New Whole Foods GF Sandwich Bread

Whole Foods Gluten Free Bakehouse has developed a new white sandwich bread. The new bread is intended to improve upon the previous version of their gluten free sandwich bread. If you recall, the previous sandwich bread was rather dense and heavy. It was not flexible or soft at all. It tasted fine but was difficult to use for a sandwich. It worked well as toast or as a grilled sandwich, but not so much as the bread in a PB&J or cold cut sandwich. Well, the new bread is definitely a step in the right direction. The bread is lighter, less dense. If I'm not mistaken, the slices are slightly thinner than the previous version, which provides the bread with a sense of softness and flexibility. The taste is great. The bread is still sold out of the freezer case, and I am keeping it frozen at home. So, this still requires toasting before using. I have been able to find the perfect toaster setting for this bread (just short of 2 on my toaster) to result in a piece of bread that is thawed but not toasted and crispy. When thawed to the right degree the bread is very good. It holds together in the hand. There's nothing more frustrating in a sandwich than having the bread fall to bits in your hand. So far the new bread from Whole Foods overcomes this frustration.

So, how does it compare to my other two favorite sandwich breads? Compared to Udi's sandwich bread, the Whole Foods load is larger and less airy. Every now and again I will see a loaf of Udi's that is almost too airy, with a few hug bubbles being present in the middle of the loaf. So far I have not seen that in the Whole Foods loaf and I do not expect to see it because the loaf is still slightly on the dense side of the dense-light spectrum. In terms of softness, the Udi's bread tends to be softer. They're about equal on taste, to me anyway.

The Whole Foods loaf is similar in size to the  Rudi's gluten free loaf. However, when I eat Rudi's bread, I tend to eat their multigrain loaf because I love bread with seeds and grains in it. So, this is something of a case of comparing apples to oranges. The Whole Foods white sandwich bread is your basic straight forward white sandwich bread.

In the end, the new Whole Foods white sandwich bread is a big improvement over the previous version and it will probably make it into my lunch rotation. It is so great to have high quality choices in the gluten free bread category. Gone are the days of rock hard crumbly breads that taste nothing like bread!

Gluten Free Pantry French Bread & Pizza Mix

The great white whale of the gluten free food industry is bread and, by extension, pizza crust. Great strides have been made in the last few years toward capturing the whale, but we're still far short of the mark. Wow. When I first went gluten free nearly three years ago, the bread market was a pure disaster. I won't name specific brands, but it was a real nightmare. The current market is slightly better. I will even go so far as to assert that the gluten free bread industry still needs huge improvements. If we're honest, there is no way that the currently available pre-made loaves come close to glutinous bread. This just means that there is a lot of room in the market for new brands or improved older brands.

I usually keep a loaf of Rudi's Multigrain gluten free bread, a loaf of Udi's white bread, and a loaf of Udi's cinnamon and raisin bread in the freezer at all times. On the pizza front, I switch between Udi's and Rustic Crust.

The Rudi's bread is the closest to regular bread, in my opinion. It is the size of a typical loaf of sandwich bread. The multigrain tends to mask whatever negative gluten free taste may be there otherwise. I really like Udi's white bread for grilled cheese. But the size of Udi's bread makes it difficult to use for a cold cut sandwich. The cinnamon raisin bread makes great toast in the morning. The major problem with Udi's bread is the not uncommon presence of huge air bubbles through the loaf. Not a huge problem for toast, but a real pain for PB&J or grilled cheese. ALL of these breads will crumble when bent.

But this post is about a Gluten Free Pantry bread mix.

This mix requires more ingredients than some other mixes. For example, you need apple cider vinegar and honey. That's not a problem. Just more complex. Still, it was very easy to make. Unlike some mixes the dough really rose a lot.

With this mix I was able to make a medium thick pizza crust and a medium sized loaf of bread. Like most gluten free mixes, the dough was incredibly difficult to manipulate. It was extremely sticky. I didn't really try too hard to spread it thinly. Although, in retrospect, I think that would have improved the crust a great deal. In the end, it just didn't taste or feel like pizza crust. I wonder if I spread it cracker thin if it would be better. Hmmm.

As for the loaf of white bread, the picture shows how it formed, with a nice crispy crust and airy interior. In the end, the look and feel of the bread was very close to glutinous French bread. But again, the taste just didn't impress me. Honestly, most of the bread is going to go to waste just because it wasn't that great.

In the end, I would probably try this mix again as a super thin pizza crust. I, personally, have no use for this kind of French bread loaf. It's definitely no French baguette. HOWEVER, I can see how some people may enjoy it, so I guess I would still recommend it.