Product Review: Texas Toast Pizza Sticks and Ciabatta Rolls

While many people may be familiar with the Texas Toast Brand products sold in the yellow box, the company has been producing other frozen bread-related products including both pizza sticks and cibatta rolls. I was able to purchase all three new varieties and while I had my favorite, most did not impress me.

First, the pizza sticks. These come in two varieties: sticks with cheese and sticks without cheese. Basically, they are designed to emulate the Pizza Hut old-style breadsticks (the ones on the menu prior to last year). While I will review the Pizza Hut Breadsticks in a later review, I wish to say the sauce was nowhere close to the restaurant. While it comes frozen in a container, the sauce, when heated requires a constant stopping in the microwave and stirring, as the sides cook very fast and the center remains icy. In fact, my sides were bubbling and my center was cold. I had to eventually stop cooking the sauce and stir both the hot and cold parts together which produced a lukewarm sauce.

As for the breadsticks, they were tasty but nothing special. If given a choice between the cheese or the plain, I would pick the plain ones because the cheese ones were a bit greasy. Also, if I tried to cook the longer to minimize the grease, the cheese would just burn. Overall these were not an item I would purchase again. However, if you would like to try them and do not have a preference, choose the plain ones because you will get more sticks per package versus the cheese pizza sticks.

Another new item New York Texas Toast makes are Ciabatta rolls. There are very pricey over $3 for three rolls (halved). I have seen them at Wal-Mart for less than $3, but at that price, I still would consider these a luxury food. Basically, these Ciabatta rolls are cut in half and spread with a garlic bread sauce. Then, they are topped with cheese. If I did not know what they were, I would call them a garlic toast and yeast roll hybrid. They were very good but took a while to cook. Also, you have to watch these very carefully towards the end of their cooking time, as the cheese browns very fast. I have to say though they were very good and are by far, my favorite product from New York Texas Toast. If you have a little extra money in your food budget, consider getting these soft, garlic toast type of rolls. One word of caution though, if you have a larger family (say more than four people, you may need to purchase two boxes.