Trader Joe’s says: “For a taste of Turkey at home, allow us to introduce you to Trader Joe’s Simit Turkish Sesame Bread. Simit can be found on street carts and bakeries throughout the country, and although these beauties may resemble bagels, they are distinctly different.
Simit is not boiled (like bagels), just baked, and have a characteristic twist throughout. While its interior is chewy and nutty, its exterior is crispy and dense. Our Simits are made “Ankara style,” on the smaller size, conveniently-sized, with a crisp texture. Sticking to tradition, these circular breads are coated with a molasses-based solution that adds a bit of shine, helps with browning, and allows sesame seeds to encrust their surface.” (TJ)
NEW at Trader Joe’s for Sept/Oct 2025 are these fabulous Turkish Breads called SIMIT, which are made in Turkey for Trader Joe’s. Find these frozen along with other breads like their frozen Naan.
Simit come in a package that has 4 round breads, wrapped in packs of 2, to stay as fresh as possible. It’s $3.49, or about 90 cents each. In Istanbul there are carts with sells simit. A little search on Google says on the street in Istanbul they typically sell for about 10-20 Turkish lira ($0.25-0.50) and a bit more in a bakery.
I had read these they were coming to TJ’s and kept waiting to see them. When I finally saw they arrived at my local TJ’s, I grabbed a package to try and review. So how are these? Well, here’s my honest review. Are they worth buying? YES!!!!!!
Trader Joe’s did it again with a delicious bread find imported here from another land. Wow, are these simit breads terrific. I give these a 5 stars RAVE! Delicious. I just loved how these taste and at the texture of the outside versus the soft inside.
These are little Artisanal breads, which you can tell are hand rolled. They are encrusted all over with sesame seeds. When you are warming these up, and they get start to get toasty you will smell the sesame in the kitchen. Yes, the shape of these may remind you of a bit of a bagel, though simit are very different and unique. They are just baked, not boiled first like bagels. They are the tiniest bit sweet on the outside. These look like they were twisted together then rolled by hand. So they’re not as easy to cut open say as a bagel. They separated when I tried to cut in half horizontally and I found them best to just take one and rip a bite off as I went if I wanted to, or rip them in half and dip them or put butter or whatever on them.
They were great just plain by themselves but were fabulous with other things like different kinds of butter, olive oil, cheese, olives, cream cheese and scallions, jam, you name it, you will love it. I loved them alongside some scrambled and sunny side up eggs, where I dipped the simit into the yellow yolks! Yummy!
HEATING: Take them out of the freezer and leave them about 15 minutes to defrost. Then toss in a 350 oven for about 4-5 minutes. – OR – Just so you know, I made mine on the stovetop in a cast iron pan. About 4-5 minutes a side on low-medium, until they looked golden brown and flipped it over. That easy method worked fine too. If you have an air fryer that probably will also work.
My wife loved these as much as I did. We are eating them with many things. Tonight for one, they well go great with LENTIL SOUP.
Simit are $3.49 for 4 breads (14 oz) Frozen
I would buy these again
How to eat Simit – Simit is a versatile bread that can be enjoyed in many ways throughout the day:
For breakfast: Pair it with traditional Turkish breakfast items like feta cheese, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, and a glass of Turkish tea.
With spreads: Serve it with savory dips such as hummus or a red pepper dip. For a sweet option, top it with butter, jam, or Nutella. I liked them with a little cream cheese.
As a snack: Warm them and eat it plain
As croutons: Cut it into pieces and toast until crunchy to use as a topping for soup.
Very short ingredient list. No Preservatives. We like that!
I found it a bit difficult to cut the Simit lengthwise to use for a sandwich as they are twisted and cutting them tended to make them separate. However they taste just as yummy.
If you are Turkish and try these, please let us know what you think…. UPDATE. We’ve heard from a few Turkish people who said they “taste like home”. One reader left this Comment: “Just tried today. Real deal. Just like the simit in Turkey.”
“For best flavor and crispy crust, pop into a 400F oven for 4-7 minutes“
These are only $1.29?! Wow!
CIABATTA DEMI BAGUETTE – Its a half size “demi” ciabatta bread. We tried it. We loved it. It comes slightly underbaked, to allow for additional baking that you will finish. This will really improve it to almost “freshly baked right out of the oven” status. Just pop it in for about 4-7 minutes in a 400 degree oven.
