Gluten Free Portland

Your go-to resource for all things gluten-free PDX.

Gluten Free Cupcake Mixes Coming Soon from Crave Bake Shop

We’ve talked (more like raved) about Crave Bake Shop here and here in the past. We really love their gluten free cupcakes and were excited when they contacted us about trying out some cupcake mixes that they’re working to develop. They’ve been working on these mixes as a more economical way to get their cupcakes to customers, and we think that’s a great idea. For testing, they sent us two mixes: Chocolate and Chai Spice.

We decided to wait for an event so that we wouldn’t end up eating these all by ourselves. Luckily my friend Noah had a birthday party coming up. So we were able to make cupcakes for the party and also have a larger group of taste testers. Our friend Noah has some other food allergies, so we had to check out the ingredients with Crave. At the time of this testing, the base ingredients for the mixes were: millet flour, tapioca flour, rice flour, potato starch, sugar, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.

If you’ve ever made a cake from a mix, then you’ll be familiar with how these work. They come as bagged powders to which you add wet ingredients such as oil, water, eggs, and butter. Follow the directions and apply the mixer as needed, bake, and voila! You have cupcakes ready to frost.

Gluten Free Chai Spice Cupcake Mix

The Chai Spice cupcake mix calls for a half cup of butter, buttermilk, and two eggs. To make these dairy free, it’s recommended to use Spectrum organic veggie shortening in place of the butter, and rice milk in place of the buttermilk. The instructions on the Chai Spice cupcakes were very clear, and included the sort of procedures that your mom always tells you to do when making a cake. For instance, at the end of the Chai Spice mix, you add part of the dry, part of the wet, mix, then repeat until you get through the rest of the dry and wet ingredients.

Chai Spice Gluten Free Cupcakes

Gluten Free Chai Spice Cupcakes, baked

When you’re done mixing, you plop the batter into paper cups and bake them. These were easy as pie. To frost them, I used a basic cream cheese frosting from a Betty Crocker cook book. The mixes make 12 regular-sized cupcakes.

Frosted gluten free cupcakes

Next up, the chocolate gluten-free cupcake mix. This mix calls for one egg, 1/4 vegetable oil, vanilla extract, hot water, and whole milk. To make these dairy-free, they recommend using soy milk or hemp milk, but warn that rice milk is going to be too thin. I thought that the inclusion of hot water was unusual. The instructions for these were much shorter, as well. Basically it’s mix everything but the hot water. Then add the hot water and blend until the batter is the consistency of warm chocolate sauce.

Gluten free chocolate cupcakes

I think that I made a mistake while putting these together. While the instructions said to fill the cups 2/3 full, I had extra batter and filled them all up. This ended up being a tactical error. For one thing, the cakes took a little longer to cook than the instructions called for. Also, the cupcakes ended up having muffin tops.

Chocolate Gluten Free Cupcakes

Despite the muffin tops, these cupcakes were AMAZING. Something about them (maybe it’s the hot water) makes the texture of these cupcakes almost silky smooth, like angel food cake. They need no frosting. I simply dusted them with powdered sugar.

So how did they do at the party? They were a success. These cupcakes are amazing. Everybody at the party loved them. I’ve never made anything like the chocolate cupcakes at home. They’re really unique. We’re rooting for Crave Bake Shop to get these mixes available for the public soon. They’re awesome.

Product Review and Press Release: Rudi’s Bread

We got a press kit from Rudi’s Bread last month. They are announcing a partnership with the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA), the details of which can be found in the press release included below. Along with the press release was a little sandwich box, some promotional material, and a loaf of Rudi’s Multigrain sandwich bread.

Rudi's Gluten-Free Multigrain Bread

Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery was launched by Boulder, Colorado, based Rudi’s Organic Bakery. They worked with the Gluten-Free Certification Organization to make sure that their products are safe and gluten-free, and also strive to use only organic ingredients. Here are the ingredients in their multigrain bread: Water, potato extract, rice starch, rice flour, sorghum flour, organic high oleic sunflower/safflower oil, organic evaporated cane juice, organic honey, egg whites, organic inulin, yeast, sea salt, xanthan gum, organic cornmeal, organic sunflower seeds, organic millet, organic flaxseed, organic molasses.

