I'm back for another post before the brand new year comes. This one is a review of a sampler box of bread and cookies from the Little Aussie's Bakery in San Antonio, Texas. Their specialty is gluten free bakery products (added bonus is that most of their stock is also Vegan as well!) My brother Jonathan was the one who let me know of their promo for this free sampler box (just had to pay the shipping and that was hardly anything). He had told me about this place before, particularly about how scarily close the flavor of their breads were to the genuine full gluten filled and non-vegan products; so when I saw the offer, I jumped on it.
Everything is baked to order; so the goods are usually shipped out the day that they were made and send via Priority ( I choose 2 day priority with USPS). I placed my order on 12/18 and received mine on 12/21, They recommend that you consume, refrigerate or freeze the products on receipt. I had to put mine in the fridge for at least one day; so I'm going off the review of these products based on those conditions.
The sampler box contained: 1 white roll, 1 whole flax roll, 1 cranberry roll, an 8 inch pizza crust, Hungerbuster bars and 1 Anzac cookie. All of these items are gluten free, 100% vegan and without soy, corn or nuts.
Rolls Rice, twice!
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| White Roll- halved and toasted |
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| White Roll- halved and toasted |
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| White Roll- crunched into |
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| Cranberry Roll- Revived in Oven |
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| Cranberry Roll- letting off some steam |
I started off with the white roll, as it is plain and unencumbered with any other flavors to distract on the true flavor of this plain dough. The initial look of the roll is pretty much like most plain rolls, very white and with the faint smell of fermented rice ( a bit like sake or maybe even Pak Tong Koh (a Chinese fermented and steamed rice cake). I used a toaster oven on mark 3, let them toast in 2 pieces for 5 minutes and then checked them out.
Wow. My brother was not wrong. It was amazing. It reminded me of eating a baguette that I had once had in France, many years ago. The texture and chew of it was just awesome and the saltiness and bit of tang came through so nicely. I was impressed, for sure. I would definitely get this bread again.
I revived this cranberry roll in the oven as a whole at 375F for 5 minutes.The cranberry roll was not my favorite. It was okay, but I didn't get much flavor from the added component of dried cranberries. They even had a touch of stevia and cinnamon in the mix, but I couldn't really taste either of those things. Maybe it would be better if eaten from a full loaf; so I would give this another shot, but only if I could try the whole loaf of it.
The flax roll, is actually still in my freezer right now. I got busy with the holidays and kept at least one treat for 'afters.' (Ohhh, I'm so English, right now ;p I will add that information in later. If I liked the white roll; I'm likely to enjoy the whole flax roll because it's a pure flavor. I imagine that it just tastes a bit nuttier with the addition of the flax.
The upper crust is the bottom crust!
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| 8 inch pizza crust topped with homemade brown lentil hummus, garlicky spinach and carmelized red onions |
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| Showing the thickness |
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| Showing the crumb |
The next thing that I tried was the 8 inch crust and since it was the same composition as the white roll; I went ahead and made my own toppings and baked it in a 375F for about 15-20 minutes. The crust was nicely browned, crisp and golden. It had the same wonderful substance as the white roll and went well with the toppings of my homemade lentil hummus, sauteed garlic spinach, caramelized red onions and finished with freshly ground black pepper. I ate it fresh from the oven ( letting it cool for 5 minutes before cutting into it) Lovely and crisp and with a moist center. I even saved a wedge for the next day to see how it stood up. I had planned to reheat it in the toaster oven, but had to use the microwave at the last minute and it amazingly came out just as crisp as from the oven (but ovens are always so much better, right?).
This bar is here to bust your hunger! Anzac, is its backup!
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| L to R: Hungerbuster bar and Anzac Cookie |
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| Hungerbuster bar, power! |
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| Crunch into a Hungerbuster bar and an Anzac cookie |
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| Anzac treats you well |
The Anzac cookie is lovingly hand pressed and reminds me of those Chinese restaurant 'almond cookies,' with their rich flavor and butteriness of the coconute in them. There is a nice sweet savory balance to them that reminds of of the joy of eating dark chocolate with flecks of sea salt. These are winners for sure and if you love Anzac cookies; then I need not say anything more.
I will more than likely be back here to add in a few more details, but for now I hope you've enjoyed this review =)
If after reading this review; you're compelled to try them for yourself and don't live anywhere near San Antonio or an hours vicinity of Little Aussie's Bakery; you can simply click on this link for the sampler. You just need to pay for the shipping.
Little Aussie's Bakery bread and cookie sampler box
Tell them Jessica Ligaya from Oh the Humanitea sent you! They may not know who that is, but it'd just be fun; if you did that ;p
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!
Love,
<3 <3 <3 Jessica
