Monday, February 10, 2014

Gluten Free Bread Testing Results

Well, first of all, for those of you who don't know me very well, I don't recommend eating a lot of bread, in general.  I know, the government says to eat 6-11 servings of whole grains a day, but do you actually know anyone who does that & is WELL or FIT?  Maybe 1 person in your life?  I rest my case.

Also when people are told they shouldn't eat gluten, mostly they start looking for all the "gluten-free" labels on breads, crackers, pastas - things that they know would normally be made with wheat.  The problem is, what most companies use as substitutes for wheat flour are things like tapioca starch, corn starch, potato starch, and rice flour - which are super high on the glycemic index (will spike your blood sugar) and often these products have more sugar and more calories than their traditional gluten-full counterparts.  And some of the items that say "multi-grain" are really just two grains.  And they're so processed you may as well just have a gluten-free cookie.

Having said all of that - sometimes you just REALLY NEED A SANDWICH.  And at the cafe we would love to accommodate that need in a way that isn't going to set you back in your health goals!!  So I took my super picky standards and went to my local Seattle Whole Foods & bought 12 different gluten free breads to try.  Not all of them made the cut to be used at the Rooster, but I thought I'd share the results with you!

We rated the breads (from 1-5, 5 being the awesomest) on three things: Flavor, Texture, and Sandwich-ability.  While Flavor and Texture are pretty self-explanatory, Sandwich-ability addresses questions like, 'does it retain its shape when soggy sandwich ingredients are piled on it?', 'is it actually big enough to make a sandwich with?', 'how does it slice?', 'does it fall apart or crumble?' - you get the idea.  BTW my fiance and co-tester is NOT gluten free, and in theory could eat a regular sandwich whenever he likes, so his perspective is a little different  Without further ado.... The contenders. 

1. Rudi's Multigrain
Ingredients: Water, potato extract, high oleic canola/sunflower oil*, rice starch, rice flour, evaporated cane juice (cane sugar), inulin, egg whites, honey, sugar cane fiber, yeast, molasses, sea salt, xanthan gum, flaxseed, millet, sunflower seeds, cornmeal, vinegar, natural enzymes.
*Non-GMO and expeller pressed

First of all, it was frozen, so we toasted it for our sandwiches.  It promptly crumbled when I sliced the sandwich in half.

My ratings:
Flavor 1
Texture 3
Sandwich-ability 2
His ratings:
Flavor 2
Texture 3
Sandwich-ability 2

2. Whole Foods Prairie Bread
Ingredients: Water, rice flour, tapioca starch, cage-free eggs, fBGH-free non-fat milk powder, evaporated cane juice, canola oil, yeast, millet, buckwheat, pumpkin seeds, salt, flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, xanthan gum, poppy seeds.

Also frozen, which I'm starting to think is just a set-up to have crumbly bread.  This one wasn't as bad as Rudi's but it was a little crumbly and dry.  My first thought was, it looks and tastes very yellow.  Must be the egg yolks.  I wanted to like this one - maybe because of my image of gluten free pioneer women baking bread on the prairie, but I was wholly underwhelmed.  It did hold together well, though, so I'll give it that.

My ratings:
Flavor 3
Texture 3
Sandwich-ability 4
His ratings:
Flavor 3.5
Texture 4
Sandwich-ability 4

3. Manini's sandwich buns
Ingredients: Flour blend (organic millet flour, tapioca flour, organic sorghum flour, organic amaranth flour, teff flour), eggs, potato starch, extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, organic cane sugar, xanthan gum, sea salt, yeast.

I had heard about Manini's from a client, they are a local company and they also sell bread mixes.  I like the idea of "ancient grains" (yes, I'm romantic about food) but these buns actually reminded me more of a crossaint or even a kaiser roll than anything super grainy.  They were thick enough that they didn't completely fall apart even when I tried to spread cold butter on them.

My ratings:
Flavor 4.5
Texture 3.5 only because they were dry.  The fluffiness of them was exciting.
Sandwich-ability 4
His ratings:
Flavor 3.5
Texture 3.5
Sandwich-ability 3.5 He kept saying "very bread-like". I don't know what that means.

4. Canyon Bakehouse 7 grain
Ingredients: Water, brown rice flour, tapioca flour, whole grain sorghum flour, eggs, organic agave syrup, whole grain teff, whole grain millet, xanthan gum, extra virgin olive oil, sugarcane molasses, whole grain quinoa, whole grain amaranth, whole grain buckwheat, yeast, cultured brown rice flour, sea salt, natural enzymes.

