Product Review: Udi's Bread

There are a number of gluten-free (GF) bread products available in supermarkets and natural food stores, but they are expensive, and some of them taste like cardboard. To keep from being disappointed and wasting your dollars, you simply need to know which products to buy.

Meet Udi's, the company that is revolutionizing the way GF bread is made. Based out of Denver, Colorado, Udi's makes a number of GF products, including bagels, pizza crust, granola, and muffins. You can find them (and their store locator) at udisglutenfree.com

For those of you who know how dense GF bread is, and how easily it crumbles unless toasted, you will appreciate the soft, springy texture of Udi's breads. The slice shown in the picture below wasn't toasted. I pulled it straight out of the bag, pressed on it, and took a snap-shot. Un-toasted, the bread was spongy, chewy, and slightly sweet. For flavor, I gave it an A-. I'm still waiting for Udi's to make me think of mom's home baked when I bite into their bread. For convenience of use, I gave it an A+! I purchased this loaf for $4.99. Some brands of GF bread loaves cost up to $7.00!

The hardest thing about eating GF bread is its portability. I remember, years ago, fantasizing about building a portable toaster that had interchangeable plug-ins: one that inserted into a car's cigarette lighter, and one that inserted into a wall socket. I used to lay in bed at night and think of how a toaster could be made small enough to fit into a computer bag. Well, that fantasy is over, because Udi's bread is very portable. It's soft and enjoyable, and it doesn't require a toaster to make it so. Last summer, I took a bag of Udi's bagels with me on a road trip, sometimes leaving it in the car in temperatures as warm as seventy-plus degrees. Most GF breads need to be refrigerated or they will go bad. Udi's bagels were tasty to the very last. 

Like all GF breads, if you are eating something juicy, like a burger, toasting the bread helps keep it from falling apart. If you're eating a regular sandwich, like ham, or PB&J, the bread will stay together, it will be soft and chewy, and it will taste great!

I enjoy Udi's plain bread and bagels, more than I enjoy their whole grain version. To me, it tastes more like fresh baked bread, but not quite like the real thing (yet). The raisin bread is very tasty, especially when toasted and eaten with cream cheese (I used tofutti sour cream: De-lish!) When toasted, Udi's bread is light, crunchy, and it almost melts in your mouth. I tried to eat a burger with the whole grain bagel (un-toasted), but the saying "Where's the beef?" came to mind. See image below:

All it means is that Udi's bagels are not hamburger buns, which I hear that Udi's now makes. Once I get my hands on some of Udi's buns, you'll be reading about it here.  
 

Happy Eating Friendly! And enjoy those summer barbecues with the convenience of bread portability!