Leave it to a piss-poor attitude and a bit of bread envy to push me into trying the parbaked, vacuum-sealed, gluten-free bread that sits on a shelf at my local grocery store. I’ve seen it before. Glanced over the variety. Thought “How the hell can that be good?” and moved on. But I was making pasta for dinner one night, and my roommate had delicious homemade bread (my own that I did up for her) and I had nothing. And that little sting of jealousy was what pushed the envelope on this purchase.
Schär is a German company specializing in gluten-free products. A huge variety of them. I was told they make fantastic pastas. I haven’t tried them yet. They do make excellent snack cookies as my friend Tawn in California bought me one when I was visiting Los Angeles earlier in the year. But these little vacuum-sealed bread packets looked more like something dug out of a crime scene and packaged up for review at the lab.
But, looks can be deceiving, as I soon found out!
After purchasing a pack of the Schär gluten-free ciabatta rolls (there are 4 in a pack), I took them home to see how they fared. Prep was easy. Open sealed pack. Remove roll. Place on cooking sheet. Bake in oven for 10 minutes at 400°. Remove. Enjoy!
Yes…it really is that simple. I followed the instructions to bake up the ciabatta roll and plated it with my homemade (gluten-free) eggplant Parmesan. One bite and I loved it. I expected it to taste like cardboard or be hard and crunchy. But this had the look, the feel, the texture, and yes, even the taste of a ciabatta roll. And I dug in. Bite after bite, dipping it in my sauce, eating it on it’s own, piling bits of eggplant on it…any way I sliced it (or tore it, or bit it), it was a burst of bread-y goodness. The outside was toasty…crisp without being crunchy…and the inside a fluffy mass of delicious bread. The perfect ciabatta. All the way around…it didn’t get better than that.
Shocked. I was shocked. I bought it, expecting the worst, but discovered that what people have said about Schär’s products is true…they are fantastic. I can’t wait to try more of their variety of gluten-free breads. Or, at least the one’s my super market happens to have on hand. Amazing bread experience, after going so long without it.
Don’t let the packaging scare you off. Schär’s parbaked breads are definitely worth the try. Easy to prepare…and delicious.
Gluten-free goodness that’s toasted on the outside and soft on the inside.
The Celiathlete 