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Better Batter Gluten Free Flour Review and Giveaway

I am so excited about this! Back in December I received a complimentary sample of Better Batter Gluten Free Flour to review on my blog. It arrived on Christmas Eve, just in time to make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning! I made the Pillsbury Cinnamon Roll Clone recipe that I found on the Better Batter Website. As I was rolling out the dough for the cinnamon rolls, I had to stop and just enjoy rolling the “real” dough between my fingers. I never thought I would ever experience that feeling again after my celiac diagnosis 5 years ago.

When the boys came down to see what “Santa” had brought the most amazing thing happened. They could smell the cinnamon aroma coming from the kitchen and they pitter-pattered right past all the loot and asked me what I was making. As I pulled the tray of hot gooey cinnamon rolls out of the oven, their eyes grew about an inch. We took a pause from the impending chaos of opening presents and just sat at the kitchen table and enjoyed our fluffy pillows of warm cinnamon goodness. The only sound that could be heard was of little lips smacking with delight. Our gluten-free life is now complete, there is nothing that we cannot have if we want it bad enough (Better Batter even has a recipe for GF Filo (or phyllo) Dough and GF Pizza Rolls… like the Totino’s Pizza Rolls!). This is a very powerful thing for me (and hopefully for Sam) because knowing we can have something if we want it, makes sticking to a permanent dietary regimen a lot easier to accept and embrace. I don’t know about you, but for me, if I know I cannot have something… it just makes me want it all the more (even if it is something I didn’t normally eat pre-gluten free, like Twinkies!). We were so into the cinnamon rolls that I forgot to take a picture!

I have also made the Cinnabon Clone Cinnamon Rolls (click here for the vegan version of the recipe), and I do have a picture to show you:

I was so impressed with Better Batter’s Gluten Free Flour, that I ordered a 25 lb. bag of flour before I was even finished with my sample package! That 25 lbs. is now gone too… it “left the building” a week after I got it! Mike just ordered me another 25 lbs. today! 🙂

I also made Pigs in a Blanket using Better Batter’s Super Versatile Bread Dough recipe.

This is where most of my 25 lbs. of Better Batter Flour went! My husband can eat his entire body weight's worth in one sitting and Mike is not a big eater (he is 6'5" and 180 lbs., he is a pretty thin guy!). I have a ton of these in my deep freezer, ready to pull out when needed!

Then there was the Better Batter Flour Tortillas! Oh my gosh, these are the best! I wholeheartedly believe they taste better that the store-bought glutinous flour tortillas. Not a doubt in my mind. They are super easy to make and by making your own, you can easily sub out the lard or fully and partially hydrogenated oil that is in Crisco. I used Spectrum Shortening which is non-hydrogenated.

Real Chicken Soft Tacos have re-entered our gluten-free meal time! WOO-HOO!

We have also made GF Breakfast Burritos, Huevos Rancheros and Burritos! Yum.

The dinner rolls I made came from a recipe I found on Recipezaar, I wanted to try out the Better Batter Gluten-Free Flour in other recipes to see if it worked just as well. So far, so good!

Check out the Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies I made yesterday:

And the Gluten-Free “Nutter Butter” Cookies:

I think they taste just like Nabisco's, even if they don't look the same! 😀

And this has been this biggest seller of all to me: Gluten-Free Puff Pastry! Yes, you heard me right, GF Puff Pastry…

Now, please keep in mind that I have never made Puff Pastry in my life, gluten-free or otherwise! Another thing to keep in mind is that this was not well thought out by me in advance. I am quite often driven by impulse, a sidekick companion to my ADD. There are positive sides to this trait of mine and some not-so positive sides. One positive? I can watch the movie Julie and Julia (GREAT movie by the way!!) on a Sunday night and wake up on Monday morning ready to tackle GF Puff Pastry, having not taken the time to think it through and risk talking myself out of it! The downside? I can get so involved in a project like this that I completely miss an appointment! I am currently working on some tactics to overcome this issue of mine and I think I will start by taking some wardrobe advice from Flava Flav (I might even do the hat!). Just call me Flava GF Mom! 😀 :

See what I mean? ADD tangent! Back to the GF Puff Pastry…

I watched an online video of Michele Richard and Julia Child making the gluten version of puff pastry and followed another blogger’s (Irina at Pastry Pal) tutorial for making glutenous puff pastry. Okay, so as I am sitting here writing this post, and copying links from the Pastry Pal’s blog to show you where I got my inspiration, I just happened to go to Irina’s home page and guess what I found? A recipe for Nanimo Bars that are gluten-free! The Nanimo Bars recipe was part of a 2010 Daring Baker’s Challenge hosted by Lauren of The Celiac Teen! Apparently, Irina has a wheat sensitivity and is going to be making more gluten-free recipes! That is either total dumb luck on my part or we really do live in a small world!

