Good gluten-free bread where are you hiding? If you've ever bought gluten free bread off the shelf you'll know what I'm talking about. First there are the additives (so many numbers!) and then there is the taste, or should that be lack of taste, or real bread texture. In my experience gluten free bread off the shelf is more like not very nice cake or like eating a rubber sponge.
Late last year I was in a foodstore in Melbourne and spied Springhill Farm gluten free bread baking flour. I bought a packet thinking it would be a handy thing to keep in the pantry for when we ran out of bread.
We are not a gluten free family but we don't buy any wheat products. We usually eat bread made from millet flour from our local health food store that does contain gluten. A quick lesson in which grains contain gluten: wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt. My friend Sam Gowing likens gluten to glue, it is the element that sticks things together. When you think of it that way it is little wonder that some people find gluten difficult or near impossible to digest.
Back to Springhill Farm gf bread. I baked the loaf and was really pleasantly surprised, the result was a dense real bread that compared to a sourdough loaf.
Fast forward to this month when I was contacted by a PR agency (this is part and parcel of being a food writer long before I was a blogger) asking if I would be interested in sampling the entire Springhill Farm gf bread mix range: original, seed and fruit. Yes please.
So sample we did and impressed again I am, impressed enough to share with you and even better to really share with you via a giveaway of the complete range of gf bread mixes (valued at $17.60) courtesy of Springhill Farm.
The packet contains the gluten free flour, along with the seeds or fruit depending on the loaf. To make, you supply the yeast and sweetener to activate the yeast (I used a spoon of honey), a pinch of salt and lukewarm water. The directions on the packet call for mixing using an electric mixer with a dough hook, if like me you don't have one of those I did it by hand and it worked out just fine.
You can enter the giveaway twice:
(sorry international readers this giveaway is only open to readers in Australia)
simply leave a comment below, particularly love to hear your gf bread experiences (entry one)
and/or like The Wholefood Mama on facebook (entry two. be sure to leave a comment saying you have hit the 'like' button)
The winner will be chosen using random number generator and will be announced in this post on Thursday 16th May 2013 at 8pm est.
COMMENTS CLOSED - The Winner is #1 Sonia from Natural New Age Mum. Congratulations!
Good luck!
Springhill Farm gluten free bread mixes are available for purchase online here
My daughter (who is GF like me) just spied this on my laptop and got VERY excited. She is a fruit toast freak and we have not been able to buy a nice one and making one does take a lot of time. This makes it so much simpler to do!! I am sure she would love to make this on a Sunday morning. Yum.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I have limited experience with gluten free bread, mainly due to complete lack of confidence. Would love to experiment more though
ReplyDeleteNo experience making GF bread to share am afraid but I would love to try! Cheers :)
ReplyDeleteI'm yet to try making my own gf bread. Since we stopped buying bread from the shops we have been eating a whole let less bread and what we do eat i make myeslf- wraps, foccacia and soda bread.
ReplyDeleteCount me in for this wonderful give away.
x
What about Australian territories??? Hee hee. It was worth a try. I would love to win this give-away! I'd even be happy to pay for the postage :)
ReplyDeletehow fantastic to find such a tasty gluten free option, we aren't gluten free either but do prefer to stay away from wheat, a dear friend has just been diagnosed with coeliac disease and is appalled at the rather unappetising bread offers available (we do have a local, literally 200metres away, organic bakery that does a gluten free bread that i actually really love but it's not to her liking), will definitely let her know about these guys. xxxx
ReplyDeleteI'm entering on behalf of my dad, who has been suffering tummy probs for years. He's started a gf - or more so wheat free - diet plus eliminating a few other things, which as been helping. He hasn't had much luck finding many gf or spelt breads that are yummy, have a nice texture & don't cause him probs, so would love to try this!
ReplyDeleteLovely photos Nikki! I can almost smell the fruit bread. We are not a gluten free family...but would love to be able to make a good gf bread for friends who are. xx
ReplyDeleteMy son has been coeliac for almost 3 years now and we are sending number 3 off to the paediatric gastroenteroligist too. I have been on the never ending quest for GF bread. I steer clear of the store bought stuff as it is over priced and over numbered. The organic ones are okay but even more expensive. I have been making my own bread by milling grains and making my bread from scratch but that can be a bit hit and miss so I will definitely by trying this.
ReplyDeleteI have also like the FB page :)
That looks delicious ... I'm not gluten free, but a number of girls in my book club are (one has very severe coeliac disease), it'd be awesome to bake them a loaf of bread next time we meet. (-: Im x
ReplyDeleteAnd I already like you on FB.
ReplyDeleteIt does look yummy. It is always hard to find commercial gluten free bread based products that don't have a huge list of ingredients. And yes it's all a bit of trial and error with gf..some breads are yum whilst others not good at all! I did stay at a biodynamic farm last year who also milled and baked their own sourdough bread- not gluten free but it was so YUMMY! Hmm haven't really tried baking my own bread yet. Nat x
ReplyDeleteI'd love to try these out! They look yummy! My brother-in-law is a coeliac and I would love to treat him with some nice bread as I know that it's hard to find good bread and it's something he misses.
ReplyDeleteSoughdough & Gluten free do it for me. My favourite is discovering quaint bakeries whilst traveling through places such as Daylesford and Pambula,also a scrummy fig and ginger loaf I get in Byron. I try to eat breads made from ancient grains, quinoa and millet but would love to bake my own, especially with some Springhill Farm help.
ReplyDelete