Review: Better Batter GF Flour Mix

I just ate a fluffy Italian bread roll with real butter and grape jam that was so good, I might have had a little tear.

It was crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. There are no eggs in the dough, so there is none of that weird, burned egg smell and taste that so many gluten-free breads have. It tasted like a little bready piece of heaven.

Someone recommended Better Batter gluten-free mixes to me, and now I have the pleasure of recommending them to you because the company sent me a box of their delicious deliciousness. I tried the All Purpose Flour Mix first because the person who sent me the box also emailed in response to my blog post about not liking the King Arthur GF bread mix that I should try the Easy Italian Bread Rolls on the back of the box.

Thank you, Ma’am. They were amazing.

The mix has these ingredients: Rice flour, brown rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, potato flour, pectin and xanthan gum. It is marked as gluten, dairy, peanut, seafood, egg and soy free.

As I mentioned, my biggest issue with GF yeast bread or rolls is that you usually have to put up to three eggs in the dough, which is really more of a batter. And you end up with something that looks like bread, but tastes like sort of vinegary burned eggs and if you’re extra lucky and the recipe called for bean flour, a garbanzo-y after taste. Yum.

These rolls called for just the whole 20 ounce box of flour, warm water, a packet of yeast and some salt. A little corn meal on the pan, which is a stroke of genius, and an egg wash on top for even coloring.

That’s it.

No eggy batter!

In fact, after I mixed for the recommended four minutes, I ended up with something like a loose bread dough.

The rolls formed up lovely on the pan and the dough was stiff enough to stay put and not spread so that after rising I just had one big cookie-sheet shaped roll.

They rose for 20 minutes and baked in a 450 degree oven for 20 more. They rose up like big fluffy clouds and turned a really pretty golden brown.

But best of all, they tasted really good. Like bread. The kind of bread you can just take a bite of without having to toast it to hide the weird texture and then slather in as much stuff as possible to hide the taste. These rolls are not sandwich-filling delivery systems. They are rolls.That’s all. Something simple that you miss when it’s gone and are grateful for when it comes back.

If you look at the front page of their website, you’ll see a tab called Financial Aid. This company offers a discounted price for families who have a child who has autism and those who qualify for food aid, such as WIC or food stamps. Now, of course, if you qualify for food aid, you can probably use your food stamps to buy this product in the store (if it’s available) or a competitor with no cash outlay.

But, the idea that this company is offering a financial aid program at all is refreshing and really makes me happy to support them.

In fact, the company’s logo is Eat Freely, Give Freely. A percentage of their profits goes to charitable causes.

Delicious rolls and helping others? Pretty cool.

The All-purpose flour is a cup-for-cup replacement for wheat flour. You do have to make some adjustments in recipes, having to do with the liquids, but these printed in plain language right on the box–and the website has many recipes if you want something that is already converted.

Speaking of the box, I want to take a minute to say that the packaging of these products is really nice. It’s simple and pretty with the ingredients listed using language that I could understand, a clear allergy advisory, a well-written recipe and the information about using the product.

Okay. I’m going to have to order some of this now, because there is no way I can give up rolls twice.

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Better Batter sent me a sample of their product to try and review for you. My comments are my own however.