This is my first attempt at Gluten-Free Puff Pastry using Better Batter Gluten-Free Flour

For comparison purposes, here is Irina’s gluten puff pastry from the Pastry Pal Website:

This is Wheat Based Homemade Puff Pastry that Irina of PastryPal.com made.

My Gluten-Free Puff Pastry is not quite as “poofy,” as the wheat based puff pastry but I am not willing to chalk that up to it not having any gluten, not yet anyway. Right now I would say the “poof-lite” outcome is due to operator error. I am going to keep practicing to see if I can’t make the GF puff pastry equally as puffy as the gluten version. Outside of the puffy factor, the taste was AMAZING! I used it last night to make Chicken Pot Pies (using a Rachael Ray Recipe), check it out:

I made a bunch of these and put them in individual foil pie plates and froze them! Homemade Gluten-Free “Fast Food!”

One last example. I really miss Shrimp Gumbo. Pappadeaux’s Shrimp Gumbo to be specific. I cannot find a “copycat” recipe anywhere to do a “GF recycling.” I know it has a really dark base but every time I have tried to make a dark roux using different GF flour blends, it always comes out a light beige, at best. I found a recipe for Dark Roux on the Better Batter website:

Better Batter Gluten Free Dark Roux

Not quite as dark as Pappadeaux's, but much more visually appealing than a white gumbo! It was yummy! 😀

I also use Better Batter GF Flour in my Gluten-Free Magic Mix, which I use in my gluten-free condensed soup recipes.

But don’t just take my word for it, check out Kim Bouldin’s Review of Better Batter Gluten Free Flour on her blog, “Gluten-Free Is Life.”

I will eventually get all of these recipes posted but until then, you have a chance to win a free sampling of Better Batter’s products!

Better Batter Complete Product Sampler Giveaway

The winner of this contest/giveaway will receive a fabulous prize package consisting of: (1) 2.5 lb. package of Better Batter Gluten Free Flour, (1) 2.5 Lb. package of Better Batter Gluten-Free Pancake and Biscuit Mix, and (2) 20 oz. packages of Better Batter Gluten-Free Fudge Brownie Mix!! A prize package worth $24.25!! Woo-Hoo!

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment to this post about which Better Batter recipe you would want to try first should you win. Click here to look through Better Batter’s recipe archive.

In addition to leaving a comment, you need to do one of the following things:

  • Sign up to follow @BetterBatter on Twitter and “tweet” about this contest, including a link to this post. Please include @adventuresgfmom in your tweet so I have a record.

OR

If you are a blogger:

You will need to mention this contest in a blog post (thank you!) and include a link to this post in order to enter.

I will use a Random Number Generator to pick the winner on Friday, February, 5, 2010.

Good luck! 🙂

Comments

  1. sarah grace says

    i scrolled through the list in the Better Batter archive, and didnt scan further than the baklava recipe! i LOVE LOVE LOVE baklava, but cant have it–yet!!!

  2. Jennifer Ryalls says

    I would love to try Better Batter! I've been reading about it everywhere lately. I was just thinking about how to make GF phyllo dough earlier today, so I guess I'd have to say that would be the first recipe I try…after making the brownie mix, of course, since I'm a chocoholic!

  3. Wow….I am very impressed!! Puff Pastry? Holy cow, woman! 🙂

    I need to make those cinnamon rolls – STAT!

  4. Ok, let me just first say that this new thing with giveaways, making us do three thousand things in order to enter is utterly foolish! Drives me nuts. But I suppose it filters it down to the people that REALLY want to win. That said. I REALLLLLLY want to win!!! And I REALLY want that chicken pie recipe. That would be the first recipe I try, next would be the pigs in a blanket.

