Review: Franz 7 Grains Gluten Free Bread

 

If you've had to go Gluten Free, chances are you've sampled many different sub-par gluten free breads.  Let's face it: most of them are just not all that great.  Yes, if you toast them they taste fine, but they're too dry to make a sandwich that won't turn your mouth as dry as a desert.

 

But that has changed.  My friend clued me in to this new bread from Franz.  It's fresh, not frozen.  It's soft, not hard.  It doesn't crumble apart if you look at it wrong.  What we have here, is BREAD.

 

Notice this little bit on the side of the package.  "Gluten Free Facility".  I like this very much.  It means a lot to know that Franz understands cross contamination and has taken the time to dedicate a facility to making their gluten free bread.

 

 

Here are two slices of bread out of the package.  I wish you could reach through your screen to touch these pieces of bread.  They're moist.  They're springy.  They act like "real bread".  They smell like "real bread".  They even taste like "real bread".  Oh my!  So now, let's put this bread to the test.  I feel like having a grilled cheese sandwich!

 

 

Add the butter.  Yum!

 

 

Add the cheese between the bread, and throw it on a hot griddle.  Look at how nicely it cooked.  Look at that golden brown goodness.  Mmmm!

 

 

And here is the final sandwich.  I guarantee that it tastes as good as it looks.  This IS real bread.  My friend who turned me on to this bread says it makes great french toast as well.  I wonder if it makes a good Apple Pan Betty?  I'll have to try that next.  :)

 

 

GF Sourdough Bread Part 2

I'm back!  Remember how I showed you my sourdough starter yesterday, and the dough that I made with it?  Well, I baked that loaf of bread and BOY did it make my house smell good!

I can report that the bread had a very nice sourdough flavor and the texture was good.  It tasted like "real bread" as my kids would say.  In fact, they had some of the bread and gobbled it right up.

I am pleased with the structure of the bread, it rose nicely enough in the proofer.  But then I had to transfer the dough from a parchment paper lined bowl to a hot dutch oven for baking and I probably didn't do it as smoothly as I could have, so the bread deflated a bit.  And during baking, it really didn't rise any more than it already had.

As you can see, the loaf is fairly flat, it's only 2" tall in the center.  But what it lacks in height, it makes up in flavor!  And it's actually pretty moist, which is something most GF breads are not good at.  How many stale dry GF breads have you eaten?  Most of them, right?  Me too.  I had a slice with my dinner last night, here's a picture to show you a better detail of the texture of the bread.

Yum!  Look at all the nice nooks and crannies in there.  Hmm, there's an idea, I wonder if I can make english muffins with this dough?  There's a thought.  Anyway, I wanted to see how this bread fared as toast, so I toased some up for breakfast this morning.

As with all GF bread I've tried, I had to put it through the toaster twice to get a decent "toast" to it.  But once it was buttered and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, it tasted fantastic.  It had a nice crunch, the crust itself toasted up beautifully, and it held up very well.

The next time I make this bread, I'm going to try it in a loaf pan, to see if I can get any more rise out of it.  I'm thinking that if I rise it in the same pan I'll be baking in and can eliminate that transfer, I might get a taller loaf.  One suitable for sandwiches!  Also, perhaps using a smaller pan in which to bake the dough will help it to hold its shape better.  Only time will tell. :)

GF Sourdough Bread Part 1

Image via Wikipedia.org

Don't take good bread for granted.

In November 2010 I had to switch to a gluten free diet for my health.  Before going GF, I didn't think much about bread other than which brands were on sale when I went to the grocery store.  Now, however, though there are many options for GF bread available, they're just not the same.  The texture is different, the taste is different, and you almost always have to buy them frozen instead of fresh.

I've tried making yeasted GF bread myself, with the intention of making sandwich bread.  Unfortunately, most of my attempts have resulted in dense bread that is only inches tall... not very tasty or condusive to making sandwiches.  Without gluten, those little bubbles made by the yeast just don't hold so the bread is dense, the crumb is just non-existant, and it's like eating a brick.  Yes, I've added xanthan gum and/or guar gum to try to mimick the gluten, but it just isn't the same.

I was about ready to give up.

Then I came across this blog post on GF sourdough starters at ArtOfGlutenFreeBaking.com and it intrigued me.  All this information about making sourdough (which I had never done before)... could I really do it?  Would it make a decent bread?  Would it be worth all the trouble?

At the bottom of the sourdough starter article, I followed her link to her recipe for GF Sourdough Bread (Boule) and I saw the photos of the finished loaf.  The crust looked amazing, the crumb fantastic!  Yes, it is a boule (round artisan loaf) and not sandwich bread.  But I could make crostini with this, I could toast it and butter it and it would taste the same even if it is a different shape.  (Don't we moms tell our kids this all the time?  Isn't it time for me to take my own advice?)

So, I'm on a journey to make GF sourdough.

I followed the directions in the blog post on how to get my sourdough starter going.  I used the flour she recommended, I used filtered water, and I used an organic red cabbage leaf to try to harvest the yeast that naturally grows on it.  I even left the top open to try to collect wild yeast that is floating in the air.  Unfortunately, this one never really got going and it went pink and nasty.

I have a theory on why it didn't work.  For one, I'm in Oregon and we just had the wettest March on record.  7.77" of rain in one month.  I know, you're thinking "You live in the Pacific Northwest, doesn't it rain all the time there?"  Well, it does rain a lot... but normally we get only 3.5" of rain in March.  We got more than twice the normal amount, and I don't think there were ANY wild yeast particles in the air!  And maybe the cabbage didn't have any yeast on it either.  All I know is that it turned funny colors and had a funny smell, so down the drain it went.

I searched online to see if it was acceptable (and not blasphemy) to seed a starter with some yeast, and I did find some recipes that started that way.  Just a pinch of yeast to get it going, and it would take care of itself the rest of the way.  So I tried again.  My second starter has been bubbling away since Sunday, April 1st.  No joke!  :)

Here it is!  Look at all those bubbles!  My starter has been bubbling away happily, it's been developing that sour smell, and I'm so pleased!

I did have a scare this morning... it wasn't nearly as bubbly as it had been the previous day.  Then I remembered that I had the back door open for over an hour while I was making dinner and grilling... and the cold air from outside probably affected the yeast, making it slow down.  This morning I fed the starter again and it's coming back!  Yay!

After I saw signs of my starter bouncing back, I followed the recipe linked above to make my dough.  I have also seen on several blogs that GF bakers (even traditional bakers) have been getting great results when rising their dough with a baking proofer from Brod and Taylor, so I bought one too.  I'm using it for the first time with this loaf, hopefully it will turn out great.

Here is my proofer, set up and ready to help this bread rise!  It folds down flat for storage, which is a really awesome feature.

And here is my bread, in a parchment paper lined bowl, just as the recipe called for, rising in the proofer.  It's supposed to rise over 4-6 hours, so I'll just end this post here and I'll be back tomorrow to let you know if this experiment worked out.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!  I'm SOOO hoping to have a good bread experience here!  And if it does... I'll be making another loaf and my favorite potato chowder for dinner on Friday.  YUM!