Social Nature - Little Northern Bakehouse

The latest free sample I received from SocialNature is Little Northern Bakehouse gluten-free bread.

For restrictive diets, there's lots to like with this pretty much lowest-common denominator almost-everyone-can-eat-it bread: Gluten-free, but also non-GMO and Vegan.

The first challenge in getting them was actually finding them in-store. From the online Store Locator, I knew to look in Save-On-Foods but I didn't see it with the rest of the breads, and ended up having to ask the Bakery Department, who directed me to a freezer near the meat section. Nowhere close to breads and chock full of other gluten-free breads.

I really wanted a "normal" loaf of plain white to compare with "normal" bread, but they only have fancy varieties with stuff in it. In the end I picked Cinnamon & Raisin Loaf because I figured raisin breads are common enough that I could compare and non-raisin-hater readers could also relate.

Here are some *before store discount* price-per-100 gram comparisons of Raisin loaves from the Save-On-Foods near Metrotown (2017-October-17):

$0.74/100g - Country Harvest whole wheat raisin cinnamon
$0.84/100g - Dempsters Cinnamon Raisin
$0.77/100g - local/baked in-store (?) Raisin Bread
$1.35/100g - Little Northern Gluten Free (and vegan) Cinnamon Raisin

Price for portion, getting a specialty loaf costs about twice as much. The bag size looks about the same but the loaf is definitely smaller.
IMPORTANT: I am not celiac. I am not vegan. So it's definitely daunting to want to switch. But if you are either, then to a certain extent, beggars can't be choosers and the market makes you pay a premium for a specialty product.

2017-Oct-17 Save on Foods - 4.99-5.69 cinnamon raisin bread

2017-Oct-17 Save on Foods - 3.50 local Raisin Bread with 40% raisins

2017-Oct-17 Save on Foods - 6.49 Little Northern Bakehouse gluten free cinnamon raisin loaf

The shape is also, in a word, horrible. Maybe freezing it did it no favours. Here are some pictures of the still-basically-frozen loaf when I got it home from Save-On-Foods:

2017-10-17 - Little Northern Bakehouse gf cinnamon raisin loaf - in package

2017-10-17 - Little Northern Bakehouse gf cinnamon raisin loaf - loaf (frozen)

2017-10-17 - Little Northern Bakehouse gf cinnamon raisin loaf - cross section (frozen)

I let it thaw a bit, then threw the two slices pictured above into my toaster on the very lowest setting. TIP: The raisins take a bit longer to warm up than the bread.

I'm not celiac, so I can be picky about gluten-free breads and the early ones were dry and crumbly. Little Northern Bakehouse promises "the consistency and feel of regular bread, so they won't crumble or fall apart". The texture is in fact very, very, close to "normal bread". If you put any kind of spread on it, or if you're just not paying close attention, you'll miss the slightly grainy texture on your tongue.

Overall as bread goes, it's pretty good except for the shape. For people who want to switch to gluten free (and vegan) and miss bread, this is a very good facsimile. If you're going to serve it, best to try disguising its shape with some kind of dressing or topping -- and the Little Northern Bakehouse blog has no shortage of recipes.

2017-10-17 Social Nature - Little Northern Bakehouse

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 3

A picture from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. I can't remember why I had this couple in the picture, but I do vaguely remember this to be in London, on the first official day of the tour group getting together. Their insistence on my helping them take a picture caused the three of us to be late getting back to the bus. The local tour guide had a "rule" about lateness, that we had to buy chocolate to share with everyone. As it turned out, later in the trip, on at least two occasions, we were stuck on the highway on either a long commute or a traffic jam, and I had chocolate and chocolate-covered marzipan to share. About the chocolate-covered marzipan -- Apparently we were in Austria just as they were celebrating Mozart's birthday with special marzipans wrapped in foil with the famous composer's picture. I'm pretty sure it was Mirabell Mozartkugeln . Anyway, there were enough to go around the en...

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 10

The last of my pictures (at least the ones that survived the cheesy disposable cameras) from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. Below is the obligatory group photo. Not sure everyone's in it, actually. I'm pretty sure this one was taken by the tour director, Mike Scrimshire as I'm in the back row, on the right side.

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 9

More assorted couples on my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. An American couple who joked about being from "the land of the giants" -- and with good reason, because both of them were really tall! A cute Jewish mother-daughter pair who ducked out part-way to divert to Israel. I vaguely remember the issue of the daughter being an orthodox Jew was highlighted in France when, to make things easy, she just declared herself vegetarian for the wait staff. I also remember there was some logistics error in France because our party size was way underestimated or simply relayed incorrectly, and there was a shortage of food at dinner. Dessert came as an unopened can of yogurt. It did not seem like they tried to make it up to us later, either. Plus there was smoking every which way in France, and I had a helluva time with that. We were also in a hotel that seemed tucked away in the burbs, and not walking distance from anythin...

Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

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