    Well, I'm off to spend the next half hour doing all the things I need to do in order to officially enter this contest…. 😉

    Great post by the way, I love Flava Flav… we want pics of your new outfits!!!

  5. Kim Medeiros says

    Tough choice on what I would make first. Probably flour tortillas… then baklava! I have heard good things about Better Batter and after reading your review I have to try it!

  6. I can't wait to try the flour tortilla's! I miss them so much!

  7. Lisa Lemoi says

    As a mom who is constantly looking for the next best thing to make that is closest to the real thing for her 8yr old daughter, this is now TOP on my list! I would absolutely love to be able to try those cinnamon buns for my daughter! Wow, they look fabu! How can anyone choose just one thing? Pick me! Please pick me! 🙂

  8. Ooooh, just reading about the cinnamon rolls made my mouth water! I would absolutely love being able to bake them again, and gluten free this time!

  9. theresa gates says

    The first thing I would try is the pastries, I wanted to take your pictures and just stuff them in my mouth. I have learned to cook lots of stuff but pastries is something I have not succeeded at yet. If I win the sample I hope you come along with the prize to teach me how to do all your wonderful recipes.

  10. Lisa Milone says

    Wonderful giveway! The tortillas and the cinnamon rolls look INCREDIBLE.

  11. Theresa,

    You are so sweet, thank you for the kind words! I will be posting the individual recipes for the foods you see in photos, with step-by-step photos. I have zero formal training in baking, just sheer stubborn determination! 🙂

  12. Do you do home delivery??? I am not that far away!!! I'll have some chocolate peanut butter cookies, some tortillas, some cinnamon rolls… let's see, what else….

    I think I would have to make the tortillas since we live in the land of flour tortillas. Wonder if you could make sopapillas with this flour? Another New Mexico institution….

    Next, logging into FB to become a fan!!!

  13. ooh, wow, yum! please enter me in the giveaway! the first recipe I would try is the pillsbury cinnamon rolls. my 5 year old daughter asks for them all the time! if I win, I can make them for her AND eat some too!

  14. Brenda-Lee Olson says

    I would have to say it would be the batter bread challah recipe. I still miss "real" challah loves on erev shabbat 😀

    BL

  15. Thanks for the info on better batter.I do tons of gf cooking and baking, but have never tried it! From the looks of your amazing outcomes, I am definitely going to try it! Thanks for sharing!

  16. Oh my gosh how I long for a 'real' burrito in a flour tortilla that wraps instead of cracks like the GF rice ones. That would be the first to try! All of the food looks delicious!

  17. Thanks for all of the great information on Better Batter. I want those pigs in a blanket. I hope I win so I can make them! This gives me hope for yummy treats!

  18. I would love to try the flour tortillas and cinnamon rolls. I'm newly gluten free and looking for recipes and these all look great!

  19. Hi, I would LOVE to try making the cinnamon rolls!! The tortillas look like the real wheat ones my grandma makes! My 6yr. old son would love his mommy for these as well. We've been GFCF for over 2yrs now and he would SO appreciate! All look so yummy! Thanksf!

  20. Cindy Padgett says

    I would love to try the crab rangoons. I have tried making them with rice papers, but it did not turn out well. I could make lots of things with the wonton wrappers! I have a facebook page and now follow Better Batter.
    Thanks.
    Cindy

  21. Elissa Mahler says

    I would want to try the brownies. i am still looking for a good gluten free brownie. I have been gf for the past year and a half.

  22. I would love to try the Better Batter Braidable Challah recipe. It's not on the list you linked us to. But there is a regular Challah recipe there that I clicked on, and in the comments at the end of the recipe, there was a recommendation by Naomi for Braidable Challah, another recipe at her site (to make it braided by hand on a cookie sheet, rather than in a braided bread pan). This is what I would like to try! DH is Jewish, and challah is something that our family misses dearly.

    Everything here looks tantalizing, particularly the Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Clones.
    !

  23. I follow BB on FB.

    I would like to try the regular BB flour blend first because my boys LOVE good bread and I am always looking for good flour blends to make wonderful breads. I would also like to try the cinnamon buns because the boys just don't get to eat things like that very often.

    Thanks for a chance to win!

  24. This is such a great opportunity!! I would LOVE to try either of the filo dough recipes. I used to make baklava and spanikopita all the time. The other thing I would love to be able to do is make an actual BRAIDED CHALLAH!! Oh my! I have my mom's and my grandmother's recipes, but haven't been able to make that for years. Your blog is Great! You really make everything sound so delicious. Thank you.

