This is a guest post written by Fawn Dietz. If you like her take on gluten free bread, you’ll love her blog! navigatingglutenfree.com.
Finding that perfect gluten free bread is essential when switching to a gluten free diet. Nowadays, there are so many products on the market, I wanted to understand which one tasted the best, while providing the most bang for my buck.
In prep for this article, I purchased 9 gluten free breads and came up with a list of several ways people might use them in recipes. My husband and I then taste tested each bread across all the recipes and gave them a 1-5 star rating. After the taste test, we came up with a number of objective points of comparison like size, weight, and price and used these to rank the breads 1-9. Here’s a list of all the tests we ran:
- Size of slice
- Cost of bread per ounce
- Cost of bread per slice
- Bread pudding recipe
- French toast recipe
- Garlic bread recipe
- Grilled cheese recipe
- Panini recipe
- Stuffing recipe
- Sandwich on untoasted bread
- How well butter can be spread on untoasted bread
Yes, as you can tell, my husband and I went all in on this.
Gluten Free Bread Results
The top gluten free bread after we ran all the tests was Canyon Bakehouse Sweet Hawaiian. It ranked the highest on average score overall; however, Against The Grain Fresh Rosemary Baguettes received the highest overall star rating. Here is the full list.
1. Canyon Bakehouse Hawaiian Sweet Bread
Avg Test Rank: 3.3 / 9
Star Rating: 3.4
This brand tops our list with an average rank of 3.3 out of 9 breads and an average star rating of 3.4. The best and worst of this bread is the flavor. It tended to work in its favor more than against it, and the texture was soft but well structured.
While it ranked 5th on our list for bread size, the slices are pretty small, which is a consideration. Other flavors from the same brand are quite a bit larger. I’d use this bread for sandwiches, french toast, and other sweet applications. But it would work well for toast as well.
2. Schar Artisan Baker Multigrain Bread
Avg Test Rank: 3.7 / 9
Star Rating: 3.1
A good, solid, overall bread that checks the boxes on most applications. It didn’t get below three stars on any test.
I don’t have any extra suggestions for this one. It wasn’t remarkable, but in the end, it turned out to be one of the top overall bread options.
3. Against The Grain Fresh Rosemary Baguettes
Avg Test Rank: 4 / 9
Star Rating: 3.7
Against The Grain was the only bread that didn’t come sliced. When I picked it out at the store, I intended to get the one without extra flavor, but I ended up with the rosemary-flavored one. And surprisingly, it turned out to be favorable in the results.
With an average rank of 4 and an average star rating of 3.7, this one comes in at number 3 on our list. This one was the smallest of slices, but the actual flavor and texture beat out all of the others. The rosemary flavor worked surprisingly well in the sweet applications.
But it did have a chewy texture which didn’t work in all applications. The texture is firm at room temperature. So I recommend eating anything made with this bread as soon as it finishes cooking. I recommend you not use it in any raw applications.
4. Franz Gluten Free Mountain White Bread
Avg Test Rank: 3.4 / 9
Star Rating: 3.4
This brand was a staple in our house for several years, but I recently switched it out for a different one after running a test on if gluten free bread molds faster. So I may be biased towards this brand. I have done almost all of these recipes with this brand of bread before these tests.
On average, we ranked it at number 4 with an average star rating of 3.4, which places it in position 4 of 9 overall. It is an all-purpose bread. But it has a firmer texture than Schar or Canyon Bakehouse. The texture is what placed it lower on the list.
If you are looking for a brand of bread that is good in many applications, this one will work well. But other brands of bread did better overall. However, if they have allergens you can’t have, or you can’t get them in your area, this is a solid choice.
5. Udi’s Multigrain Bread
Avg Test Rank: 4.1 / 9
Star Rating: 3.3
This bread is slightly sticky to the touch right out of the bag. One of the main ingredients is apple puree which gives it a dark color and a slightly tacky texture.
Overall, Udi’s ranked 4.1 out of 9 and got an average of 3.3 stars. The apple gave it a slightly sweet flavor and helped in some tests, while it didn’t do as well in others. It is also quite dark, which along with the higher sugar content, makes it look like it has burned.
This bread also ranked very low in the test with spreading butter on bread because it tore severely. It also had the largest surface area of any bread in our test.
6. Sam’s Choice Gluten Free Classic White Bread
Avg Test Rank: 4.9 / 9
Star Rating: 2.9
Since I have extensive experience with Franz, as noted earlier, the first thing I noticed was how similar Sam’s Choice was in look, size, texture, and even packaging. In all the tests, Franz and Sam’s Choice came out very similarly. The main difference seemed to come down to the lack of flavor in Sam’s Choice bread.
Sam’s Choice was ranked 4.9 on average and had an average of 2.9 stars. The flavor of the bread is what held it back the most in our testing.
7. Rudi’s Gluten Free Homestyle Original
Avg Test Rank: 5.6 / 9
Star Rating: 2.7
The most notable thing about this brand was how soft it was. The spongy texture was the downfall in many different tests. Rudi’s ranked an average of 5.6 out of 9 and received an average of 2.7 stars.
The most notably bad tests for Rudi’s were the french toast and bread pudding. Rudi’s tore between the egg mixture and the pan in the french toast test. And it completely disintegrated in the bread pudding test. Both of these highlighted the issue of how soft the bread is.
I was surprised how well it did in the stuffing test. I think it didn’t disintegrate in that test because I toasted the bread cubes until they were the texture of croutons before I added the liquid.
8. Kroger Gluten Free 7 Grain Bread
Avg Test Rank: 6 / 9
Star Rating: 2.7
The Kroger gluten free bread is small, and it has an odd shape to it. It reminds me of bread that failed to rise. However, the main downfall was the flavor. There was an overwhelming flavor of sourdough that intensified when I cooked it.
On average, Kroger ranked 6 out of 9 with an average of 2.7 stars. This number means it got the same star ratings as Rudi’s, but it was ranked lower on average, dropping it to number 8 on our list.
When used in applications that work well for the strong sourdough flavor, it does well. The texture of the bread is firm enough to hold up in most tests, but it was also sufficiently absorbent that it soaked the flavors and liquids up and didn’t disintegrate.
9. Simple Truth Puff Bunz
Avg Test Rank: 9 / 9
Star Rating: 1.1
On average, we ranked it 9 out of 9, which means it placed last in every single test we did. With an average star rating of 1.1, it only got above 1 star on a single test.
I chose this option to get a range of bread types and hoped that keto bread might surprise us. Unfortunately for my taste buds, I was very mistaken.
It never gave a texture or a taste that went beyond scrambled eggs. Bread pudding may have been the most offensive of the bunch. But scrambled eggs flavored like stuffing weren’t pleasant either. I had hoped that the stuffing recipe would turn out since it was dehydrated, but it wasn’t enjoyable.
