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.
