Krusteaz Gluten Free Double Chocolate Brownie Mix

Thumbs up on this one. This mix was new at my local grocery so I thought I would give it a try.  The brownies pass the ultimate GF test, which is you can’t tell that they are gluten free.  Moist dense, and chocolaty, with the added chocolate chip bursts.

You just need to add add oil, an egg and water, so they whip up fast.  I do recommend whisking the egg before adding the water and oil and then again before the mix.  The more air you whip into eggs in any GF recipe helps them rise better.

Because they recommended the 8×8 pan rather than a 9 x 13, the brownies are fairly tall, and take a while to cook.  But they’re worth it.

Canyon Bakehouse Hamburger Buns Review

Canyon Bakehouse Gluten Free Hamburger Buns are a new product at one of my local grocery stores (Stop&Shop/Giant).  You can also buy them direct from Canyon.  Hubby is a big fan of the taste and texture of these over a bunch of other buns we have tried. They are light-brown, unsurprising given that Brown Rice Flour is the top ingredient (also features Tapioca, Sorghum, Millet and Potato), have a texture close to that of wheat bread, and more taste than a lot of gluten-free products.

They are certified GF. They are also dairy, nut and soy free as well, if those are issues for you (but do contain eggs).

The only downside seems to be that they can get a bit squished in the freezing process (or more likely transfer), so it was hard to cut one or two of them and use them for an actual hamburger because the bottom was mangled up.  But a definite thumbs up. They are now a repeat buy.

Udi’s Plain Gluten Free Bagels

Some things you can make easy approximations with Gluten Free materials.  Pancakes we have down cold now.  Others are harder.  Sub-rolls are still eluding us, for example. 

Bagels are also doing the same.   Let’s face it.  Finding a good bagel isn’t always easy even when you’re not talking gluten-free. While I would be quite sad to say good-bye to bagels and cream cheese, Hubby was never a massive bagel fan. He could take them or leave them.  He ate largely cinnamon-raisin bagels when my parents were down and made a big bagel run, but wasn’t  a devoted fan.  None-the-less, he decided to try Udi’s GF bagels, for a change if nothing else. 

The Udi’s are softer than non GF bagels.  Hubby’s opinion was a shrug, albeit a positive one.  His comment was that they were more like fluffy white bread than bagels (and they are a bit soft).  That said, it was among the best fluffy white bread he’d had, especially for gluten-free. 

A caveat: he’s anti-cream cheese so he used these with just butter or as part  of an egg sandwich.  Cream cheese would probably hide a multitude of sins, but nothing can give them that chewy texture of your average wheat flour bagel.  On the whole, however, they are a good GF product.  Udi’s also makes cinnamon-raisin and whole grain gluten-free bagels.

Tinkyada Lasagne Noodles

Product Review: Tinkyada Brown Rice Lasagne Noodles

One of our tests for any GF food is whether I will eat it if I don’t have to (since my husband is the only one with the gluten intolerance).  I mostly still eat regular pasta, although that’s generally because of the cost (GF pasta cost 2-3 times what regular pasta does), and I do prefer the standard semolina pasta taste, especially if I’m going for one of my comfort foods (pasta, butter and a little parm). But my husband quite likes it and my mother-in-law actually prefers the rice pasta and started buying it after we introduced her to it.  Also, generally for any kind of casserole, cream, pesto or tomato sauce you generally can’t tell the difference, at least if you buy Tinkyada.

This is also the case for lasagna. The Tinkyada worked quite well. You have to be careful not to overcook the noodles.  They don’t feel mushy in the al dente sense but they will tear quite easily.  I would cook for no more than 8-9 minutes, especially since they are then going to be in the oven for another half hour at least.  (This is less than half the recommendation on the box, so be aware.) 

While most big grocery stores around here carry the basic Tinkyada spirals and ziti, for these noodles you may have to visit a specialty or health food store or online.  In general, Tinkyada makes the best GF pasta.  It doesn’t come out super mushy or taste really odd. Brown rice seems to hold up better than white and also means the pasta is more of a standard color and taste. I haven’t had other GF Lasagne noodles so I can’t compare at the moment, but I have no complaints except for the box recommendation on cooking time. The last time I used them I used the method of starting with uncooked noodles and putting in a little extra water in the sauce, covering tightly and cooking longer.  They were a bit on the chewy side, so this time I decided to cook them.  Next time, I might just blanch them, so they start to cook but are still fairly stiff and easy to work with.

Brief Comments:  Good taste and texture, but cook for only half the time the box recommends.

The Great Sub Roll Hunt

One of the things the hubby misses most is a good cheesesteak (He hails from Philly, the home of said delicacy — aka a steak and cheese sub).  While most other types of bread have now been duplicated for GF — sub rolls are not one of those things.  So I have been blundering about looking for a substitute.  I decided to try Gluten Free Pantry french bread and pizza mix.  I didn’t really expect it to have the texture of French bread, since that’s almost impossible to achieve at home even with gluten, but I thought it might achieve the fallback position of making a decent sub roll.  I used the oven method, but did not put it in a standard bread pan as I wanted the roll shape.  The dough is quite sticky, so you will need to use extra GF flour in order to shape it.   I divided into two loaves.  However, the dough didn’t rise all that much, and in the oven flattened out even more, so one of the loaves better resembled a cibatta than a french loaf.  The directions called for mixing with a mixer for 2 minutes, which may have something to do with the lack of rising. 

On the whole, it tasted pretty good, although not that much like French Bread, rather more like pizza dough.  The texture was neither French bread nor a sub roll but more like a rather thick biscuit.  We still enjoyed our cheesesteaks.  And on the plus side it doesn’t have that xanthan gum bitter taste to it.  

After meal life:  The bread was pretty filling, and I couldn’t finish my cheesesteak, so I tucked it in the fridge for the next day.  I couldn’t eat it, though, as the bread was roughly the consistency of lead.  So if you make the bread, put any leftovers in the freezer promptly. 

We had put the other loaf in the freezer, and took out one of the pieces two days later to cut up to make croutons.  Those were excellent — a little olive oil and butter and some spices.  Scrumptious. 

Overall rating:  4 out of 5. 

Brief Comments:  Not really French bread, but still fairly tasty.  You must immediately freeze the leftovers.