Of all the things that I had to give up many years ago when I started my gluten-free diet, bread was the most difficult. I made a few attempts at baking my own bread, and while the results were okay, the process was very time-consuming for me. Back then, gluten-free flour was not easily available where I shopped, and I tried to make my own flour by grinding rice. As you can imagine, it was a time-consuming, and messy process.
I did purchase a few loaves of gluten-free bread from specialty health food stores as often as I could but the bread that I purchased back then, didn’t seem to come even close to the bread that I had given up when I had to leave wheat behind. And then one day, several years later, my wife came home from shopping and brought me a loaf of Udi’s bread. She’d found it at the local grocery store in the freezer section. I tried just one slice, and I was hooked.
Udi’s bread reminded me of the homemade bread that my mother used to bake weekly and from then, Udi’s bread became a regular part of my shopping list. The only drawback that I could see to the bread was that it wasn’t uncommon to encounter inside of a loaf, several slices that contained a big hole—a gap where big bubble from the rising bread had created empty pockets inside the loaf. Gluten-free bread naturally produces loaves smaller in size, and so these bubbles inside of the loaves may have prompted some complaints about customers not getting a full loaf of bread. This issue didn’t bother me at all. It was a small annoyance that I was more than happy to put up with as long as I could have this wonderful loaf of bread that took me right back to my mom’s kitchen.
Over time, Udi’s bread was sold from the original owner and then Udi’s eventually came out with an “improved” version. The improved version eliminates the empty pockets inside the loaf, but the bread is now finer, and a bit more apt to fall apart as a sandwich bread. This updated Udi’s bread is still a good bread, but in my opinion, it’s a step back from the original recipe. Maybe they could follow Coca Cola’s example and bring back the original Udi’s and call it Udi’s Classic. Udi’s bread is a frequent substitute whenever my favorite loaf isn’t available. Udi’s will always have a soft spot in my heart because they were the ones to bring gluten-free bread to my local grocery store.
I’m very anxious to learn more about your thoughts on Udi’s White Sandwich Bread,