This is a brand that I've bought before and really enjoyed, but I was curious about how it would stack up against the others.  It reminds me a lot of bread I would have eaten before I stopped eating gluten, it actually does have multiple grains & great flavor.  Prior to this time I had only ever seen it in the freezer, so I was surprised to see it at room temperature & I think the fact that it hadn't been frozen made the texture much nicer.

My ratings:
Flavor 4.5
Texture 4
Sandwich-ability 4.5 It is soft but surprisingly didn't tear or crumble at all.
His ratings:
Flavor 4
Texture 4
Sandwich-ability 4

5. Olivia Superfree Sourdough Boule
Ingredients: Tapioca starch, sorghum flour, sauerkraut, cane sugar, xanthan gum, palm oil, bakers yeast, salt, bicarbonate of soda.

I'm a sucker for sourdough.  Especially the more I learn about fermenting, the more romantic sourdough seems.  At some point I'll develop a gluten-free sourdough from a real starter (I even have a freeze-dried one ready & waiting) but I wanted to see what Olivia meant by sourdough.  I wish I hadn't.  Olivia Superfree is a sub-brand of Wheatless in Seattle which is free of many common allergens, including rice, which is exciting.  However, there is a huge gap for them between idea & product.  I didn't even ask the man to try this one, I literally had one bite & threw the whole thing away.  It is sad because it looks and feels great, but the taste was horribly bland and the texture was like eating sand.

My ratings:
Flavor 1
Texture 0
Sandwich-ability - didn't even try

6. Olivia Superfree Multigrain
Ingredients: Water, sorghum flour, tapioca starch, raisins, apple juice concentrate with ascorbic acid, xanthan gum, palm oil, raw pumpkin seeds, bakers yeast, salt, bicarbonate of soda.

First of all, what are the things they are calling multigrain?!  Sorghum is sort of a grain, tapioca is a root, and pumpkin seeds are seeds.  It reminds me of the "wheat" bread we all found out was really just super white flour and maple coloring.  Except that was fun to eat.  This one felt like eating the desert.  It was so dry I literally took the guts out of the sandwich and threw the bread to the chickens.  Again, didn't even bother asking the man to try this one.

My ratings: 
Flavor 1
Texture 1
Sandwich-ability 3.5 - held up well - if you're not concerned about flavor or texture you might be into this bread

7. Glutenell Quinoa Bread
Ingredients: Brown rice flour, organic sprouted quinoa flour (30%), water, corn starch, baking powder, xanthan gum, sea salt.
This is a company from Canada that has made it's way across the border and I'm SO GLAD.  I bought three different versions of this bread because I knew from the moment I picked it up I would love it.  It felt heavy, almost like a thick German bread, again - much like the breads I would have eaten before going gluten-free.  The only downside is the size.  If you've ever baked gluten-free bread you know it is very difficult to get it to rise as tall as a regular sandwich bread.  This bread is lovely as a slice with a soup or salad, but for sandwiches I would only be able to use 1/2 to 2/3 of the loaf and I'd have to slice it myself, it doesn't come sliced.  The slicing was super easy, it's very dense & didn't fall apart.  Also the label is in English AND French, which makes me feel fancy.  Don't judge.

My ratings:
Flavor 4.5
Texture 4.5
Sandwich-ability 4.5
His ratings:
Flavor 3 (it does taste like quinoa, which he wasn't thrilled by)
Texture 3
Sandwich-ability 4

8. Glutenull Amaranth Zest Bread
Ingredients: Organic amaranth, brown rice flour, organic flax, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, lemon zest, filtered water, baking powder, xanthan gum, sea salt.

I really like the seediness of it.  The man says it's like whole grain bread, nice and hearty, and it was the first one he actually thought of having seconds of.  He thinks even if you weren't gluten-free you would still enjoy it.

My ratings:
Flavor 4.5
Texture 4
Sandwich-ability 4.5
His ratings:
Flavor 4
Texture 4.5
Sandwich-ability 4.5

9. Glutenull Buckwheat Bread
Ingredients: Organic buckwheat flour, brown rice, organic flax, water, baking powder, xanthan gym, sea salt.

