I am so happy that the supermarkets in The Netherlands started providing more gluten free products. Although I am using processed gluten free foods sporadically, it makes me feel safer to be able to purchase gluten free food whenever needed.
A couple of months ago, the Jumbo supermarket began to sell fresh gluten free bread Yam. I found it inconvenient that it had to be pre-ordered. You couldn’t just go to a shop and buy a loaf of bread. It had to be planned ahead. One more thing to occupy my already busy mind – no, thank you.
It is such a joy that since 25th August (2014) the AH supermarket sells fresh gluten free Genius bread, buns and muffins (products and prices). No pre-orders necessary. We can enter (almost)any AH supermarket in the country and get our fresh loaf of bread. It feels so good!
Besides, the number of gluten free products provided by the AH increased. Amongst others, products of Crazy Bakers (contain wheat-derived ingredients not suitable for sensitive Celiacs) or Livwell are now accessible (btw. the pita breads from Livwell taste so good!).
Genius Breads and Buns and Muffins are WHEAT FREE and DAIRY FREE !!!
There are 4 types of Genius breads available in AH
- White bread
- Brown bread
- Multi-seeds bread
- Sweet bread with fruit
We can choose between two types of buns
- White buns
- Multi-seeds buns
Besides, there are chocolate muffins in the assortment.
So far, I tried 5 products of Genius: the white buns, the multi-seeds buns, the sweet bread, the chocolate muffins and the multi-seeds bread.
How do I grade the above four products
Nr. 1 – the multi-seeds bread (great texture, amazingly good taste, smells good, well tolerated by my body)
Nr. 2 – the multi-seeds buns (great texture, great taste, rich aroma, well tolerated by my body)
Nr. 3 – the chocolate muffins (good texture, perhaps just a tiny bit too dry, taste is okay, well tolerated by my body)
Nr.4 – the white buns (typical poor gluten free texture, crumbling a lot, terrible taste, well tolerated by my body)
Nr.5 – The sweet bread (very good texture, wonderful taste and cinnamon aroma, gave me terrible headache and other symptoms). I am truly disappointed in my reaction to this bread. It was the best gluten free bread (from a package) that I have tasted so far. Another explanation to my bad reaction could be gluten contamination of the bread. This product was the only one (that I tried) which wasn’t in a sealed package. I have read on forums that in some shops the bread bags weren’t well closed while laying in a bread department. I might give it another go in a while again. (An update: I tried it one more time and again I got i terrible migraine). If my body wouldn’t react to it so bad – it would be a candidate for a Nr.2 :-)
Overall, the Genius breads contain mostly starchy flours. The list of ingredients of the sweet bread is suspiciously long. But yeah, it has to feel ‘fresh’ for at least 1 week, if I remember the expiration date correctly. Such easily available breads are handy from time to time but I know that I am not able to tolerate such ‘heavy’ cocktail of functional food ingredients on daily basis. Unless I want to walk around with inflamed tummy (read: balloon).
Did you already try new gluten free products from AH? I am curious what you think about them.
Cheers,
