Yesterday and today, I’ve been eating the linseed loaf from Artisan Bread Organic – billed as “naturally gluten free”. However, like the buckwheat loaf, when you inspect the ingredients list, you find that this is not guaranteed.
On the front of the pack it says: Contains one HEAPED TEASPOON of freshly ground linseed per slice. Do not toast this bread.
Here are the ingredients, as shown on the packet:
Freshly milled (on our in-house gluten free mill) demeter wholegrain rice flour and demeter whole rice (51%), revitalised filtered water, freshly ground whole organic linseed (9%), natural leaven (gluten free)*, sea salt.
Contains Naturally gluten free
May contain Sesame seeds, gluten.
There it is again: “May contain… gluten”. Yet it is sold as gluten free. So this loaf, like the buckwheat is not safe for celiacs. At least water appears only third on the list of ingredients this time!
I noticed both on this and the other loaf that demeter appears to be regarded as a very special type of rice (or at least, they’d like you to think so), but I can’t find anything online saying what is special about it. Maybe it’s just a brand or buzzword with no intrinsic meaning.
The linseed loaf is as ungiving when you squeeze it as the buckwheat, so I decided to slice it thinly again. The loaf is not as large as the buckwheat, it has the same width and depth, but the height is probably about 80% of the height of the buckwheat loaf.
As you can see, the bread is quite dense, but also crumbly. It’s quite difficult to get a whole slice. When buttered and nibbled, it’s quite dry and very crumbly, turning into a sand-like consistency in the mouth, although it tastes better than that sounds.
Yesterday, I tried one slice with some cheese, and this was quite tasty. I ate a total of 3 slices, one with cheese and butter, one with just butter and the third, later on, with the thin smear of raspberry preserve that I generally prefer. The flavor of this loaf is not so aggressive that it blots out all other flavors.
Today, I bought some marmalade, and tried a couple of slices with that. It was ok, but the sandy texture is a little offputting. I won’t be buying this again.
I have a couple of slices of this loaf left. If I don’t eat them today, I will finish it off tomorrow, before moving on to another loaf.
UPDATE. In case there’s any doubt, here’s a picture of the ingredients list.
