Udi's Plain Bagels

My daughter actually found these bagels at our local supermarket. They're called Udi's Plain Bagels and they were hiding in the bakery department! They were in the display fridge with the decorated cakes. My husband was in the bakery getting a treat for himself and my daughter happened to see them.

Not only are they gluten free, but they're also dairy, soy, and nut free. That's great for us since we've also taken my daughter off of milk products. They cost a little over $5 for four bagles, but if you go to their website you can print out a $1 off coupon.


The bagels were kind of dark on the outside, they looked more like whole wheat bagels than plain.


One of the great things about Udi's bagels is that they are already split. Once I got the bagel opened up I could see the lovely doughy white inside.


And since a bagel is always better with a little schmear, of course I had to slather on some whipped cream cheese!


These bagels are awesome. The texture is great. Gluten free foods tend to have a crumbly texture, but somehow those amazing people over at Udi's managed to make these bagels chewy and delicious. I am a huge fan of bagels and they are one of the things I miss most from my old gluten diet. These bagels are just as good as any of the "regular" bagels on the store shelf, and much better than some!

Oh, and I also tried these toasted. The results were just as great. Even when they were cooked they still kept that great bagel chewiness. I think these bagels would be great substituted for "regular" bagels in any situation. I'm going to try using one for a nice big turkey sandwich.

Udi's Plain Bagels get high marks for great texture and taste, bonus points go for being already sliced. I really recommend these and I'm excited to try their other products! Head over to UdisGlutenFree.com and get yourself a coupon.

Hodgson Mill Gluten Free Cookie Mix

I found Hodgson Mill Gluten Free Cookie Mix in the baking aisle of my local supermarket. It's a regular drop cookie mix kind of like a sugar cookie. Under the instructions there were alternate recipes to turn the cookies into chocolate chip, peanut butter, chocolate, pecan, or almond cookies. The mix was also less than $3, so I was pretty happy to find a gluten free alternative that didn't break the bank.



I was especially excited because I love almond cookies. When I was little my mom would make sugar cookies and instead of using vanilla extract she'd add almond extract, so almond is one of those things that takes me to a happy place.

This past weekend my husband made me the cookies as a treat for my birthday. The recipe was easy to follow and I was so excited that I had to sneak a taste of the dough. (I know, I know, don't eat dough with raw egg. I couldn't wait, I was too excited!) It was awful. The dough tasted like it had dust in it. I actually checked the box to see if the mix was past it's expiration date. No, it doesn't expire until November 2011. I thought it was one of those doughs that taste funny until you bake it. With that in mind my husband continued making the cookies.

They came out of the oven looking amazing. As you can see from the picture, they rose beautifully and came out golden brown. Too bad they tasted like chalk. I'm not kidding, they were terrible. If they had been wafers instead of cookies I'd swear we found the recipe for unflavored TUMS.

They were so bad that my two year old boy wouldn't even eat them, and he's eaten bugs.

I really can't recommend this mix. It gets high points for being inexpensive and easy to use, but the resulting cookies are just too gross to eat. Please, don't buy this mix.