Product: Katz Gluten-Free Whole Grain Bread – $6.19; Katz Gluten-Free Wholesome Bread – $7.99; Katz Gluten-Free Sliced Challah Bread – $5.79; Katz Gluten-Free White Bread – $6.19; Sample Pack – cost of shipping (varies per state)
So, it finally happened today. I got tired of fumbling around in the freezer and working around the sample pack of gluten-free goodness that I got from Katz Gluten-Free awhile back…so I decided my roommate and I would feast on the five remaining items for breakfast today.
What remained was a slice of the Gluten-Free Marble Cake (I’ll get to that next blog…) and a variety of breads, all thinly sliced and ready for sampling. So, before heading out for my long run this morning, I placed them all on the counter to thaw. When I returned home, they were perfection.
Once my roommate dragged herself out of bed, I switched on the oven and began to unwrap the four varieties of bread to lightly toast and see what we thought of them. In the Katz Gluten-Free Sampler Pack, the four varieties of bread included were: Whole Grain Bread, Wholesome Bread, Sliced Challah Bread, and White Bread. I placed all of them on a cookie sheet and lightly toasted them in the oven before dressing them up with either strawberry cream cheese (à la Laughing Cow) or a little vegan buttery spread and some cinnamon and sugar.
So…let’s start at the top:
Whole Grain Bread: Katz bills their Gluten-Free Whole Grain Bread as a great source of protein that is not only wholesome, but delicious. They do recommend toasting the bread to bring out the maximum level of taste and crispiness. I can understand that. This slice of bread is made up of fiber, sorghum flour, whole grains and brown rice. I think this variety would have been less impressive if it weren’t toasted. However, when I did toast it up, it lightly crisped, enough to become sturdy enough to support a schmear of strawberry cream cheese (and a couple strawberries). I think, had I not toasted (though the little plastic wrap it was in instructed me to) the texture would have been off completely. So, if you like to toast your bread up before making a sandwich, this one might be for you. Truthfully, it was one of the ones I wasn’t as impressed with.
Wholesome Bread: What exactly is in Katz Gluten-Free Wholesome Bread? According to the ingredients – fava bean, garbanzo bean, teff, chia seed, flax seed, and honey. Again, this one came with instructions to lightly toast it to bring out the best flavor possible. I think toasting it also lightened this up. This was the heavier of the four slices of bread and the one I was least impressed with. Maybe I just don’t think beans belong as a bread ingredient. Call me crazy. Even the strawberry cream cheese and berries on top failed to impress me. It wasn’t bad…it just wasn’t as good as the others. I couldn’t imagine eating this one untoasted. Way too heavy and dense.
Sliced Challah Bread: Katz Gluten-Free Sliced Challah Bread was one of my favorite in the sampler. It is soft and fluffy right out of the freezer. No need to toast it (although I did for cinnamon-sugar dusting purposes). Very light. Not dense. And even better…fantastically delicious. This bread is made up of a gluten-free flour mix, water, eggs, palm oil, brown sugar, honey, xanthan gum, dry yeast, salt, flax seed, and apple cider vinegar. What emerges is one of the most amazing slices of gluten-free bread in the world. Honestly. I brushed this one with some vegan margarine and a dash of cinnamon-sugar and it was perfection. It was slightly sweet, which worked well with the cinnamon-sugar topping. While mine was toasted, this would have been just as amazing without it. Two gluten-free thumbs way up.
White Bread: Believe it or not, I, someone who prefers any other gluten-free bread to a gluten-free white bread, loved the slice of Katz Gluten-Free White Bread that I got in the sampler. It had a slightly sweeter taste than the Sliced Challah Bread. Again, this one didn’t need to be toasted up to correct any strangeness with the texture or feel of it. I lightly toasted it however, because I was making cinnamon toast with it. And it was freakin’ fantastic. Very soft and light, delicious. This variety of bread is made with a gluten-free flour mix, water, canola oil, eggs, honey, salt, xanthan gum, and dry yeast. The result is a sweet, light, delicious bread that would be perfect for sandwiches, French toast, or whatever your gluten-free bread-loving heart desires. This was so yummy, especially with the light toasting with a vegan margarine and a sprinkle of cinnamon-sugar. Yum yum!
So, it really was a mixed bag when it came to the bread samples that I was sent. I know one of the biggest things people will notice is how small the bread slices are. I find this to be a common thing with gluten-free breads, so it rarely makes me bat an eyelash these days. But, it is sad to put it up against a regular sandwich and you feel like you are only getting half.
But…the long and the short of it is…I liked two of the four breads I was sent. None of them were horrible, but two were just off on texture, taste, and density for me. I just didn’t fall in love with the Whole Grain Bread and the Wholesome Bread. However, the Sliced Challah Bread and the White Bread won me over hands down. These were both soft and light, and didn’t need to be toasted to enhance their flavor or texture. I like that. When you can simply pull something out of the freezer and take it for what it is…that means the product is perfect. And those two breads were perfect.
I am quite fond of other breads, so ordering these from Katz is probably not in the cards, but the samples were awesome to have to see what other options were out there. Then again…that Sliced Challah Bread might have to come my way sometime soon.
Some good…some not so good…but nothing bad. Katz Gluten-Free still has it.
The Celiathlete 