One of the core things that you have to go without when gluten-free is bread. Now, I have never had a free from bread that ever quite lives up to warm fresh bread, with a crisp crust and doughy center. Sorry, I can’t perform miracles. However I have had some pretty good ones, I think, it has been a while since I ate real bread. Let’s go with good for gluten-free.
For some reason not only is your loaf often tiny, seriously they look like toy slices? But the crust is always soft, which is fine in a sandwich, but when it comes to garlic bread.. And don’t even get me started on the fact that it always seems to taste sweeter and in worst cases has a powdery texture.
For a long time my favourite brand for bread was Genius, in general this is a brand I trust not to be horrendous. It’s not the cheapest retailing at around £3, but nothing is cheap when you have an intolerance. I fully recommend buying it when it’s about to go off and reduced, then freezing it. You unfortunately have to accept that it’s always from frozen with this method, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Genius has an almost normal sized slice, which is a big positive in a world of mini slices. The slices are still a bit smaller than normal bread but not as bad as some free from bread. Genius’ texture is fairly good, you can butter it without it crumbling to pieces. However it does have a fairly sweet flavour.
The toastie loaf tastes a bit stale in my opinion, I would only ever use it for toast if you buy this loaf, which it’s clearly designed for. Stick with white or farmhouse if you can. Oddly I think the farmhouse tastes the sweetest of all the loaves.
My new favourite free from bread brand is Warburton’s. It honestly is almost as good as real bread! It has the biggest slices I’ve come across in a free from bread, they’re actually the size of regular bread. It retails at a similar price to Genius (approximately £3) but is also available in a half loaf. Warburton’s is less sweet than Genius and still maintains a good crumble-free texture which isn’t as stale as other brands. It’s the best gluten-free bread I’ve had, but remember it’s still gluten-free so don’t get your hopes too high.
If you want cheap you want supermarket own brands, retailing closer to £2. They’re not normally as good as Warburton’s or Genius, in fact some are just gross. I wouldn’t recommend Sainsbury’s own brand, but Tesco’s isn’t bad.
The pit of the bread bin has to be long-life. The ones with two halves sealed separately may make economic sense at first, but the slices are always tiny and tend to seem stale. I avoid long-life supermarket own, as they always seem to disappoint. However if you’re planning on toasting the bread or making your own garlic bread then the Schar ciabatta long-life bread can be pretty tasty. Especially warm and lathered in butter or vegan spread alongside a hot soup.
Let me know if there are any brands I’ve missed here that I should try!
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The Bakery At Home 