We’re diligent ingredient readers, so we both found it disheartening to see that the first three ingredients besides water were rice or potato products. We also noticed that the bread contains inulin, which regular readers will remember is a strange sweet-tasting indigestible fiber, most likely derived from chicory root and which basically amounts to a “natural” artificial sweetener. We also noticed that the only items that have flavor, the millet and molasses, are in the last three ingredients. So yes, what we have here is American white bread with a slight millet flavor to it.

Slice of Rudi's Gluten-Free wholegrain bread

We just happened to have some Udi’s bread around to give it a head-to-head taste test with, and found that they tasted about the same. Upon tasting it, Sienna immediately pronounced the Rudi’s to be “typical awful gluten-free bread.” I have to agree. It has to be toasted to become palatable. The texture is grainy. Besides the millet, there isn’t really much flavor to speak of. We do have to include the disclaimer that if you’re into tasteless white bread, then this might be something you would like. It certainly isn’t what we look for when shopping for something called “multigrain” bread, that’s for sure.

This is where we mention that locally-made Jensen’s bread really beats the heck out of Rudi’s (and Udi’s). Their bread is so amazing that I’m going to include a link to their list of where you can buy it, here. Also, we have to reassert our position that people who are serious about their bread should probably get a book on making their own and invest in a bread machine.

Unfortunately, we still can’t get Jensen’s at Whole Foods or New Seasons. So who do we like between Udi’s and Rudi’s? If you’re at Whole Foods, get their own gluten-free bread. It’s got a weird crunch to the texture, but the flavor is way better. Between Udi’s and Rudi’s, I would have to say it’s a toss-up. I liked the slight millet flavor of the Rudi’s, but the Udi’s had a better texture. Udi’s ingredients are less healthy, though, being mostly tapioca starch, brown rice flour, and modified potato starch.

Sorry Rudi’s. We do appreciate that you’re supporting the gluten-free community and also we did enjoy the package. We wish we had better things to say. Here is Rudi’s press release:

As you may know, there are an estimated 3 million people in the U.S. suffering from celiac disease, yet only 160,000 are diagnosed. We’re pleased to announce that Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery is working with NFCA to support education for the diagnosis of celiac disease, with our new Spread the Bread charitable program, which launched in late December.

For every dollar coupon downloaded, Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery will give a dollar to the NFCA, up to $20,000, to help in its efforts to better educate physicians in the diagnosis of celiac disease. Coupons are available on the Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery website and Facebook page.

We are also proud to announce the launch of our new Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery website. We hope this new website will provide all the detail you could need about our new gluten-free breads – from product ingredients and nutrition facts to local availability – as well as helpful information about local gluten-free events, a variety of gluten-free recipes, links to our partners and educational resources, including NFCA, the Gluten Intolerance Group, Celiac Sprue Association and Celiac Disease Foundation.

In addition to the website, we’ve also launched a new blog, Baked on the Bright Side, where we’ll be providing all of the latest news on Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery and the gluten-free community. We’re eager to hear what you think of the blog and website!

Jensen’s Multi-Grain Gluten-Free Bread

We’ve been following Jensen’s since January of this year when they gave us some samples of their gluten-free buns. For an intro to their company, you should check out our initial post about them, but the basics are that Dave Jensen and his wife Debbie have come up with some really great gluten free buns and, now, an amazing multi-grain and seed bread. You can check out their website, here.

Their multi-grain bread looks, tastes, and feels like a real whole wheat seeded bread. When you hold a slice of the bread in your hand, it bends like real bread. Unlike basically every other gluten free bread we’ve ever had, you can eat this bread without toasting it first. Also a bonus, it isn’t entirely made from rice flour and potato starch. Here’s a list of ingredients: Eggs, Buckwheat Flour, Molasses, Honey, White Rice Flour, Brown Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Sweet Dairy Whey, Canola Oil, Teff Flour, Cornstarch, Dry Milk Powder, Tapioca Flour, Sorghum Flour, Montina flour (Indian Rice Grass), Garfava Flour, Xantham Gum, Expandex (Modified Tapocia Starch), Flax Seed, Water, Baking Powder, Yeast, Salt, Sesame Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Potato Flour, Dough Enhancer (Whey, Soy, Lecithin, Soy Tofu Powder, Citric Acid, Sea Salt, Spice Blend, Ascorbic Acid, Natural Flavor), Dry Egg Whites, Pectin, Guar Gum,Sorbic Acid, Cocoa, Coffee.