  25. Terah Bowling says

    I would love to make some cinnamon rolls with the Better Batter flour. I haven't had a cinnamon roll in over ten years. The picture of the rolls you made looks amazing!

  26. I have been wanting to try Better Batter for awhile and now you REALLY have me convinced! I've been trying to find a great tortilla, so I will be making those first!

  27. I'm salivating all over your pictures. It all looks yummy! I would love to win this give away. I'm new to gluten free eating (2 months) and this would help a lot! Thanks!

  28. I would want to try the GF Puff Pastry dough first. That is one thing I have really missed since my diagnosis over 2 years ago. My favorite dish for entertaining was pork loin on croute, which needs puff pastry dough, then I use some leftover dough to wrap around a bit of cream cheese and dark chocolate chips to make a sort-of rugelach/croissant.

  29. CUPCAKES! Big fluffy, un-brownie-like, decadent, melty CUPCAKES!

  30. Cinnamon Rolls or Flour Tortillas. I wish we were neighbors, lol, I could help you taste test everything! I am now following BetterBatter on Twitter and I retweeted this contest @Ebee333.

  31. WOW — Amazing post!

    I LOOOOVVEEE Better Batter, I blogged about it a while back and made the most delicious cupcakes ever with it – but haven't done much baking in a while.

    I would love to try their biscut mix, as those are one of my faves!

    And on the recipes the first would be the cinnamon rolls (yours look so good!) and then the challah bread! Also, probably the tortillas! Lots to bake! thanks 🙂

  32. I would definitely make the tortillas and the Aunt Annie's Pretzels! Oh, and did I mention the cinnamon rolls! Yum!!!! Thanks so much for a chance to win! Kellyc

  33. Just became a fan and linked your blog =0)

  34. the tortillas you made look amazing, I have really been missing those! Also loving th look of the puff pastry, could make baklava with that!

  35. I just tried my very first recipe using better batter flour last night. I was totally impressed with the consistency of my dough (I made vegan cinnamon rolls) and rise, but the taste was a little off. Do you notice a heavy tapioca taste in what you make or is this just me? I know it's from the flour, because I smelled it immediately upon opening the package. My recipe used most of my flour, and I am a bit afraid to order more and try other recipes. What do you think…worth it to try again or is that distinctive GF taste always there?

  36. Rebecca Thompson says

    Wow! What a great review! I would love to try the cinnamon rolls! After 9 years gluten-free, I can't even remember what those might taste like! Even if I don;t win this sample, I think I might save up to buy some of this miracle flour blend. – Rebecca

  37. Your twitter name @adventuregfmom doesn't exist – is it mispelled?

  38. Karen Bailey says

    I am SO SO SO SO excite about the GF flour tortillas. My Celiac son is in college & his food choices in the dining hall are very limited. He has an "efficiency apt" but can't cook a ton, due to an uncooperative roommate. When he comes home for visits, we try to make alot of main dish foods for him to freeze & take back with him. He so misses a "tex mex casserole I make that uses flour tortillas. I have tried it with corn but it is just not the same. I would love to mek him some food that "feels like home". He is such a hard working student who is so responsible & loving. Making him this casserole would be a blessing! Please!~ enter me in the give away! Thank you.

  39. Heidi,
    I can't even believe ALL the stuff you made! Holy cow! For some reason I was thinking about GF phyllo-and now I can't for the life of me remember why.
    And heck yeah I want photographic proof of the GFFlavaMom! That's just too good to miss 😉

  40. Okay Not only did your pictures make me want to eat they really make me want to cook. I would LOVE to try Better Batter!

  41. Cindy Praisner says

    Boy was this hard- considering we have only been GF since August and my oldest Celiac was asymptomatic and loved ALL things gluten. I would choose Cinnamon Raisin Bagels first though as we have not even come close to a reasonable replacement for them!

  42. Shut up with those cinnamon rolls! And the little pigs in a blanket! I was just thinking today about how I could make those gluten free!

    The crepes in the recipe section look fantastic too! I haven't had a crepe since I was gluten free…could never find one that I could eat!

