Thrive Gluten-Free Flour Mix Review

As part of Thrive’s Black Friday weekend they announced their new Thrive gluten-free flour with the idea that you can use it cup for cup in your family’s favorite recipes to replace all-purpose flour.  Debbie and I, of course, wanted to know if the new Thrive gluten-free flour lived up to its claims and if it was a good price (as of January 4, 2016 it is $12.89 for a can).  However, we are not gluten-free so we asked a few of our faithful readers on Facebook to use the product and compare it to their own gluten-free flour mix they use for their families as part of their food storage.  Here is what they had to say….

MEET NICOLE:

Nicole has a son with Celiacs and has been cooking and baking gluten-free for the last three years.  She tried the Thrive gluten-free flour in her family’s cinnamon roll and roll recipe and here is what she discovered. (Note to those that are gluten-free, Nicole clued me in that using any company’s gluten-free mix with their own gluten-free recipes typically has the best results.)  For this test, she chose to use her regular cinnamon roll recipe because Thrive claims: “Thrive Life’s Gluten-Free Flour helps you easily adapt any recipe to meet your dietary needs. As an all-purpose blend, use our Gluten-Free Flour as a one-to-one replacement for soft, glutenfree, and non-GMO baked goods.”  For her son, the hardest part of being gluten-free has been finding cost-effective ways to make bread products at home, so she was excited to see if Thrive’s gluten-free flour would live up to the claims with bread.

Nicole’s notes on the gluten-free flour comparison between her own homemade mix and the mix from Thrive are:

1. The cinnamon rolls made with the homemade gluten-free mix rose while the cinnamon rolls made with the Thrive gluten-free flour didn’t rise at all.
2. The Thrive cinnamon rolls were  moister (which is only saying so much with gluten-free bread) than the homemade version because they didn’t rise.
3. Taste wise, she felt there wasn’t a big difference between the homemade gluten-free flour mix and Thrive’s gluten-free flour mix.

Nicole’s notes on the gluten-free flour comparison between her own homemade mix and the mix from Thrive are:  They both tasted equally dry and stereo-typical for gluten-free rolls.

Nicole’s final consensus:

The flours were fairly equal in taste and texture (although, I couldn’t figure out why the homemade gluten-free flour rose and the Thrive version did not), but differed greatly in PRICE.  I can make a big batch of homemade gluten-free flour for a fraction of the price by purchasing individual ingredients at bulk stores (like WinCo).  Plus, I was disappointed to see the shelf-life is only 5 years and only 6 months when opened.  I store all of the ingredients for the mix and when I do that, the shelf-life is much longer.

MEET JM:

We also sent a can to JM, her daughter has had a strong gluten intolerance for a few years and really misses COOKIES!  (Who can blame her!) The cookies she made using the Thrive gluten-free mix are pictured to the left and weren’t that great baked.  However, she said the cookie dough was fantastic and didn’t taste gluten free.  She also tried it in a sour cream donut muffins and they turned out well.

JM’s final consensus:

Both flours (her homemade flour mix and the Thrive gluten-free flour mix) were very similar and both work great in cakes, quick breads, and muffins but not in breads or cookies (they crumble).  However, there is a big difference in PRICE.

The #10 can at Thrive is about $13 but if I grind my own rice flour and purchase starches in bulk, I can make a 10 quart Aggie ice cream bucket full of flour for $6-$8.

While neither of our reviewers had issues with how it worked, they both noticed the HUGE price difference and difficultly using flour out of #10 cans (there just isn’t a lot of flour that can fit in those cans) and prefer using their cheaper homemade mix from larger containers to the Thrive gluten-free flour.  Need a good recipe for mixes?  Click HERE.

WHERE TO BUY BULK GLUTEN-FREE FLOUR MIXES FOR YOUR FOOD STORAGE FOR CHEAPER!

If you are really nervous about making your own gluten-free flour mix, we found cheaper gluten-free flour mixes in 25 lb. bags that you can put in your own buckets with gamma lids sold HERE.  They even carry gluten-free pancake & waffle, cake, and bread mixes as well!

To learn our best tips for going gluten-free (including recipes for making your own gluten-free flour mix) with your food storage, click HERE.