This is maybe my favorite gluten free bread I've ever had.  Wow.  The man says it reminds him of a hearty German bread, like the kind that you would eat at brotseit (translated: bread time).  Moving on...
I also love that Glutenull has somehow worked it out to not use eggs.  Eggs are potentially allergenic for a lot of people, and I'm frankly amazed at the consistency of this bread - I'm guessing flax is what they're using to substitute.  Brilliant.

My ratings:
Flavor 5
Texture 5
Sandwich-ability 5
His ratings:
Flavor 4
Texture 4.5
Sandwich-ability 4.5

10. Glutino Genius Seeded Sandwich Bread
Ingredients: Water, potato starch, canola oil, corn starch, tapioca starch, egg whites, sunflower seeds, rice bran, sugar, molasses, flax seed meal, poppy seeds, yeast, cellulose powder, salt, modified cellulose, beet fiber, xanthan gum, calcium sulfate, enzymes.

As we were making the sandwiches to test this one we realized we hadn't kept it frozen, as the label suggested. I think that was probably a good mistake to make.  We both agreed that it tasted like Orowheat's Oat Nut bread, which I remember being very delicious.

My ratings:
Flavor 4.5
Texture 4 - it was nice and airy
Sandwich-ability 2 - unfortunately it completely fell apart, maybe if you take it from the freezer to the toaster it doesn't do that.His ratings:
Flavor 4.5
Texture 4
Sandwich-ability 3

11. Silver Hill Omega Flax
Ingredients: Water, organic whole sorghum, organic whole ground chia seeds, organic cane sugar, organic brown flax seeds, organic whole psyllium husks, organic rice flour, organic vinegar, sea salt.

Wow, this bread is dense.  This is mostly what my home-baking gluten free breads turn out like.  It's very small, and so dense you might consider building a small house with it.  The man likes the density, I am a little overwhelmed by it.  It is non-GMO and vegan, again, the no-egg thing is really brilliant, a lot of people can't eat gluten or eggs. 

My ratings:
Flavor 3
Texture 3.5
Sandwich-ability 3.5
His ratings:
Flavor 4
Texture 4
Sandwich-ability 1 - too tiny & falls apart

12. Udi's Soft & Hearty Whole Grain
Ingredients: Water, brown rice flour, tapioca starch, non-GMO canola oil, egg whites, potato starch, dried cane sugar, modified tapioca starch, tapioca maltodextrin, tapioca syrup, sorghum flour, amaranth flour, organic inulin, yeast, flax seed, salt, xanthan gum, teff flour, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate), cultured corn syrup solids (natural mold inhibitor), dry molasses, enzymes.

I mostly bought this bread because an overwhelming number of people on Facebook told me that Udi's was their favorite gluten-free bread.  I have always found their products to be TERRIBLE but I thought I'd try the "whole grain" bread & see if I thought it had any redeemable qualities.  Besides some questionable ingredients and the absolute flavorlessness of it, I understand why people like it.  It is reminiscent of that crappy "wheat" bread with the maple coloring, again, and holds together okay for a sandwich. It's not even close to what I think bread should be, but if you're looking for a dairy free option, especially that a kid might eat, this might be a good one to check out.

My ratings:
Flavor 1.5
Texture  2 - it's really dry
Sandwich-ability 3.5
His ratings:
Flavor 2
Texture 3
Sandwich-ability 3

So there you have it.  I hope this has been helpful for you, or at least entertaining... Stay tuned for next week when I'll post the new and improved menu.  

Monday, February 3, 2014

We are here!!

This is the official blog of the Random Rooster Cafe, located in South Lake Union on Dexter Avenue at Harrison, inside Excellence Health & Fitness.

Follow us for nutrition, health & fitness information as well as to stay informed of special offers and events!!

I'll start by telling you a little bit about us:

We offer fresh smoothies, traditionally prepared soups, and delicious entrees as well as a small assortment of gluten-free baked goods, made in house.

We also feature organic locally roasted coffee, espresso, and our version of Bulletproof coffee.

We have a completely gluten- and soy- free kitchen, but please do tell us if you have a food allergy so that we can inform you of any possible cross-contamination of our ingredients.

We are open 7am - 8pm Monday through Friday, and 8:00am - 1:30pm on Saturdays and you do NOT need to be a member of Excellence to take advantage of our offerings!

We look forward to seeing you soon!