I’m trying, but I can’t really express how great this bread is. If it’s possible for sliced bread to be revolutionary, then this bread is revolutionary. I’ve tried it as toast, for sandwiches, and for hamburgers. It’s great for all these purposes. As with the Pao Bread, which we reviewed yesterday, the bread is made in Portland in a dedicated gluten-free facility. So you get to support a local small business and also have peace of mind that you’re not going to “get glutened.”

Jensen’s is available at local Lamb’s Markets, Lingonberries Market, and supplies the buns for the Corbett and Hawthorne Fish Houses. They are also supplying PGE Park with gluten-free buns. See their site for up-to-date info on where you can get it.

Product Review: Pao Bread

Pao Bread is a Brazilian cheese bread snack that is commonly sold by street vendors. Now, thanks to Portland entrepreneur Jewelie Schultz, you can get some gluten free and much closer to home. Pao bread, known as pao de queijo in Brazil, is normally made with tapioca starch, cheese, and eggs, so Schultz didn’t have to modify the recipe to make it gluten-free. She did have to discover the right kind of cheese combination to get an authentic flavor. The product is manufactured in a dedicated gluten-free facility here in Portland.

The bread comes pre-measured into balls, frozen, and ready to bake. They take about twenty minutes to bake and are crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. We got our hands on some samples courtesy of the baker herself (see our disclosure policy) and tried them out. We also gave some to a few of our friends and taste-testers. Here’s what it looks like fresh out of the oven.

After a bite…

What these totally remind me of is a snack I used to make for myself when I would get home from high school. My friends and I would get home, go to the kitchen, wrap some cheddar cheese in a wheat tortilla, and microwave it. If you microwaved it correctly, the cheese would bubble and the tortilla would be delicious. They also taste kind of like goldfish crackers, but are much more of a texture sensation. Everybody we had try them, including ourselves, thought they were good. Schultz lived in Brazil as an exchange student, and did her best to come up with a recipe that tasted authentic.

Here’s a list of the ingredients: tapioca starch, eggs, safflower oil, cheddar cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes, annatto (color)), Parmesan cheese (pasteurized part-skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), milk, water, kosher salt. The ingredient list is pretty short, and there isn’t any leavener. I was going to say that they’re pretty allergen-free until I noticed that they’ve got egg and dairy. On the minus side, the number one ingredient is tapioca starch, which we’ve discussed before, and has almost no nutritional value. Thanks to the eggs and the cheese, though, this probably isn’t as bad as a lot of the gluten-free breads out there. And hey! – We’re talking about a snack here, anyway.

And as a snack, it’s pretty hard to go wrong with something like this. They’re quick, easy to make, and kind of fun. They’re locally made, which is cool. I always like supporting local small businesses. Paobread is available at the Portland and Lake Oswego Lamb’s Markets, the Eastmoreland Market, and the Alberta Co-Op, among other places. You can also get them at the Moreland and Montavilla Farmers Markets. See their website for more details on where to buy. Here’s their website for more information.

Product Review: Udi’s White Sandwich Bread

Our search for the perfect gluten-free bread continues with heavyweight contender Udi’s. Udi’s Bread is in Denver, and we heard about them way before this. As a matter of fact, they contacted us at some point, and then we got back to them, but we never really got it together to try some of their bread for a review until now. Now that you can buy their bread at Whole Foods in Portland, we figured it was high time for us to give them a shot.

Udi's White Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread

Long time readers will know that we find store-bought gluten-free breads disappointing on the whole, and have resorted to making our own with a bread machine. Recently I’ve been doing a series of posts detailing our experiments with bread recipes from around the Internet, and how they work out with our tester Zojirushi bread machine in the Gluten Free Portland labs.

Udi’s markets their white sandwich bread as their original style, light and fluffy white bread. So we’re probably looking at something that will approximate American white bread. Here are the ingredients:

Filtered water, tapioca starch, brown rice flour, potato starch, canola oil or sunflower oil, egg whites, tapioca maltodextrin, evaporated cane juice, tapioca syrup, yeast, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder (sodium bicarbonate, cornstarch, calcium sulfate, monocalcium phosphate), mold inhibitor (cultured corn syrup, ascorbic acid), ascorbic acid (contains cellulose and cornstarch), enzymes. Contains eggs.

