Back-to-school is just around the corner and along with it comes the need for quick and easy gluten free meals. We find that on those busy days nothing beats a grilled sandwich, so here are four recipes for gluten free panini that were inspired by Dempster’s new Gluten Zero breads: ham and egg, pizza, pulled pork, and apple pie. All but the pulled pork sandwich are great hot or cold so you can make these ahead of time and pack them up in lunch bags to go!    Below you will find a review of Dempster’s Gluten Zero Bread followed by our breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert Panini recipes!

Looking for great gf sandwich ideas? You might also like these gfandme recipes:

turkey and havarti panini

roast beef dip

REVIEW OF DEMPSTER’S GLUTEN ZERO BREAD

A few days ago, gfandme was contacted by Dempster’s to see whether or not we would be willing to put together a review and a recipe or two for their new Gluten Zero breads. They didn’t have to twist our arm much because we’d already tried their whole grain Gluten Zero bread and really liked it.

Here’s what we like about Gluten Zero:

It’s made in Canada in a gluten free bakery that is certified by the Canadian Celiac Association and even comes ‘double-bagged.’ You can’t get more worry-free than that. You also buy it fresh, not frozen. The bread is vacuum sealed at the factory and the Dempster’s website says it will last on the shelf for five weeks. (I’m afraid we can’t verify that because we ate it pretty quickly 🙂 ). The website goes on to say that after opening the bag, it will last on the counter for up to five days. We found that after a day the texture had changed so would recommend keeping it in the freezer and thawing it on the counter as needed.

The bread looks and tastes fabulous. The crust is nicely browned, which can be difficult to do with GF flours, and toasted or not, the bread is one of the best tasting on the market. It really does taste like a slice of gluten laden bread, and there is absolutely no hint of grittiness or that bitter aftertaste gf breads can have. With butter or margarine, it makes a great open-faced cheese or peanut butter sandwich – which is something Geoff hasn’t enjoyed in a very long time. You can even use it to make a good closed sandwich by using moist ingredients like egg salad or with the addition of veggies such as lettuce and tomato.

Here’s how Gluten Zero might be improved:

While the slices feel soft, compared to glutinous bread this bread is still somewhat dry. It reminds me of a loaf of regular bread that is a couple of days old. Still, though, that’s not too bad of a trade off for the convenience of fresh commercially produced gluten free bread, and the dryness can be mostly countered with condiments, sandwich spreads, or by adding fresh veggies to your sandwiches.

For more information on Dempster’s Gluten Zero bread, including recipes, ingredients and nutrition information, click here.

Have a look at Dempster’s products on their pinterest page.

RECIPES:

Servings: 1

Time: 10 minutes

We decided to try out Dempster’s Gluten Zero as a base for panini and in our search for quick and easy gluten free breakfasts, planned on putting together a breakfast sandwich. We liked our first attempt so much and were having so much fun that we ended up going through our refrigerator to see what we had on hand that we could fashion into toasted goodness. Here are our four favorites which we have dubbed our gluten free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert panini. All four of these are great but while Geoff liked the pizza best, I highly recommend the dessert apple pie (no surprise there if you follow this blog!)

What You’ll Need:

To cut down the length of this post, we’ve listed the ingredients for the various panini in the following table:

What You’ll do:

Preheat your panini press to medium.

TIP: Don’t have a press? No worries. Try these low tech methods instead.

Spread the outside of the bread slices for the sandwich with either olive oil or butter/margarine and stack them with the oiled sides together in the middle. This gives you access to the inside for filling and keeps the oil off your counter.

Place the cheese onto the bread slices. Then add the fillings and the optional ingredients if desired. For the pulled pork panini and the dessert panini, add the optional ingredients after the sandwich is toasted.

Lift the top slice of bread with the filling on top of it and place oiled side down onto your press. Cover with the other slice, oil side up. Close the lid and toast for five minutes.

TIP: If you use your press for both gf and non-gf panini, make sure you line it with parchment paper before toasting your sandwiches in order to avoid cross contamination.

Photo credit: gfandme 2014