Schär Multigrain Bread

Schär Multigrain Bread
Photograph Copyright 2012 Kelsey Wyatt

One of the most popular offerings for gluten free products is regular run-of-the-mill bread and there are all sorts out there like white bread, flax bread, and multi-grain bread. And the sad truth is that most of these breads are going to taste like cardboard. The majority of the population will probably feel as though they're eating a saltine cracker instead of biting into a chewy piece of delicious bread. And the primary reason for this particular issue is the fact that the "glue" is simply missing from the package.

Gluten simply holds the whole package together and without some wheat in that mixture, bread is often going to be crumbly and without real strength.

And this is why most gluten-free breads are always going to require special care when they are used for just about any meal whether they are tossed in a pan for grilled cheese sandwiches or they're put into a toaster. Just staring at gluten-free bread is often enough to cause it all to spontaneously disintegrate into a million little pieces of gluten-free pebbles. Which might be fine if you like your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on pieces of bread that are an inch square.

Schär Multigrain Bread
Photograph Copyright 2012 Kelsey Wyatt

And Schär Multigrain Bread is definitely a bread that requires some carefully handling or it is likely to come out looking like bread crumbs that you might want to stuff inside a turkey instead of using for anything more rigid, toasted or cooked. And as you can see from the picture above, you don't actually have a lot to work with when you buy a loaf. 

Schär Multigrain Bread
Photograph Copyright 2012 Kelsey Wyatt

Not only is the length of the loaf much shorter than what you might find from your local, standard loaf of white bread, but the pieces themselves are quite small in size. This means that anyone who is over the age of twelve will find the cute smallness of the pieces of bread should require the use of at least four pieces of bread for a few sandwiches unless there's a huge bag of potato chips standing by to help with the lack of bread real estate.

And eating four pieces of bread shouldn't have too much of an impact on anyone who is calorie counting as each slice only has seventy calories in it. Anyone looking to reduce their overall consumption of fat should note that there is a gram of fat per piece so with four pieces of bread, that's grams of fat added to whatever toppings might be included in the meal such as cheese on a grilled cheese or perhaps butter on a simple piece of toast. 

Overall, one gram of fat per slice isn't a lot of fat, but it's interesting that these pygmy-sized pieces have the same amount of fat that's generally found in a regular sized piece of bread.

Schär Multigrain Bread - Pieces Break Easily!
Photograph Copyright 2012 Kelsey Wyatt

For the purposes of this review, I decided to make grilled cheese as it was a project that would require more than just slapping some peanut butter on the loaf and calling it a day. 

But when I took the bread out of the hermetically sealed package, there were already signs of breakage on the slices despite my generally careful handling of such items. I know that bread in particular has a tendency to break apart rather easily but that didn't stop the Schär slices from being crumbly right out of the bag. It's not as if I'd played fetch with the family cat before opening the bag.


My strategy to cook proper grilled cheeses despite the breakage would be to use the cheese as a type of glue. This strategy was successful for the most part and the bread behaved itself for the majority of its time in the pan until it was browned up and the cheese was melted.

Schär Multigrain Bread - Cheese is Glue!
Photograph Copyright 2012 Kelsey Wyatt

This meant I had to be particularly careful with how I flipped the sandwiches once the cheese was added and the pieces were clamped together. The annoying thing about this issue was that the pieces were already crumbly right out of the bag, so it's not as if I could have simply been very careful during the actual cooking process. 


Breakable pieces are just another one of those little elements of gluten-free cooking that is likely to impact just about any sort of sandwich bread.

As far as the taste of the finished product, assuming a very heavy amount of additional ingredients are used such as the cheese and butter in the case of a grilled cheese sandwich, the taste of a Schär Multigrain Bread sandwich will probably remind you of a very slightly sourdough type of bread although that's clearly not the type of bread that Schär is trying to make with this bread option. But this aspect isn't a deal-killer unless you have an absolute hatred of sourdough.


Overall, the end result for using this Schär product in a grilled cheese is a positive one for giving you the sort of sensory satisfaction that a grilled cheese can offer, but it's a bit of a hassle to pull off a non-broken and intact sandwich. Also, the taste is going to be just a little off as far as how it compares to true bread. But that's not entirely unexpected.

Schär Multigrain Bread - Grilled Cheese Form
Photograph Copyright 2012 by Kelsey Wyatt

Schär Multigrain Bread Report Card


The Good Things:


As long as you're creative with how you handle this bread and you don't mind the mild taste of sourdough, this particular Schär product can definitely be turned into something resembling a normal meal. Just remember to load it up with toppings.


What Could Be Improved:


The fragile nature of the bread is something that can be dealt with, but the Schär folks really could benefit from some experimentation in how to make their bread a little more solid. The recipe could also benefit from some tweaking so the sourdough taste wasn't so evident.

Schär Multigrain Bread Getting Cheesed
Photograph Copyright 2012 by Kelsey Wyatt

Getting a Great Meal from Schär Multigrain Bread:


There's nothing wrong with loading up these slices of bread with tons of butter and cheese. After all, the best way to enjoy a grilled cheese is to go overboard with the ingredients.


But remember to be absolutely careful with the bread as it is cooking otherwise the end result will be crumbly pieces of bread fit for nobody but the ducks at the local pond.


On a final note, the best option for this bread and its taste is always going to be in toasted form. Eating it straight out of the bag is definitely not recommended.