We’re becoming a lot harder to please when it comes to bread ingredients, and the first thing that jumps out at me when I look at this list is that two of the three gluten-free flours in use here are starches. The first being tapioca starch. It seems like there’s something about making gluten-free bread where you need starch to do it, so I’m used to seeing tapioca starch in bread recipes, but it’s not something you want to be eating lots of, and to me, having it as the first ingredient is not a good sign. A quarter cup of tapioca starch is 100 calories, has 26 grams of carbohydrates, no fiber, no protein, and basically no vitamins and minerals except a little iron. Potato starch is even worse. Compare this to a quarter cup of sorghum flour, which has 120 calories, and has 26 grams of carbohydrates, but has 3 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein, and also has iron, and B-Vitamins. See the attached chart on this helpful page for more information about the nutritional value of alternative grains.

Udi'd Gluten Free White Bread Slices

So OK. OK. Sometimes you just want some bread to make a hamburger or a PB&J and you don’t mind that it’s not really the best thing for you. Let’s talk about taste. Sienna and I both liked it. Being a white bread, it’s on the flavorless side. We didn’t find any strange aftertastes. As far as something you can buy at a store to make a sandwich out of, I would say that this bread has got the Trader Joe’s gluten free rice bread beat hands down. I would put it as equivalent or maybe a little better than Whole Foods own gluten free bread. Whole Foods has got a weird texture problem. Udi’s bread toasts OK and is good with some butter on it. As a replacement for white bread it does do the job, so we can see what the big deal is about.

When compared to bread that you can make at home, though, it’s still not really there for me. I would also say that you should check out Jensen’s Breads, which are available around town, are locally made, and are better.

We want to know: Do you have a favorite store-bought gluten-free bread? How about a preferred flour mix or bread recipe on the Internet? Send us a link. Let us know in the comments!

Product Review: Trader Joe’s Whole Grain Drink Non-Dairy Milk

I’ve been debating whether or not to cover this item. It’s not like there aren’t already a whole lot of gluten-free milk options in the world! At the same time, there are a lot of people who can’t (or won’t) drink cow’s milk, and who might be allergic to soy milk. This leaves some less-than-exciting options like rice milk, hemp milk, or making your own almond milk. This milk has millet, amaranth, and quinoa, which is interesting. When we first saw this item, we thought that it sounded like a good idea, and we decided to give a try.

Here are the ingredients for the unsweetened variety:

Filtered Water, Organic Brown Rice, Organic Inulin, Organic Expeller Pressed Canola and/or Organic Expeller Pressed Safflower Oil, Organic Tapioca Starch, Sea Salt, Organic Vanilla Extract, Vitamin Mineral Pre-Mix (Tricalcium Phosphate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Ergocalciferol [Vitamin D2], Cyanocobalamin [Vitamin B12]), Soy Lecithin, Natural Flavor, Carrageenan, Organic Amaranth, Organic Millet, Organic Quinoa.

And here is the sweetened variety:

Filtered Water, Organic Brown Rice, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Inulin, Organic Expeller Pressed Canola and/or Organic Expeller Pressed Safflower Oil, Organic Brown Rice Syrup Solids, Sea Salt, Organic Vanilla Extract, Vitamin Mineral Pre-Mix (Tricalcium Phosphate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Ergocalciferol [Vitamin D2], Cyanocobalamin [Vitamin B12]), Soy Lecithin, Natural Flavor, Carrageenan, Organic Amaranth, Organic Millet, Organic Quinoa.

The main difference between the two is that the sweetened one has evaporated cane juice and brown rice syrup solids. The unsweetened has tapioca starch. Those of you who are used to reading ingredients will be struck by two things: 1) The presence of amaranth, millet, and quinoa at the very bottom of the list means that they don’t really make up any real part of the milk and are more there as flavors at best. And 2) What the heck is inulin?

Inulin is a food additive that has been gaining popularity. It’s a naturally-occurring fiber that tastes sweet, but that isn’t digested. There are a lot of health claims about inulin, mostly having to do with stomach bacteria. Because we can’t digest the stuff, our stomach bacteria does it instead. Some say this is good. Others aren’t so excited. The Wikipedia page on inulin has good information on it, as does this page – Inulin: Friend or Foe? I don’t know enough about this stuff to be an expert, but I’m one of those people who distrust artificial sweeteners. At the same time, inulin is naturally occurring and can be found in onions, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, agave, and a number of other plants.

