself a Chelsea Approved sweet indulgence with Chelsea-approved restraint.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The original print version of this article was headlined \u201cBatter Up | From Essex Junction, Chelsea Approved\u2019s vegan, allergen-free baking mixes spread sweetness\u201d<\/p>\n

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