Simple Mills Artisan Bread mix review
GFTracyJune 7, 2016June 7, 2016 Reviews No Comments
I’m reviewing another gluten free, paleo friendly, almond flour based box mix this week. This time it’s Simple Mills Artisan Bread mix. On the back, it’s got three ways to prepare it – flatbread, dinner rolls and sandwich bread. I halved the mix so I could try two different recipes with it and of course, I couldn’t just follow the box – I had to get fancy! My first attempt was garlic dinner rolls, and my second was cinnamon buns. All the details on how to make both are below!
You can get Simple Mills products *on Amazon or directly from their website in the United States. In the United Kingdom, you can get them from ^Make It Gluten Free. Speaking of, Make It Gluten Free sent me this mix to try. Here’s what I did!
^As of this writing, the Artisan Bread mix is sold out on Make It Gluten Free. They expect to have more in stock by the end of June – I’ll keep an eye out and update this when it’s back!
Dinner rolls
These stick to paper – do not attempt!
This is one of the recipes on the back of the Simple Mills Artisan Bread mix box. Instead of adding ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder as suggested, I took the tablespoon of oil I was adding and sautéed 2 minced cloves of garlic in it. I dumped the oil and garlic bits into the mix and followed the directions the rest of the way… except when I didn’t grease the muffin cups and tried using paper wrappers instead. Don’t use paper, it sticks – badly! They were still good, despite the fact that the bottom peeled off with the paper. The texture is still much denser than a yeast-based bread, but the flavor is really good. I don’t think I’d want to eat it all the time, but for an occasional treat, this was a nice roll.
Cinnamon buns
Dough ball grid
Simple Mills has a recipe on their website, but it seemed to be written to their old packaging. It says to follow the recipe for focaccia, which wasn’t actually on the box I received. I freestyled enough that I’m just going to write my recipe below, but I used theirs as the basic guideline!
For the rolls, I followed the flatbread recipe on the box and added 1 teaspoon of sugar to the mix. I dropped spoonfuls of dough onto a buttered cookie sheet so that they were just touching – a grid of dough balls, if you will.
For the cinnamon topping, I mixed:
2 teaspoons butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
I put it all in a microwave safe bowl and heated it until the butter melted, then mixed it really well. I drizzled that all across the dough balls and used a spoon to spread it around a bit better. Then I sprinkled ¼ cup lightly toasted, chopped pecans over the top and pressed them down just slightly so they wouldn’t fall off.
I baked these for 10-12 minutes (I forgot to reset the timer after 10 minutes, but it was closer to 12 for me) at 375F / 190C.
While they were in the oven, I made up a quick icing:
1 teaspoon melted butter
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 drops of vanilla extract
½ tablespoon hot water
I stirred and stirred until it was smooth, not lumpy.
The finished product!
After I took the rolls out of the oven, I transferred them to a plate (they were all baked together so it was easy.) I spread icing over them (I dropped a little spoonful on top of each roll and let it melt around a bit, using a spoon to redistribute as needed.)
So these were pretty awesome. I tried them fresh after I made them, and they had that good, sticky cinnamon you’d get in a roll. The sweetness of the cinnamon and icing were a nice contrast to the buns themselves, which are still pretty savory (one of my friends called it slightly salty.) They were approved by two gluten-eating friends and I loved them. I’m kind of sad to be out, but at least I know where to get more!
Have you tried Simple Mills Artisan Bread, or any of their other mixes yet? How delicious are cinnamon rolls? Tell me in the comments!