Jane’s Dough Foods was an accidental discovery. It came on the heels of the February shuttering of the Kroger Bakery Downtown. In the wake of its demise, Jane’s Dough Foods posted a supportive hiring notice targeted to displaced workers. Jane’s offered some parachutes to Kroger casualties and an extra disclosure: Jane’s is a Donatos project.
So, Jane is Jane Grote Abell, chairperson and owner.
Retail-wise you can find Jane’s Dough Foods’ flatbreads in local groceries. The business makes Sonoma Flatbreads, a fancy frozen pizza. The packaging doesn’t really indicate any relationship with Donatos, though there’s a little hint in a printed disclosure that the family has been in the pizza business for 50 years. And there’s a photo of Jane Grote Abell too. If you know your Donatos trivia, you’ll make the connection.
The flatbreads are designed as a super-premium, all-natural offering. They come in a variety of flavors, including cheese and chicken, and the Gluten-Free Uncured Pepperoni version seems like a good introduction.
Out of the box, it looks like a normal frozen pizza. The gluten-free crust is thin, almost Donatos-thin, but not as crispy after baking. Of course, crispness could be a function of the home equipment and baking time, so further experimentation is warranted there. Topping the crust is a sweet tomato sauce, heaps of soft provolone, and lots of slices of uncured pepperoni that curl up into appealing little cups of oil after some baking time in the oven.
Verdict? The slices taste like pepperoni pizza, which by all accounts is a good thing. Especially if that satisfaction can be achieved with a lower number of chemicals as ingredients. It’s all legit: there’s a gluten-free certification on the box, and the ingredients look pretty wholesome; the crust listing gets a little weird, but sometimes it takes stuff like “whey powder” and “modified rice starch” to make things work in a cooking equation that doesn’t involve gluten.
For more information, visit janesdoughfoods.com.