SS&GF: Simply Sugar and Gluten Free

This post brought to you by Schar. All opinions are 100% mine.

Honestly, I was a little hesitant to review Schar’s re-launched line of par-baked gluten-free bread. If you read my blog regularly, you know I am a fan of heartier, whole grain bread products.

The reality is that I often serve friends and family who aren’t used to buckwheat, garbanzo bean flour, and quinoa flour. I always cook for the people I’m serving, and even if my buckwheat bilini are absolute perfection, it does no good if my guests aren’t so keen on the earthy flavors I love.

So, I agreed to the review in hopes of finding something I could use when I’m serving certain friends or when I don’t have the time to bake a loaf of bread.

I expected not to like the products from this gluten-free food manufacturer at all. My expectations were were wrong. I love Schar’s new gluten-free bread.

Schar has packaged each product for easy storage and ultimate freshness. The baguettes and sub buns come individually packaged and the cibatta rolls are in packs of 4. And, though they’re created to mimic a traditional white bread they do contain psyllium husk. You get some healthy fiber with these breads. That’s a big bonus.

In my kitchen experiments with Schar’s breads, I made foods I haven’t had for years. Literally.

I started with Tomato Pesto Bruschetta, which was built on thin toasted slices of baguette.

Aside from being delicious, the toasted bread stayed crunchy when topped with pesto and tomatoes. With the holidays right around the corner, this is a simple way to make a stunning appetizer without investing a lot of time.

Of course, the hoagie roll had to be made into a hoagie sandwich. After pulling the roll out of the oven, I sliced it open and toasted it in a little olive oil.

Again, I expected the bread to fall apart once I topped it with mayo, dijon mustard, tomatoes, fresh deli meat, and spinach. Nope. It behaved just like a wheat bun would. And the hoagie was incredible. I ate it all myself. And, I didn’t have a ‘lead stomach’ that I often get from some gluten-free breads. My body enjoyed their bread as much as my taste buds did.

Any gluten-free guy would love a big hoagie while he watches his favorite team play on Sunday. And the guys who aren’t gluten-free wouldn’t know the difference.

I sliced open a cibatta rolls to see if they really had the structure a cibatta roll should. They do.

I’ve never had a cibatta roll panini. Even though these rolls were probably not meant to be created into a sandwich, I couldn’t resist. I wanted to see if they would hold up to my homemade panini press, which is a grlll pan, and plate, and a can of beans. (Put the sandwich on the grill pan, put the plate on top of the sandwich and weigh it down with a can of beans. Presto…you’ve got a panini press!)

I made a mini-sandwich out of ham, gruyere cheese, sauteed apples, Dijon mustard, and a little spinach. Not only did the sandwich hold up, but the outside of the roll got nice and crispy while the inside stayed soft and warm. Yum. It was a good thing that I was hungry that day.

The final test was to see if I got that yucky, heavy store bought gluten-free bread stomach. After a couple pieces of bruchetta, half of a hoagie, and half of a cibatta roll sandwich I plainly shocked to find that I had no digestive stress at all.

I found that I liked my bread the best when left in the oven until the crust was starting to get crispy. Otherwise, I found it taste underbaked and a little too chewy.

I’d love to hear about your experience with Schar. Have you tried any of their products? If not, which ones are you looking forward to trying?

Schar’s Offer to You:

• Join the Schar club – get free samples, coupons, and enter give-aways
• Get a Schar free sample – Schar is giving away free cibatta rolls to the first 2,000 Schar Club Members that request them. (This give-away is over…so sorry!) They often do give-aways for Schar Club members, though.