Product Review: Pamel's Bread Mix and Flour Blend

Recipe Title: Pamela's Amazing Bread
Recipe Link: http://www.pamelasproducts.com/recipes/amazingbread.html
Product Link: http://www.pamelasproducts.com/ProductsMIXES.html#BREAD
Status: Approved
Rating: 10/10

Jen's Notes: One of these days, I'm going to start taking my own food pictures. Soon, my lovelies, soon.

In the mean time, you can occupy yourself with another product review from your favorite reviewer (right? right??). As you know, I've been trying to find a great bread recipe so that my adoring husband can have a sandwich for lunch. So far, it hasn't gone too well. So this week, I did the unthinkable.

I bought a mix.

I know, I know. It's shocking. I've always been a from-scratch kind of baker, and here I am buying a mix. It broke my heart to do it, but what kind of wife would I be if I let the hubby eat plain old meat cheese for lunch? See, you couldn't do it either. But enough chatter. On to the review!

Short summary: Awesome. It was easy-peezy to make, especially if you have a bread machine. I would recommend whisking your eggs together first, as always. Then it's just dump liquids + mix + yeast into the bread machine pan, set to desired cycle and go do something else for three hours. Really, the hardest part about making this recipe was hauling out the bread machine and getting the pan snapped back into place.

The flavor, you ask? Incredible. This was, much to my chagrin, the best gluten-free bread I've had so far. With last week's pudding catastrophe still fresh in my mind, you can only imagine the joy I felt when I watched the dough start to come together in the bread machine, and it actually looked like dough! Real, honest-to-goodness dough. And it tastes like bread too. Yes, it even works for sandwiches. Hubby has been happily having real sandwiches all week with this bread. This bread is still a bit dense, so he only uses one slice of bread folded over. I'm going to try adding an extra egg to see if that lightens things up a bit.

My only complaint is the price. The mix (at my grocery store, anyways) is about $6 per small bag, and that bag only makes one loaf. So the quest for the perfect bread recipe will continue, but I've promised hubby to keep making this bread until I can find a suitable from-scratch alternative. I'm planning to do some fiddling in the kitchen this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled!

Also, I'll throw in a little side review today. If you're like me, and have problems slicing bread evenly, you might want to consider getting a slicer. I spent an hour or two searching online, and I believe I've found the most bang for your buck in Rival's Fold-Up Food Slicer. It's only $40, and it allows you to set the slicer to your desired thickness. It folds up too, so that makes it a little easier to store. Hang on to the instruction book for awhile, though, or you might forget how to put it back together (I did). I didn't have any problem using it, and one nice feature is that you have to hold down two buttons together to get the blade to turn -- definitely a plus if you have a little one running around, and you don't want them to sever their limbs. I can't speak to its durability just yet, since we've only had it for a week, but I like it quite a bit so far. You will need to order it online, though, because Wal-Mart doesn't carry it in the store.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 3.5 hours
Start to Finish: 3.5 hours + 5 minutes

Lasagna Vegetariana

Recipe Title: Lasagna Vegetariana
Recipe Link: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2007/04/lasagna-vegetariana.html
Status: Approved!!!
Rating: 10/10

Jen's Notes: I made this night before last, with a friend of mine helping me out in the kitchen. Whether you are a vegetarian or not, you need to try this recipe. It was so insanely good. My husband polished off his plate in about two minutes (he's a fast eater), and my friend said that it was good enough to order from a restaurant. We will definitely be making this one again.

That said, this is a very time consuming recipe. There's a lot of ingredients, and a lot of them have to be chopped up or measured. It took me a little over an hour to get this in the oven, and that was with my friend helping me out. Part of this is probably because I kept having to stop and read the recipe in between doing stuff. Even so, I can't imagine the prep time being any less than 30 or 45 minutes, even if you have the recipe memorized. If you work full-time like I do, you might want to get this prepped the night before so that you can just stick it in the oven when you get home. I didn't get to start dinner until almost 6:30 this particular night, so it was almost 9pm by the time we ate.

The other adjustment you can make is the cook time. This was an accident, but it worked out. I was in a rush trying to get this thing in the oven, and I just skimmed through the cook time instructions and totally missed the fact that it was supposed to go in the oven covered for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 50 to 60. I only saw the second part of that, so I stuck it in the oven uncovered and set the timer for 55 minutes. I did realize my mistake before it finished cooking, but I decided to just let it ride - and everything turned out just fine. I really can't imagine that it would have turned out better (seriously, I don't think that's possible) if I had followed the cook time, but I may try it next time just to see. So, watch this space for updates!

What are you waiting for? Go make this lasagna!

Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes
Start to Finish: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Ham, Broccoli, Cheese and Onion Quiche (with a Gluten-Free Crust)

Recipe Title: Ham, Broccoli, Cheese and Onion Quiche (with a Gluten-Free Crust)

Recipe Link: Quiche Filling and Gluten-Free Pie Crust

Status: Tested and heartily approved

Rating: 10/10

Jen's Notes: The hubby really loved this one (quote: "This is the first thing you've made that I actually liked since we started this whole gluten-free thing"). Seriously, I was trying to ask him how it was but he was too busy shovelling it into his mouth to answer. And even better, it was really easy.

First, the pie crust. I picked up the Pamela's mix at the store, and made it exactly according to the recipe (with the exception of using a food processor to mix the dough). Be sure to note that this recipe makes TWO pie crusts, so if you only need one, just half the recipe. The dough is much more likely to rip than a regular pie crust dough, but don't stress too much if it rips. It's a little easier to repair rips and tears with this crust than normal crust. I was a little concerned about making a from-scratch pie crust on a weeknight, but it only took about 15 minutes, including rolling out the dough.

The filling was pretty low-stress too. I decided to add some broccoli to the recipe, so I just sauteed about 1 cup or so of chopped frozen broccoli at the same time that I sauteed the onions. Then just dump all the ingredients into a bowl, mix and pour into the pie crust. I should also note that instead of using eggs as called for in the main recipe, I used a 1/2 cup of Egg Beaters. If you have egg allergies, you can probably use the Ener-G egg replacement (though I don't know how that works).

One more note - if you've never bought cubed ham before and don't know where to find it, check the regular meat section of your supermarket, in with the ground beef, chicken, etc. NOT with the deli meat. The variety I bought was 95% lean, so this was still a pretty healthy meal.

The cook time for my quiche ended up being about 10 minutes longer than the quiche recipe said. I checked it at 40 minutes and the top wasn't browned yet so I kicked up the temp to 375 and cooked for another ten minutes. Again, this may very well be my oven's fault (too cheap to go buy an oven thermometer to find out).

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Start to Finish: 1 hour, 20 minutes