As you can see from the photo, the milk has that more watery sort of consistency that rice milk has. By now you’re probably all wondering how the milk tastes. I thought it was OK. When you look at the ingredients, you see that it’s basically fortified rice milk with a bunch of stuff thrown in and a strange indigestible sweetener. Those of you who are used to unsweetened non-dairy milks will find that both versions are rather sweet. I’m thinking that this is because of the inulin. In fact, I bought a carton of both and although I didn’t exactly perform a taste test on them, I remember thinking that I would have trouble telling which one is which by gauging the sweetness.

What it tastes the most like, to me, is millet. If you enjoy that nutty-corny taste that millet has, you might like this milk. It certainly doesn’t taste bad, and as I mentioned at the beginning of the article, it does offer a bit more variety in the non-dairy milk category. I wish that I felt strongly one way or the other, but instead I was left with the impression that some people might like it. I didn’t really like it enough to switch from my usual milk of choice.

I would love to hear from anybody out there who gave this milk a try. And also, what you think of inulin, if anybody out there has a strong opinion, let us know what you think in the comments!

Product Review: Gluten-Free Mama’s Cookie Mix

I’m continuing to work my way through the gluten free flour mixes that we got samples of from Gluten Free Mama. Check out our earlier review of their Gluten Free Pancake Mix. Something I really miss is cookies. It’s funny, too, because there are a lot of gluten-free cookie mixes available now. There’s even a Betty Crocker Mix. I just haven’t got around to checking any of them out.

The other day I found myself at home with some time on my hands and a hankering for some cookies, so I broke out the mix. Here are the ingredients: Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar, White Rice Flour, Tapioca Flour, Potato Starch, Sweet Rice Flour, Almond Meal Flour, Aluminum-Free Baking Powder (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Corn Starch, Monocalcium Phosphate), Xanthan Gum, Sea Salt, Vanilla Powder (Vanilla Bean Extractives, Evaporated Cane Juice, Silica, Cellulose). It happens that these are the exact same ingredients that are used in their pancake mix, except that there is more cane sugar in this mix. There is also more salt. Mama’s figures that there are fifteen 100 calorie servings in the container, and that each serving has 100 mg of salt.

The cookies are a snap to make. Just add 1.2 cup butter, an egg, and 2-3 Tbsp of milk.

Then roll out on a surface with some rice-flour to keep the dough from sticking.

Cut out shapes and top with sprinkles, sugar, or what-have-you. I topped half of mine with sugar and half with shredded coconut. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350* for 12-14 minutes or until edges start to brown.

I sort of separated the two batches and took a photo. They look kind of scared of each other here. While I wasn’t that excited by the Mama’s Pancake Mix, I did enjoy these cookies. Sienna did not like either product. She says that they have an nasty metallic after-taste. It’s somewhat rare that Sienna and I differ so much on a product, but there it is. On the plus side, that left more cookies for me! So, our verdict is maybe you’ll like them, and maybe not.

Get Gluten Free Mama’s Sugar Cookie Mix on Amazon. Many thanks to Gluten Free Mama for sending us these mixes to review. See our disclosure policy, here.

Product Review: Gluten Free Fish Sticks and Energy Bars

We’ve got another gluten-free double-header product review coming your way. Today we’re looking at fish sticks and energy bars. I guess that they have one thing in common: they’re bar shaped food. You probably wouldn’t want to eat them together, though.

Dr. Praeger’s Potato Crusted Fish Sticks

The Whole Foods that is close to us doesn’t carry our favorite gluten-free fish stick, the Starfish brand ones. So we decided to give the Dr. Praeger’s fish sticks a try. They’re gluten free because they use potato flakes to bread the fish.

Dr. Praeger's Gluten-free Fish Sticks

The thing that’s cool about Dr. Praeger’s is that the food isn’t super-processed. Their branding motto is “Where you recognize all the ingredients.” Here are the ingredients: Pollack Fillets, Potato Flakes, Potato Starch, Expeller Pressed Canola Oil, Eggs, Salt, Brown Sugar. That’s a pretty short list. The manufacturer figures that three sticks make a serving. So a serving has 220 mg of salt which is pretty good. A serving is 120 calories, 70 of which are from fat. The facility disclaimer on the box says that they are made in a facility that uses wheat, soy, and eggs.

Gluten-Free Fish Sticks

We had these with some beans. So how were they? Let’s just say that they are very much like the frozen fish sticks you get at the store. As with things like frozen pizzas and mac ‘n’ cheese, some people like them and other people don’t. We’re not really into them. Our biggest problem with them is that they cook up really mushy. These fish sticks literally end up with a puddle of liquid under them while they bake. So the breading does not get crunchy. Our toaster oven has a convection setting, and I turned that on with the hopes of getting a crispier fish stick, but it only helped a little.

