Monday, July 20, 2009
Foods Circle Beats the Square: A Revolution in Sandwich Bread!
Posted by Jim Ridley on Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 10:22 AM
If you saw comic David Cross in his notorious Exit/In gig several years ago, you remember his routine about the Squagel--a desperate attempt to make the stodgy old bagel literally edgy. ('Cause, y'know, there's no hotter trend in public taste this decade than parallelograms.) As it turns out, where sandwich breads are concerned, "hip to be square" died with Huey Lewis' street cred. Round is where it's at.
I don't know what possessed us to try Arnold's Select 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Thins. I've bought Arnold's whole-grain breads before and found them hit or miss--dense with fiber but sometimes dry as pasteboard. But these little flatbreads--a cross between a crumpet and pita bread--score on just about every front:
As sandwich bread: Each fresh, pleasantly chewy little circle pulls apart easily into two thin round halves, just about exactly the circumference of a slice of bologna. It makes for a smaller sandwich, but the ratio of bread to filling is just about even.
As a nutritious alternative to white bread: Arnold's Sandwich Thins are high in fiber, made with whole grains and contain no high fructose corn syrup. Also, no threat of injuries, unlike white sandwich bread with its sharp corners and edges.
As novelty item: Try rolling a sandwich made with Colonial's finest. My kids love it too because there's no crust, or perhaps because it looks like a manhole cover or infant-sized Frisbee.
One thing they are not, however, is cheap. An 8-pack retails at Kroger for $2.99 (although I just missed a 2/$5 special by a day). Special thanks, though, to Helen at the Melrose Kroger, who made two trips to the bread aisle just to answer my questions and even apologized for my brief wait. Take that, Theatre Teeter!
Comments (17)
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I love these! I ran across these in HT a few months ago after seeing them in a magazine. They're great for any sandwich, but I especially like them for breakfast sandwiches and with turkey burgers. They're usually stocked at the Blair Blvd. Harris Teeter. :-)
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Good point about breakfast sandwiches, ADS, which may be my favorite way to use them: the halves get really crisp in a toaster.
My favorite filling, since nobody asked, is egg scrambled with shredded Swiss cheese, grilled jalapenos and onion.
We call them Harris Pitas.
There's no shortage of punnery around the ElCee household.
Love `em!
Ooohhh haven't tried a breakfast sandwich with these yet but for regular sandwiches and burgers they are awesome, also great for panninis (sp?)
These are quite popular with Weight Watcher groups as you can have a decent sandwich (especially hamburgers) without using a lot of points on bread.
These are delicious and available at both Sam's Club and Costco. A pack of 16 is around $4.50 at both places.
Linda: Another good point (and I think a point is literally what they're worth on the WW scale). We use them now instead of hamburger buns because they make for a better bun-to-meat proportion.
Carolyn: Thanks for the tip about the 16-packs. Don't know if I could eat them that fast, but I'm willing to give it a try.
Also, these works great for Whole Foods tuna salad sammiches...or any tuna salad in general, I'm just partial to the WH version since they use dried cranberries in their mix.
Remember Mr. Pink -- break freezes beautifully. Eat at your leisure.
I buy a month's supply (of regular sandwich bread) at Costco and freeze until needed for PB&J emergency.
Can't wait to try these. Maybe it will trick the kids in to eating a turkey sandwich!
I'm a huge fan of these. I've been eating these for a few months now. Buns are way too much bread for me when grilling burgers-I was always end up shredding them to pieces to get rid of part of it, so these are perfect!
Wait 'til y'all see Momma Fox's (that's me) Star Sandwiches, made with white bread and a cookie cutter. Also come in Shamrock and Heart shapes for St. Patty's day and Valentine's.
I too am a big fan of them. I like to use them when I eat frozen veggie burgers, or like other posters, meat burgers.
High fructose corn syrup may have a complicated-sounding name, but it’s simply a kind of corn sugar that is nutritionally the same as table sugar.
High fructose corn syrup is used in the food supply because of its many functional benefits. In addition to its excellent browning characteristics for breads and baked goods, it is a highly fermentable nutritive sweetener and prolongs product freshness.
There is no nutritional benefit gained by replacing high fructose corn syrup with another caloric sweetener. High fructose corn syrup is a natural sweetener made from corn, is functionally superior to sugar, equally sweet, has the same number of calories, and is handled similarly by the body.
Consumers can see the latest research and learn more about high fructose corn syrup at www.SweetSurprise.com.
Audrae Erickson
President
Corn Refiners Association
Goodness knows, I'm always on the lookout for highly fermentable nutritive sweeteners...
