I love to use bread mixes for their ease and convenience, and I plan to do a series of reviews on various bread mixes, the first of which is this one. The first time I made the Prepared Pantry’s “Sunrise Sugar Free Seven Grain Wheat” mix, I served it on Sunday. I put it in on the delay bake cycle so that it was piping hot and fresh for Sunday dinner. Mmm, mmm, what a wonderful aroma to come home to!

The bread looked good and smelled wonderful, and my 33-year-old son absolutely loved the taste, but he was the only one at this family gathering.. Later he said as he munched on yet another slice of bread, “I can’t believe there is still some of this bread left!”

My personal opinion of the bread was that I found it to be far too gritty for my taste. Also, the Splenda taste was too strong. I prefer freshly-ground whole wheat flour, which I realize is impossible in a whole wheat mix, but the old wheat flour made the bread taste like the whole wheat bread I could buy at the store.

The Splenda taste and the old wheat flour taste are problems I can live with, but the grittiness was too much. Therefore, I decided to try sifting out all the whole grains from the rest of the mix and grind them in my grain mill and put them back in when I mixed the bread. Bad idea! That took away the grit, but the taste was terrible! Some of those grains need to stay whole in order to be edible.

The next time I tried it, again I sifted the gritty whole grains out separate from the mix and put them in the bread maker right after I put the water in so they could soak for the night. That did take most of the grittiness away, but the Splenda taste and the old wheat flour taste were still there.

Bottom line: I wouldn’t buy this particular mix again, but if you don’t mind the Splenda and old wheat flour tastes, give it a try.