Part of eating gluten free is trying new products. All the time. You never know when you're going to find the best bread or pasta or whatever it is that you miss. Some turn out to be awesome, and some turn out to be bad.
My boss mentioned the other day that she saw some gluten free items at the local grocery store.
Of course, I headed over to check them out. I was so excited when I saw a freezer display with some gluten free products from French Meadow Bakery.
There were some sweets like brownies, muffins, and cookies, but I was interested in the harder-to-make-myself products like bread and... flour tortillas!
I was super excited to try them out, especially the tortillas, because I was planning to make some pinwheels at my sister's upcoming bridal shower. And how sweet would it be to make some gluten free ones??
Well, I took a few tortillas out to thaw and went about finishing some errands. What I came back to was tortillas that had thawed, but had mysteriously curled up and hardened. When I tried to roll them up, they cracked and sprang back out into the curled-up shape. Determined, I made a wrap anyway and tried to eat it.
Tried. The tortilla was so hard that I couldn't take a decent bite without tearing apart a huge chunk, destroying the integrity of the wrap, and chewing for a good few minutes. I tried thawing them in the microwave, heating them up a little after they thawed at room temperature, etc etc. Nothing changed the texture and inedible-ness. I was very bummed and also annoyed that I paid 4 bucks for a product that advertised "soft and delicious" on the packaging. They were neither.
The bread was nothing to write home about, either. Just your standard kinda dry and crumbly gluten free bread. Good thing I still have Udi's!
So yes, I was very disappointed with these products, but at least now I know! And you do too. I always try to post the stuff I don't like along with the stuff I do like, because there have been plenty of times that I've wondered about a product and read a review on someone else's blog and either been relieved that I didn't waste my money, or been excited to try it.
I don't know if I got a bad batch or something, but my advice is don't waste your money!
4 comments:
I tried their bread once on a sandwich served in a restaurant. I thought it was pretty good for not knowing what I would get. It is just a white bread, though. I was going to seek out their other products, but your post is a cautionary tale. Thanks for being the one to go into uncharted territory!
I have yet to find a good store bought gf tortilla, or even a decent gf recipe for tortillas. The closest I have come was more like chewy naan bread (like a soft pita almost) and nowhere near the rollability I would like. I too had a problem with store bought tortillas--hard as a rock thick rice paper that had no flavor and couldn't be saved. Yeesh, you would thing that a simple bread product like tortillas (flour, salt, lard and water) would be easy to duplicate in GF! or not.
Oh well, I remain patiently awaiting a good GF flour tortilla. Until then, I will just have to stick to corn chips and corn tortillas. (or use lettuce).
The cake, the cake! You HAVE to try the French Meadow Bakery chocolate cake, it is to. die. for. That cake is what hooked us on their products. Also, we used their tortillas for cheese crisps and they were amazing (so much better than using corn tortillas) and we didn't have any of the problems you described so I will have to see what technique he used. But seriously, please try their cake!
Tyrene- let me know which technique he used for the tortillas, because I have about half the package still sitting in my freezer and I'd love to be able to use them!
Also, I will try the cake. haha
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