Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Food Review: Luce's Gluten-Free Artisan Bread Mixes

My baked Luce's Gluten-Free Artisan Bread Mix in Classic Sourdough

Written by Sarah E. Jahier

I was recently sent some samples of Luce's Gluten-Free Artisan Bread Mixes in Classic Sourdough and New Italian flavors. Though I am not gluten-free, I was still interested in trying these mixes since they are vegan and I love homemade bread but don't like all the work that goes along with making it from scratch, though I grew up in an Italian family where breadmaking was the norm (but I guess didn't catch with me)! When I received the cute little packets of bread mix, I was pretty ecstatic to see "just add water" on them! How much easier can you get? And let's face it, I am such a lazy vegan that if I can make homemade bread by just adding water to a mix, I'm totally gonna do it (sorry mom and dad!)!





What's contained in the bread mix kit - baking flour, white rice flour for
dusting, parchment paper and a baking bag!

I decided to make the Classic Sourdough first, since I looooove sourdough. I opened up the packet and found the flour mix, a parchment sheet, a baking bag, and a small bag of dusting flour. I followed the directions by adding the mix to a big bowl, adding the required water, stirring, waiting 5 minutes for the consistency to solidify, stirring again, forming a loaf on the parchment paper, sprinkling with the dusting flour, sticking in the baking bag, and BAM! Done! I went through the extra step of sticking the dough in the oven (with it just slightly warmed to 100 degrees) to let it rise a little. After that, I took it out, pre-heated the oven and baked the loaf for a little less than an hour and a half. The fresh-baked bread smell was heavenly while the baking process went on!

Look how beautiful the Classic Sourdough loaf turned out!

Once cooked through (I thumped on the loaf to make sure it had a hollow sound to make sure it was done), I took the loaf out of the baking bag and let cool thoroughly before trying a slice. While the outside seemed a little hard, the inside was perfectly baked and the hard crust gave it a nice contrasting bite! I tried my first slice plain, and it was really tasty on its own. I also tried the sourdough with some hot pepper spread and some Earth Balance vegan butter. My loaf turned out a bit on the flat side (entirely my fault - I didn't shape the dough into a tall enough loaf), but it was still really delicious and perfect for slathering with spreads or vegan butter!

Luce's Gluten-Free Artisan Bread in New Italian! 
Just look at that lovely loaf!

Next, I tried Luce's New Italian flavor. It was the same process of adding water, mixing, shaping the dough, and sticking it on the parchment paper in the baking bag to cook it in the oven. I felt like the second time around I was much quicker at everything since I was familiar with the process. One tip in the mixing process, this kind of dough is extremely sticky, so I used a slightly wet wooden spoon and a silicone spatula to mix it together and shape it into a loaf. If you use your hands, it will just create a big sticky, mess, so I highly recommend you use a mixing spoon and a spatula!

A close-up of the New Italian loaf - such a nice color and consistency!

The New Italian flavor came out a deeper brown color and had a great nutty flavor! I loved the Classic Sourdough flavor, but I think my favorite was the New Italian. The hearty loaf reminded me of the homemade bread my parents make, and reminded me of my Italian upbringing! This beautiful bread would be perfect served with a big bowl of soup or stew, or even as a snack drizzled with some olive oil and pepper!

Luce's Gluten-Free Artisan Bread Mixes were extremely easy to make and yielded delicious loaves of bread that I never would have guessed were gluten-free! If you are looking to make some quick homemade bread that is vegan and gluten-free, I would definitely recommend picking up these handy bread mixes!

You can find out more information on Luce's on their website

3 comments:

  1. Any kind of bread that's that easy to make is a winner in my book!

    ReplyDelete
  2. These look and sound totally legit! Being from the Bay Area, I'm like "SOURDOUGH ALL THE TIME, NOTHING ELSE EXISTS", so I'm really excited to try this out!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks delicious and easy to make... Nothing like the smell of fresh bread right? Yum!

    Ourpassionforfood.com

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...