  43. I miss flour tortillas so very very much. I LOVE burritos and the rice tortillas I got are gross. I am also in search of the perfect pizza crust and ravioli would be nice too. I have never tried better batter and would love to get to work making the things I miss so much now.

  44. My 3-year-old former bread lover was just diagnosed with celiac, and it has been so hard to try and find things she will eat.
    I know she would love to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast again and tortillas for cheese crisps would be a lunchtime hit!

  45. I am torn between the Cinnamon Rolls and the Pig in a blankets! I also think my family would LOVE to try the pot pies. I personally think you should open a GF restuarant!

    I also became a fan of BB on FB! 😀

  46. You have to decide on one recipe? They all look and sound FABULOUS! I think I would try the puff pastry or the pizza rolls…no, maybe the cinnamon rolls. Maybe bagels? Where to start? I have heard about better batter and this would be a great way to try out some of the recipes.

  47. I would definitely start out with the Shrimp Gumbo & some Dinner Rolls!! What I wouldn't give for a decent dinner roll! YUM

  48. Without a doubt I'd have to try the pizza rolls!

  49. I'd like to try the Cinnabon style cinnamon rolls. I haven't had a cinnamon roll in years!

  50. Thanks for all your hard work and effort in posting and learning.

    I read your blog, several times over a few months, and decided to purchase the Better Batter. Yikes, am I having trouble. Hoping you can answer one question for me that may help….. the active yeast added to the egg, seems to clump, and then doesn't dissolve when warm liquid added, ending up, with flat but good tasting bread. Have tried this three times, with room temp, and therm. etc. Could you add the yeast to the warm liquid first and then the egg? Oh, I covet your pictures of pig in the blanket. I have three boys, two who are teens, and are waiting to taste what looks like in the pictures. thanks for all you do. Greatly appreciate any tips.

    • Hi Kathy!

      So sorry you are having trouble but you're spot on, I proofed my yeast first (adding it to the warm water and sugar) before adding it to the rest of the mixture.

      I actually found a better recipe for the pigs in a blanket (using Better Batter) and I shared that recipe here (including photo tutorials). The version I shared was dairy-free and egg-free, but I linked to the original recipe on The Pioneer Woman's website, so you can just follow her recipe and photo tutorial, subbing the wheat flour for the Better Batter. 😀

      Please let me know how it goes!

      Hugs,
      Heidi

  51. I have a question, when making the flour tortillas what kind of heat did you use? Was the dough dry or stiky when rolling out? The flavor of mine is divine, but they are cracky-dry and didn't puff like you show yours did when toasted/cooked. Thanks!

  52. I am new to gluten free cooking and like many others I am having trouble finding recipes that my kid will eat. I know her first choice will be the cinnamon rolls and then the flour tortillas and then maybe the cinnamon rolls wrapped in the flour tortillas.

Trackbacks

  1. […] 2/3 Cup Flour (I used Better Batter Gluten-Free Flour. You can read the ingredients of Better Batter GF Flour here and more on their product info page […]

  2. […] of fine art (like Karina’s!). I do not even know how to use my camera, the pics from my Better Batter review were a fluke of nature! In the post, Jeanne links to a great video on a food photography workshop […]

  3. Trying on a new look… « Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom says:

    […] Trying on a new look… Posted on February 10, 2010 by adventuresofaglutenfreemom What do you think?  Does my new header convey the crazy contradictions inherent to the gluten-free life?  Or should I be thinking more along the lines of gluten-free cinnamon rolls, puff pastry and chicken pot pie? […]

  4. […] NOTE: I use a particular prepackaged GF all-purpose flour blend in all of the gluten based recipes I convert.  Sometimes, I just need a little simplicity and using a pre-made flour blend, that has proven itself to me over and over again, saves me a lot of time and money experimenting with different homemade blends.  There is also something special about Better Batter Gluten-Free Flour and I highly suspect it has something to do with the added pectin in it…I think it does “something” to make it mimic wheat flour, at least in the dough handling aspect of it.  I really cannot remember what wheat based baked goods taste like so I cannot compare it in that regard, but we absolutely love everything we’ve made with it over the past year that I’ve been buying it (you can read my original Better Batter review from last February here). […]

  5. […] know the answer for this…Better Batter Gluten Free Flour (you can read my original review here and I also encourage you to check out the crescent rolls, cinnamon rolls and pigs in a blanket that […]