With how they’re already kind of tasteless, the mushy texture kind of pushed us over the edge on these ones. Luckily, the new Whole Foods on Sandy has our favorite gluten-free fish sticks, so we can get our fix.

Prana Bar Energy Bars

Divine Foods contacted us about their gluten-free Prana Bar energy bars and sent us some samples to try out. I have to state for the record that I’m not really an energy bar fan. Most of them taste really nasty to me. I don’t know what that’s about, but there it is. Fortunately, Sienna has more experience with bars.

Gluten-free Energy Bars

They sent us two bars. A Boomi Bar and a Prana Bar. The Prana Bars come in a lot of different flavors. They have apple pie, apricot goji, apricot pumpkin, cashew almond, coconut acai, and pear ginseng. The Boomi Bars come in even more flavors. Divine Foods also has a third line of energy bars that they call their Superchargers. I’m not entirely sure how they decide how to divide the three kinds of bars, but it looks to me like the Boomi Bars are less processed, the Prana Bars are more like regular energy bars where all the ingredients are ground up, and the Superchargers are more about antioxidants. It looks like they do their best to not cook any of the ingredients, except for the nuts.

They are manufactured in a facility which is gluten-free, soy-free, egg-free, and peanut-free. Instead of using cane sugar or other sweeteners, they use agave nectar. They do not use GMOs, sulphured fruits, or hydrogenated oils. All of this is pretty cool. Here are the ingredients of the Prana Bar they sent us: Organic Almond Butter, Organic Agave Nectar, Organic Date Paste, Organic Dried Coconut, Organic Almonds, Organic Raisins, Organic Puffed Amaranth, Organic Acai Dry Powder, Sea Salt. And here are the ingredients of the Boomi Bar: Almonds, Cashews, Honey, Dates, Crisp Rice, Amaranth, Salt. That’s a short list. Neither of these has much salt, with the Prana Bar weighing in at 35 mg and the Boomi Bar at 55 mg.

Boomi Bar

So how were they? We were neither astounded nor disappointed. I liked the Boomi Bar better because it had recognizable pieces of nuts in it, and so it had some texture. Both bars tasted a lot like you would expect an energy bar to taste. And in this case, they tasted a lot like nuts and dates. On the plus side, they didn’t taste nasty, so that’s a good thing. Sienna thought that both bars were OK but felt like they were more soft than she likes an energy bar to be.

I feel a little bit bad reviewing these simply because I don’t have strong opinions about them. I would bet that if you like energy bars, you probably can’t go wrong trying these, considering that they’re made in a dedicated gluten-free facility and are made by a company that obviously cares about using healthy ingredients.

We want to know: Is there anybody out there who is really into energy bars and has a strong opinion about these? Are there other Dr. Praeger items that are gluten-free? Let us know in the comments!

Product Reviews: Gluten-Free Pancake Mix and Pizza Crust

Today I’m reviewing a pizza crust and a pancake mix. One of these has become a favorite new product. The other we didn’t really care for, although we recognize that it might be a case of personal preference. Keep reading to find out which is which.

Gluten Free Pancake Mix!

Regular readers will know that I’m all about pancakes and have been working on finding the perfect gluten-free pancakes since I started this blog. As such, I was pretty excited when we were contacted by Gluten Free Mama to review some of her mixes and found that one of them was a pancake and waffle mix. Thanks to Gluten Free Mama for sending us some out for testing. Besides the pancake mix they also make pizza crust mix, a sugar cookie mix, pie crust mix, and various other gluten-free flour mixes. If you can’t find these mixes in your town or neighborhood, they are available on Amazon.

Gluten-Free Pancake Mix

Here’s a list of ingredients: White Rice Flour, Tapioca Flour, Potato Starch, Sweet Rice Flour, Almond Meal, Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar, Aluminum-Free Baking Powder (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Corn Starch, Monocalcium Phosphate), Xanthan Gum, Vanilla Powder (Vanilla Bean Extractives, Evaporated Cane Juice, Silica, Cellulose), Sea Salt. Gluten Free Mama figures a serving is a third of a cup, and there is only 260mg of salt in that, which is pretty good.

