Sweet Note Bagels

One of the things that I have missed since going gluten free six years ago is bagels.  Particularly, “everything” bagels.  Maybe it is because of the area I grew up in, but to me, there are not too many things better than an “everything” bagel with cream cheese and lox.

Over the past few years, I have tried various gluten free bagels.  Some pre-made, some that had to be cooked.  I always tried to find one that actually tasted like a bagel, however, at the end of the day, I always ended up going with Udi’s bagels.

About six months back, I tried an “everything” bagel from Katz gluten free.  As I have said in the past, I don’t really like to put down any item that can help people be gluten free.  That being said, I found the Katz bagels to be “okay.”  They were quite thin…in fact so thin I found them difficult to slice.  I tried everything including toasting them whole, but nothing worked, so back to Udi’s I went.

A couple of months back, I found I had a new “follower” on my Twitter account, and it was a company called Sweet Note Bagels.  Of course, this caught my interest.  I went to their website, which you can see here.  Michelle MacDonald and Brittany Nettles run the company.  Needless to say, the bagels on their site looked AMAZING.  I quickly “followed” them back and contacted them about buying some of their bagels.  They told me they were not yet shipping to Massachusetts, but would contact me as soon as they were.  Two weeks ago, they contacted me, to let me know they could now ship to my state.  A week later, my wife ordered “everything” bagels for me and some sesame bagels for a gluten free colleague at work.

This past Wednesday, they arrived.  I opened them and put them in the freezer as instructed, and ate dinner.  Less than ten minutes after dinner ended, I had one of the “everything” bagels.  Since then, I have had two more.

The first thing you notice is that they are smaller than Udi’s bagels, but they are much heavier and denser.  One of the things I haven’t liked about Udi’s bagels is that I sometimes felt like I was eating bread with a different type of crust on it, so I liked the fact that the Sweet Note bagels had some body to them. 

The directions say to thaw them in the microwave for 45 to 60 seconds.  I think this depends on your microwave.  We seem to have a fairly powerful one, so 60 seconds was too long, but 45 was just right.  They are also thinner than Udi’s, but not so thin that you couldn’t slice them once defrosted. 

Now the most important thing:  How did they taste?  Well, for me, these are by far the best gluten free bagels I have tried.  They toasted great!  Crispy on the outside, cooked through but still slightly chewy on the inside, with tons of flavor from everything that goes onto an “everything” bagel.  I’m not the least bit ashamed to say I had two yesterday, and if it wasn’t for the fact we were going out to dinner, I probably would have had another…and another.

So here is my recommendation: hook up with these ladies…okay, let me rephrase that - contact this wonderful company on their website, on Twitter, wherever you can.  Find out if they ship to your state.  If they don’t, ask them to contact you when they can.  Then buy them, and enjoy them to your hearts content.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to eat an “everything” bagel from Sweet Note Bagels with a shmear of cream cheese.