Better For You Bakery

Happy Monday!  I'm really excited about tonight's post!!  However, I have to be completely honest and tell you how intimidated I have been these past couple of years by the thought of gluten free baking.  I haven't had trouble adjusting to gluten free cooking, but gluten free baking is another animal altogether!  This weekend I had the opportunity to turn my kitchen into a test kitchen for some new gluten free mixes on the market and was reminded how much I love to bake.  Not only am I excited because they were delicious and easy to make, but I am REALLY excited because they are made and marketed by a local, dedicated gluten free commercial bakery called, Better For You Bakery LLC.  Owned and operated by Tina Meseck, Better For You Bakery is located in Jefferson, Iowa.  The recipes and products have all been developed by Tina, herself.  

Tina Meseck (used with her permission)

I'll give you some more information about Tina's business and her new website later in this post.  First, let's talk about food - a favorite subject of mine, as my waistline will attest.

I received the four mixes Tina currently is marketing, French Bread, English Muffin, Multi-Grain Bread and Chocolate Cake - all 100% gluten free!  While Tina, herself, does not have Celiac Disease, she states that she does have a food allergy and preservative/chemical sensitivity, thus, her products are also free from preservatives, which is another major plus in my book.  Tina is a firm believer in *"offering products that include more gluten free whole grains and flours versus all starches, very little whole grains or a lot of sugar."

I invited my mom over to help me on Saturday and it brought back good memories having the two of us working in the kitchen together.  We started out with the French Bread mix.  I don't have a traditional French bread loaf pan, but that's not a problem, because you can use regular loaf pans - or the dough can be used for pizza on a round pizza pan!  I love the versatility of her mixes.  This isn't the only mix that can be used multiple ways.  All of the mixes were really easy and fun to make.  I actually had almost all of the extra needed ingredients in my own kitchen already!  The texture of the French bread was a bit more dense than what I think of French bread being, but the taste was exquisite!  I used a packet of gluten free dry Italian dressing seasoning (yes, Italian in French bread!) with the mix and the flavor exploded in my mouth!  Very good served warm with a tab of real butter.

Next up was the one I was looking forward to the most - the English Muffin mix!  I LOVE English Muffins!!  I couldn't believe that there was a gluten free English Muffin mix available!  Tina told me that she did some checking and hers is the only gluten free English Muffin mix on the market.  There are frozen gluten free English Muffins available, but hers is the only mix.  It can be made into English muffins or baked in a loaf pan.  I chose to try to make them into muffins.  I don't have an English Muffin pan, so I made them according to the directions on baking parchment paper on cookie sheets.  This worked just fine.  The taste and texture of these English Muffins did not disappoint at all!  They were perfect!  I've been eating them every morning for breakfast since I made them - almost gone :-(  Looks like I'll have to get some more!  Next time I'm going to try adding cinnamon and raisins!  Mmmmmm...

 I used some homemade jam that I bought at our local Farmer's Market from my favorite booth - C. Brown Gardens

Don't you wish you had some???

My stand mixer has a short in the cord and doesn't work very well, so we had to use my hand mixer for everything.  The Multi-grain was not easy to do this with, as it is a thicker dough that needs mixed for a longer time - Mom and I took turns to get it completely mixed together as needed.  The result was so worth the effort!  This gluten free multi-grain bread is so soft and the flavor has a mild sweetness due to the added ingredient of honey.  Oh my!  I've been eating it without even putting anything (not even butter) on it - the flavor is that good!

After all that baking on Saturday, I decided to take a break and finish it off on Sunday with the Chocolate Cake mix.  Tina is a woman after my own heart!  One of the added ingredients for this mix - COFFEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh yeah!  This girl is a happy camper!  The additional ingredients also included unsweetened applesauce. Per Tina's suggestion, I also added coffee to the frosting I made to go with the cake (frosting ingredients are not included in the mix - you make your own, or - maybe don't!  The cake is that moist and good!)  My non-GF hubby (who doesn't even care that much for chocolate cake, unless it is German Chocolate) enjoyed a slice last night.  He said it was really good.  That's saying a lot for him!  :-)  I took the rest of the cake (after a slice for me, my mom and another friend) to share with my co-workers today.  I also took samples of the French Bread and Multi-Grain Bread for them.  The cake was gone!  It was a big hit with my non-GF co-workers, who also enjoyed the two breads.  No, I did not share any of my English Muffins - mine!  All mine!!!!

I'll never win any cake decorating contest, but when the cake tastes like this - who cares?!

I asked Tina for some information about her goals with Better For You Bakery LLC.  She told me, "All the mixes are made from NON GMO sourced suppliers, however not every ingredient in my bakery is non GMO, just every ingredient in the mixes."  She went on to say, "I'm a dedicated gluten free facility.  My business is not a traditional retail storefront because commercial locations in our town are not a viable or sensible investment when I was looking and still aren't so I bought a house and it's my bakery location only I don't live there.  I use a lot more gf whole grains in my baking and make changes to traditional sugars and fats to adjust the amount to less and swap out other options.  I wan't people to be able to eat gluten free in a better and more inclusive way so when they take something of mine or make one of my mixes their gluten loving friends are still as excited about sharing it with them as they would if it were gluten version."  That certainly was my experience today when I shared with my co-workers.

Tina has been working on getting online shopping cart ordering available on her website.  She is hoping to have this up and running by Sept. 1st.  However, at this time, you can browse her "made to order" options, learn more about how she got started, get great gluten free baking tips and more.  Remember, Better For You Bakery is not a "stop and shop" storefront.  You need to place your order for pick up ahead of time.  You can learn more about Tina and Better For You Bakery at www.betterforyoubakery.net or you can contact Tina to place your order by calling 515-391-9549  You can also follow Better For You Bakery LLC on Facebook at www.facebook.com/betterforyoubakery/  

Happy Baking and Eating!

Tina in her bakery (used with her permission)

*From the "About" section of www.betterforyoubakery.net