I don’t have any pictures of the finished pancakes. For some reason I got distracted because I was trying to make them better by adding mashed-up banana. Unfortunately, this mix cooks up more like the Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Pancake & Waffle Mix, which is to say that the resulting pancakes are kind of tasteless. The pancakes taste a lot like rice buns, which makes sense considering the ingredients, but have a funny aftertaste, which I think is probably the baking powder. If you’re the sort of person who hates how gluten-free flour mixes have funny, beany, or corny flavors, then you might prefer this sort of mix, because it’s really kind of tasteless. The resulting pancakes were also rather fluffy, although kind of in a spongy way. They also don’t really brown. Sienna and I both weren’t crazy about this product.

Considering that we weren’t that crazy about Pamela’s Gluten-Free Pancake Mix either, it looks like we’re striking out on the pancake front. Maybe I’ll have to try coming up with my own recipe.

Gluten-Free Pizza Crust!

By now you know that the pancake mix was the product we weren’t into, so that means that we really loved this pizza crust. Actually, we’ve read about this crust in different places and never tried them. We were able to find some in Portland at New Seasons Market down on Division. The crust is made by Bavarian Mills Specialty Bakery. It is gluten-free (natch) and also soy free. The crust we got says it was manufactured in Vancouver Washington.

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

Sienna decided to make this pizza like a Zachary’s Pizza, which is a popular Chicago-style pizza place in Oakland, California. So like a good Chicago-style pizza, it has the sauce on top of the cheese, spinach, and lots and lots and lots of sauce. This is evident in the picture. The pizza crust ingredients are as follows: White Rice Flour, Water, Garbonzo (Chickpea Flour), Brown Rice Flour, Eggs, Sorghum Syrup, Almond Meal, Grapeseed Oil, Olive Oil, Potato Starch, Xanthan Gum, Sea Salt, Yeast, Apple Cider Vinegar, Guar Gum. There is a shared equipment disclaimer on the package which names tree nuts, legumes, and dairy products. The package figures that you will get 12 servings out of it, and there is 100mg of salt in one serving, which is awesome.

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

What’s really awesome about about this crust is that it comes out crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The flavor is good, the crunch is good, the crusts come frozen and are easy to use, so it’s win-win-win. We’re really excited to finally have a great pizza crust product like this one and recommend it. Hopefully they’ll be easier to get soon!

We want to know: Do you have a favorite store-bought gluten-free pancake mix? How about a flour mix or pancake recipe on the Internet? Send us a link. Let us know in the comments!

Coming Product: Jensen’s Better Buns

We were contacted last month by Jensen’s Bread and Bakeries, who are working on bringing a brand new gluten free product to market in Portland, Oregon. Both David Jensen and his daughter, Brenna, were diagnosed with Celiac disease a few years ago, and like most people quickly learned that they weren’t going to have anything resembling real bread without some action on their part. Most of our readers can certainly relate, I’m sure. After suffering through months of awful imitations, they started making their own bread.

David’s wife, Debbie, who has been a recreational baker for over 40 years, started working on recipes to make better gluten free bread and buns. She and David spent two and a half years coming up with a product that they think is good enough to sell. Then they took a course at the Portland Small Business Development Center to figure out the next steps. They are almost ready to start selling them, and we got a sneak peek.

Jensen's Better Buns Packaging

The good news is that we have tried the buns and agree that they are awesome. The bad news is that you can’t buy them – yet. I met David last week and we talked about gluten-free bread, buns, and what the next step is for their company. David is very clearly serious about bread. They are in the process of getting a commercial kitchen set up and hope to get their products on shelves near you in the first quarter of this year.

Gluten-Free bun

Take a look at this. I brought one of these to work last week and a fellow co-worker who is also gluten-free saw it and couldn’t believe that it was a gluten-free bun. The buns are flexible and soft. They toast excellently and aren’t crumbly. They don’t need to be toasted and freeze well. The flavor is as close to a hamburger bun as I’ve had since I stopped eating the real thing. Sometimes buns and breads will end up having a beany flavor, or a corn aftertaste. These buns don’t suffer from that problem.

Gluten-free burger

Given buns like these, we had to make some hamburgers immediately! These make awesome hamburgers. They are the best gluten-free buns we have tasted and are head and shoulders above the competition. The Jensens have other gluten-free products in the pipeline, including sesame seed buns, multi-grain buns, and bread. You can check in on their progress on their website, Gluten-Free Concepts. They can be found on Twitter, here and on also Facebook, here. We’re looking forward to hearing more from them!