What is the *best* gluten free bread you can enjoy in London, UK? The answer might be here . . .
I was diagnosed Celiac in 2012 and recall that the free-from aisle in a nearby supermarket superstore at the time had a gluten-free bread range featuring Genius and not much else that did not look like it has been created in a laboratory. Tesco had yet to become the free-from machine it is today. There were a few sad looking Dietary Specials bread-like products that I imagine longer time-served celiacs may remember with nostalgia. Fondly? With horror? Both? Long time celiacs, do tell!
Now return to 2016 and the range on shelves presents the tyranny of choice and there are now also a number of artisan bakeries offering gluten-free breads. If you dedicate yourself to consuming bread samples at the Allergy Show & Free-From Show you can easily carb-load for a marathon.
But are they any good? And which are best?
A little group from the Gluten-Free London Meetup Club held a blind-tasting event to address these important questions. No one was blindfolded, but only I knew which breads were being sampled and I maintained scientific integrity throughout.
All the Breads, No Labels!
The Tasting Protocol
Four commonly available supermarket breads and four artisanal breads were selected to test. Each bread was sampled plain and as toast and with various dips and spreads. Each taster captured scores and comments before the next bread was served. Excluding the host no one knew what any of the breads were, hence the tasting was performed ‘blind’ before the breads and tasters scores were revealed at the end of the tasting.
Given the enormous range of breads now available the selection of breads was focused on conventional loaves, sliced or unsliced, with multi-seed, multi-grain options selected if available. Rolls, baguettes, wraps and home-bake bread mixes remain subject to testing in future
Breads were rated on taste, texture, toast-ability and given an overall score out of 5 by each taster.
Our Top Picks
4 of the 8 breads tied for the top bread with a score of 3.6 out of 5, so the actual winner – the Artisan Gluten-Free Bakery Multi-Seed Loaf – is picked thanks to having the highest individual taster score (5 of 5) along with a higher lowest score (2 of 5) than competing breads. 3 of those top 4 breads were Artisanal and the 4th was the only Supermarket Bread to make a positive impact – the M&S White Sliced Boule.
Below the breads from top to bottom, scores and taster comments
Surprises!
Artisanal breads scored on average better than the supermarket breads but they were also far more divisive. Two artisanal breads very well received by most of the tasters also provoked a negative rating from at least one taster. This was probably because unlike the supermarket breads which were fairly similar and bland the artisanal breads each had a distinctive character which prompted a stronger reaction.
Only one bread – BFree High Fibre Brown Seeded Loaf – suffered from the *there are big empty holes where there should be bread* problem. Surprising because this is a common complaint about gluten-free loaves and doubly surprising because BFree produce a really fantastic range of gluten-free breads and wraps.
The lowest scoring bread – Newburn Bakehouse Gluten-Free White Sourdough Artisan Cob – is one of the highest rated gluten-free breads on Ocado. As a sourdough lover I will say that it had no hint of sourdough ‘tang’.
Bread by Bread, Here We Go!
Artisan Gluten Free Bakery Multi-Seed Loaf
Best Bread!: Artisan Gluten-Free Bakery Multi-Seed Loaf
Score: 3.6 out of 5 (high of 5, low of 2)
“Nice mix of seeds but otherwise fairly plain”
“Silky, oily texture”
“Light & full of flavour”
“Slight ‘tang’, nice taste, if you wait for it”
“No dryness or starch sticking to the mouth, toast crunchy on outside, soft inside, nice!”
Available from Artisan Gluten-Free Bakery and Wholefoods
Beyond Bread Seeded Loaf
Beyond Bread Seeded Loaf
Score: 3.6 out of 5 (high of 5, low of 1)
“Nice flavor and lots of seeds”
“Many flavors present within, lovely”
“Silky, very different texture to most breads
“Slight ‘melt in the mouth’ consistency, unusual and interesting”
“Very high moisture content, almost better untoasted rather than toasted”
Available from Beyond Bread
M&S White Sliced Boule
Best Supermarket Bread!: M&S White Sliced Boule
Score: 3.6 out of 5 (high of 4, low of 3)
“Nice crumbly texture once toasted”
“Light but free-from holes”
“Not strong enough to use as a scoop for dips”
“Love the poppy seeds and texture, but a bit dry”
Available from M&S
Pauls Organic Sourdough Number One
Paul’s Organic Sourdough Number 1
Score: 3.6 out of 5 (high of 4, low of 2)
“Notable chickpea flavor, better toasted, good crust”
“Happy with small number of ingredients”
“Dense, course and crunchy”
“Lots of cooking possibilities, nice flavor, bit too heavy for me personally”
“Too dense, but very tasty and I like the ingredients”
“Very chewy, salty, dense, strong and toasting brings the flavor to life”
Available from Wholefoods
BFree High Fibre Brown Seeded Loaf
BFree High Fibre Brown Seeded Loaf
Score: 3 out of 5 (high of 4, low of 2)
“Spongy, with holes present in the slices”
“Sweet & light, but not a lot of flavour”
“Notably sweet, light, airy bread”
“Toasts quickly, burns easily, also riddled with holes”
Available from Asda, Tesco & Ocado
Artisan Bread Organic Linseed Omega 3 Loaf
Artisan Bread Organic Linseed Omega 3 Loaf
Score: 3 out of 5 (high of 4, low of 1)
“Very dense, very robust, substantial bread”
“Seaweed flavoring is mild but notable if sought out”
“Crust very crunchy and toasting takes ages”
“Too compact and chewy”
“Heavy and sour in a good way!”
