Gluten Free Bread Reviews

I waited before trying g/f bread, which I stongly advise for newly diagnosed coeliacs. I think it's kind of like soy cheese, if you give up dairy and wait, the soy version seems pretty believable. Also, all of my reviews are for g/f toast, you can't generally eat g/f bread untoasted, it's just not edible. Also please note that while all but one of my reviews are for vegan breads that often the same company has other varieties that are not vegan.

REGULAR BREADS:

Dovedale rice chia bread: This bread is ok and I have found it to be quite easy to get, they even have it at IGA on sydney road. But like many other types of gluten free bread, it's tiny in size. I also find that it never goes properly brown in the centre. But the most annoying thing about this bread is once you put in the fridge (you put most g/f breads in the fridge when opened) it's difficult to pull the slices apart, they kind of stick together and then when you try to pull them apart, I always end up breaking them. It kind of reminds me of white bread and while the crust gets harder, the middle still stays quite spongy.
Country life bread: this is the most accessible g/f bread, you can find it in all coles and safeway stores. It contains both egg and dairy, but I accidentally ate it at when I ordered g/f toast at Pearl Oyster cafe, it was better than I expected but obviously I wont be buying it.

Schar bread: is apparently Europeans most popular g/f bread. I've tried both the pan carre and the rustico and can't tell much of a difference between the two. Both come in a convenient two pack, but it's tiny and I feel like I need to eat 5 pieces to get full. It reminds me a lot of a wholemeal bread, just a slightly bad version. This is my probably my third favourite bread which I buy it a lot because I can get it quite easily from health food stores and melbas fine foods in Brunswick. It does goes brown too and doesn't seem to take as long to toast as other types of g/f bread but it quite vulnerable to breaking. However, it makes great toasties as I discovered at the 'this is why you are fat' potluck.

Naturally gluten free crunch: This takes a long long time to toast but I love the fact that it contains quinoa flour, many of the g/f breads contain white rice flour so aren't the most nutrious. I also love all of the seeds (linseed, poppy, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame) and it does remind me of multigrain bread. It is however not sliced which annoys me a little because I'm bad at cutting even slices. I don't love it nearly as much as the Mediterranean version. It also has the added bonus of being regular bread size and it goes brown (eventually). This is probably my favourite regular bread at the moment but is really hard to find in shops near me. I've only seen it at g/f stores.

Zehnder rice loaf, seems to be the it- g/f bread at the moment. It's normal bread size but it does come frozen, and unsliced which just seem like too more work to me. It is actually not a bad bread, it's got a fairly neutral flavour, is a decent size and is perhaps my 2nd flavour bread. It's also a little difficult to get but I have found it at wholefoods on lygon st (brunswick).

Black ruby soy and linseed bread: Black ruby is a g/f cafe in Carlton that sells it's own range of bread. Their breads actually look like regular breads, they are large and various shapes and don't resemble cardboard. I've only tried the soy and linseed bread, while it's another unsliced bread, it was delicious and went brown when toasted. The only downside was when placed under baked beans, it went quite soggy. Cindy has had the pumpkin bread and said it was pretty good for g/f bread. I"ve got a blog post coming up about the place so more about that soon.

Lifestyle Bakery wholmeal loaf. This has been the only g/f bread that I haven't been able to eat. Maybe it's the wholmeal soba flour, but it just tastes disgusting to me, after taking a bite into one piece, I threw out the rest. I found it at piedemontes and would be interested to know if the other flavours were any good.


SPECIALITY BREADS:

Vitality herb and garlic bread: I found this at an IGA in the western suburbs. It is sliced, goes brown, has a lovely flavour and was great with margarine and nooch.


Health Right Garlic Bread: I was so exited to see gluten free garlic bread. It wasn't quite as good as I remember garlic bread due to it's slightly weird and hard texture and I think the flavours of the herbs kind of overpowers the flavour of the garlic but it's still super delicious and vegan and gluten free! I'm so popping this in the freezer for more lazy winter nights.

Schar baguette. We used this to make garlic bread recently and while it took a lot longer than regular garlic bread to cook, it was a pretty good comparison.

Most pictures were taken from absolutely gluten free