Gluten Free Flour: Bella Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix

PRODUCT NAME:                   All Purpose Baking Mix

BRAND:                                  Bella Gluten-Free

COST:                                    $5.95

SIZE:                                      15.5 OZ

COST PER OZ:                       $0.38/oz

CERTIFIED GLUTEN FREE:     YES

CERTIFICATION AGENCY:      Celiac Recognition Association

ORGANIC:                              NO

CERTIFICATION AGENCY:      NA

VEGAN:                                 YES

GLUTEN FREE FACILITY:       YES

LOCATION OF FACILITY:       Longmont, CO

SHELF LIFE:                          1.5 Years

*These statements are based on the information printed on the product packagig.   Wecannot verify the accuracy of this information.  For verification of the statements above, please contact the manufacturer.

REVIEW:

 

I was very excited to be given a bag of All Purpose Baking Mix right before Thanksgiving because I was invited to a couple different dinners where I knew could not assume a gluten-free diet would be taken into consideration. Since I didn’t want to be hungry on Thanksgiving, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Using Bella’s Baking Mix, I made a crust for a pumpkin pie, blueberry muffins, and lefse, which is a traditional Norwegian potato pancake rolled up and filled with butter and cinnamon sugar. Everything I made was altered to be vegan to account for other allergy sensitive friends, and with the mix, everything came out as expected!

Some gluten free baking mixes use bean flours, which to my overly sensitive pallet , taste bitter. Bella Gluten-Free’s mix has a combination of  brown rice flour, white rice flour, potato starch, sweet rice flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, and sea salt which made their mix taste sweet and warm. This mix was really easy to work with, was not sticky, too thick or too thin. It was also simple to convert my grandmother’s lefse recipie from gluten-full to gluten free because Bella’s Baking Mix replaces wheat flour cup for cup.

I made the muffins and pie crust according to the recipes on the back of the package (there was also a recipe for Flaky Southern Biscuits and Fluffy Gluten-Free Pancakes and Belgium Waffles.) I was appreciative of all the uses suggested by the manufacturer; they even included a conversion table for replacing eggs with an vegan subsitiute. The blueberry muffins were hearty and filling and were a little denser than I am used to but I didn’t mind. They were not too sweet and the recipe called for fresh blueberries, which got gooey and delicious after baking. The pie crust was flaky and slightly sweet, allowing the pumpkin filling of my vegan pumpkin pie to shine.

Taste: Bella’s Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix didn’t have a strong, prominent flavor, which is a very good thing. This flour made a perfect and convenient replacement for wheat flour, and didn’t add any strange or unexpected flavors. It just did what I expect any good flour mix to do, which was to function in a similar way to conventional flours.

Labeling: The front of the package stated that the mix was 100% natural and also

allergen free. The back had nutritional information, an ingredients list, and four recipes.

Packaging: This mix was in a resealable bag with 4.25 cups of flour inside.

Reader’s Reviews: Please share with us your review of this company’s other products +

where you purchased the product + how long you have been using this product. Please

no review from the family + friends of the company producing the product…

RATING:

Texture:        5

Taste:            5

Value:           4

OVERALL:     4.7

Reviewed by Jennie L.