Available from ABO (online), Wholefoods, Planet Organic and some independent health food stores
Waitrose Love Life Gluten Free Seeded Bread
Waitrose Love Life Gluten-Free Seeded Bread
Score: 2.6 out of 5 (high of 3, low of 2)
“Thin slices, boring, okay if toasted”
“Dry, thin”
“Floppy, wouldn’t make nice sandwiches, not much taste”
“Plain, okay as toast, toasts evenly”
“No taste, no character”
Available from Waitrose and Ocado
Newburn Bakehouse Gluten Free White Sourdough Artisan Cob
Newburn Bakehouse Gluten-Free White Sourdough Artisan Cob
Score: 2.4 out of 5 (high of 3, low of 2)
“Thin slices, boring, okay if toasted”
“Dry, thin”
“Floppy, wouldn’t make nice sandwiches, not much taste”
“Plain, okay as toast, toasts evenly”
“No taste, no character”
Available from Ocado, Sainsbury, Iceland and Morrisons
Closing Regrets
In my humble opinion, my home-made gluten-free bread are far tastier and nutritious than all these breads. It was not included in the test breads, it would not have been at all fair, but I did intend to serve it as a mystery bread. I forgot. I will find a way to subject it to future benchmarking.
What did we miss? Tell us! What do you think is the best gluten-free bread? Do tell . . . .
Want to be a taster?
Join the Gluten-Free London Meetup Club. I will offer more of the same!
Which is your bread?
Artisan is available in Wholefoods.
Which Artisan Lorraine? I have marked the Artisan Bread Organic as available from Wholefoods, is the Artisan Gluten-Free Bakery loaf also available there? I think it is and am not entirely sure.
I make bread using a 50 / 50 mix of a sourdough starter fed with home-made kefir plus the flour blend from Gluten-Free Living and Baking plus Sukrin bread mix. The outcome is a dense, strong bread, high in protein, lower in carbohydrate than most, and with a strong sourdough tang. I often add seaweed, oregano and basil too. It is not for everyone, but my goodness, it has character! :-)
http://www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/flour/
http://www.sukrin.co.uk/sukrin-bread-mix-recipies/
Yes the artisan gluten free bakery, I buy it in Kensington but they have it in most branches now I believe. I’m a truly rubbish baker, even failed with a gluten bread mix in a machine! But 2016 is the year of challenges so I will have to attempt your loaf, I’m moving to a low carb diet so it sounds ideal.
Thanks, I have added Wholefoods to the sources for Artisan Gluten-Free Bakery.
I can offer you a simpler approach to a low carb loaf Lorraine, and will make a post out of it to provide detail. The outline is to combine Sukrin bread mix on a 50-50 basis with a vegetable or mix of vegetables that have been turned into rice in a blender or food processor. Cauliflower is ideal and I have had success with Broccoli and even Courgette / Zucchini. The use of a vegetable means you get more ‘loaf’ at little added cost, provides added fibre, a very small amount of carbohydrate and whatever micro-nutrients survive the baking.
I’ll be waiting for that post
A gluten-free diet is a diet that strictly excludes gluten, a mixture of proteins found in wheat and related grains, including barley, rye, oat, and all their species and hybrids (such as spelt, kamut, and triticale).[1] The inclusion of oats in a gluten-free diet remains controversial. Oat toxicity in people with gluten-related disorders depends on the oat cultivar consumed because toxic proclam are different among oat varieties.
Indeed Steve. I choose not to eat oats, including gluten-free or ‘pure’ oats, because I do not know whether the avenin protein will trigger an immune reaction or not.
I have received the suggestion of using the Cyrex Array 4 Cross-Reactivity test to determine whether I do or do not react to oats. I would be willing to do that if the validity of the Cyrex test was something I could be confident in. Due to a lack of publicly published evidence and . . . . . the following critique, I am not
http://paleofoundation.com/19-gluten-cross-reactive-foods/
Good Grain Bakery
I have recently noticed Good Grain Bakery loaves and crostini in Planet Organic. I have not sampled . . . . yet. *If* they are also exhibiting at the London Allergy Show this weekend, that becomes a must :-)
Hi, I read the above survey of GF breads with interest.I have always been a bread lover,- I don’t know how I can remember? Am I the only one who finds the costs high?, I would like to enjoy more bread but cannot afford to. I would also like to experiment to achieve new foods but the flours are also a high price. Regards.Kate P.
Heya Kate! I only came to appreciate bread once I started making my own several years pre-coeliac diagnosis. Post diagnosis I maintained a gluten-free sourdough for several years but ceased that once I converted to grain free and low carb diet.
Now the only type I will eat is that I make myself, and I make that using Sukrin Bread Mix. Sukrin Bread Mix is very, very different to any conventional bread and is extraordinarily nutritious. Do you have a favourite Kate?
The cost of dedicated free from products including bread is a very common challenge for many. If you are interested in the reasons behind the cost I recommend the quick read from Free From Food Awards founder Michelle at http://www.michellesblog.co.uk/does-freefrom-food-really-need-to-cost-so-much/
What will ultimately help reduce prices is scale, sustained demand, time, competition and also some collaboration between producers. There is for example underway a free from industry collaboration to share practices and resources related to allergen testing and ensuring safety within the supply chain. These are currently challenges which every Company needs to solve themselves. Some do not enter the free from market as a result, others do but prices are higher.