Five-To-Try and Why SIMPLE MILLS GLUTEN-FREE MIXES

(Roberta Deen, food stylist, photographer) Simple Mills is a thriving young company founded by Katlin Smith. She holds the firm belief that clean “intentional ingredients” can be combined to create wholesome baked goods, easily used by home cooks.

Each of the Simple Mills mixes is printed with clear instructions and with suggestions for changing up or garnishing the item. The only basic ingredients to add are eggs, water, sometimes apple cider vinegar and oil of your choice.

This makes it easy to add ethnic touches in the form of spices, flavorings, and fruits add a personal touch.  Several of the ethnic ingredients are ethnic as well, such as tiger nuts, coconut oil, and arrowroot.

Historically, English-style muffins, prepared with yeast-raised dough and cooked on a griddle, may date back to the 10th or 11th century in Wales. American-style muffins, made with a batter rather than a dough and baked in individual molds, are categorized as ‘quick’ bread. That change occurred with the arrival of manufactured baking powder. (See Linda Civatello’s “The Baking Powder Wars”.)

Smith questions “why would you need more than six items to mix up a batch of muffins!” referring to all the “mystery” ingredients listed on most mixes.  Her inspired minimalist mixes and ready-to-eat Simple Mills products employ combinations of only 15 ingredients with “no preservatives ever”.

And, I assure you, that these mixes are a long way from the older sticks-and-twigs versions of vegan, paleo, and everything-free offerings from not so long ago.  Easy to prepare, everyone who tasted them was very excited.

My sister has been medically diagnosed as a celiac, so I am always on the watch for “good” things for her to eat. She and I were both pleased with the moist textures, really present flavors, very fast production time and visual appeal of the new products. Although Katlin cautions on each package, mix or product, that you must refrigerate any left-over items, we found that everything survived refrigeration and a brief reheating quite well.

 

Katlin’s sunny, informative website, //www.simplemills.com, is a source of easy-to-follow recipes, information and photos of ingredients, a tutorial on her mission, a store location finder and online purchasing information.

We started our Simple Mills adventure with the Banana Muffins (photo above). It took less than 10 minutes from mix to oven, then 20 minutes to bake. After ten minutes to cool, they were ready to garnish. I brushed them with a light coat of warm honey and topped with a slice of banana, finished with a final brush of honey. I think these would be wonderful little PB&J snacks for when the kids come home from school or for an indulgent weekend breakfast.

We experienced equal success with each of the five Simple Mills products we went on to sample with the pizza being compared to the best of the in-house, restaurant gluten-free pizzas. Photos of the excellent results follow.

 

 

 

All adventures in the kitchen end on the plate, but not always with people licking their fingers and asking for more, please.  This delightful venture from Katlin and her Simple Mills company won’t be ending anywhere soon. She is busy adding new mixes and products all the time.

We encourage readers to make the effort to try these products, which we loved. They will not disappoint.