Don’t want to turn on the oven? I didn’t want. So I tried this: I found I could toast it up on the stove top (covered) in a pan for about 5-7 minutes on each side. Flipped when done. I cut it into slices. Or cut in half lengthwise. Doing this way until it was slightly toasted worked out fine. One more idea is you could perhaps toss it in an air fryer if you have one (I don’t).
The ingredient list has few ingredients and no preservatives. ING: Flour, water, sea salt, yeast.
Trader Joe’s says: ” The loaf is in the shape of a half baguette (“demi-” and “wand” in Italian), but the bread itself is ciabatta bread. Ciabatta dough contains a higher moisture content than traditional baguette dough—over 70% in this case— giving it a thin, slightly caramelized crust and a light crumb with large holes. Better yet, it’s made with just a few ingredients: unbleached wheat flour, water, sea salt, yeast, and malted barley. Though our supplier makes large quantities of bread, they are still able to achieve the sought-after artisanal taste and texture.”
The night we tried it, I had made a pasta frittata and it was perfect with that, mopping up our extra sauce. Both my wife and I found this bread to be so tasty.
It’s a small loaf, just about 6 oz of bread. and it goes for just $1.29! A bigger ciabatta loaf (11 oz) goes for $1.99.
I would buy it again.
(their serving suggestion, brie, apples, bacon…! what’s not to like!)
“A savory, focaccia like bread with light chewy texture, studded with briney black and Kalamata olives”
This bread is a bit unusual and one of Trader Joe’s more “gourmet” breads on offer. I think it’s worth trying especially if you are an olive fan.
This is a French style FOUGASSE, a bread typically associated with the South of France. Kind of a cousin to Focaccia. Trader Joe’s Olive Fougasse has both Kalamata and Black Olives. It’s loaded up with olives and has a great olive flavor. I love olives and I really liked this bread. FOUGASSE can be shaped in many ways, some quite artistic (see link for images of different Fougasse breads)…..
We baked it up as directed.Like a few breads Trader Joe’s sells, this one comes slightly underbaked, so you can get “fresh baked bread”. It’s needs to finish baking for just about 5 minutes so just pop it into hot oven (or air fryer?) for about 5 minutes. It will smell heavenly when you take it out. Its crusty, soft and chewy inside, Herby and Olive-y. My wife and I really enjoyed eating this with a pasta dish.
This would be great with many things, including I think goind with your cheese board, charcuterie board or butter board.
If you see a Fougasse in a bakery they would probably be selling them for 6-8 bucks. Trader Joe’s price is $3.49 (12 oz)
Ing. include flour, water, sea salt, yeast and herbs. It has No preservatives. Use within a day or two after buying or freeze it. I would buy it again.
I saw this at Trader Joe’s when I was looking for some regular bread for sandwiches. I had not reviewed this, so I got it to try out. In my mind I was thinking about making things like some grilled cheese sandwiches in the near future as well as having some regular square sliced bread for toast for breakfasts.
As far as sourdough bread goes, I think most people seem to be interested in Trader Joe’s round loaf sourdough breads.
Still if you are looking for a standard type of “white bread” with square slices to have around for say making regular slices of toast or regular sandwiches I would say this is about as good an upgrade for that type of bread as you could get. This is not some squishy white bread. Wonder bread this ain’t. It’s soft of course but has a bit of a firm, dense structure. I’d think of this not as an actual sourdough bread but as a sourdough style sliced bread. For sandwiches, etc. I took a slice of this and toasted it and was so hust happy with the result.
This bread just makes the best slice of toast! A little sturdy with a perfect texture. For me, this was pretty much created to become Toast. It can make the best “English style toast” with a perfect bite of crust and crumb textures. A nice, sturdy slice of toast, aching to be buttered. Optionally topped with whatever you like.
Besides toast of course this will be fantastic to make any kind of grilled sandwich, say a grilled cheese, or anything. What about maybe SARDINES ON TOAST? Yeah baby.
If you try this and make a piece of toast with this bread you will not be sorry. If you don’t want it toasted, I would still suggest perhaps at least warming it slightly, as all bread benefits from being warm.
(sliced sourdough toasted and topped with cottage cheese, garlic chips and spices.)
GRILLED CHEESE idea using this bread? I am thinking for the cheese, slice up some Unexpected Cheddar, put that on the bread and spread a very thin layer of TJ’s Pumpkin Butter on the top slice plus (optional) very very thin slices of apple. Grill this on low-medium heat with a tablespoon of butter until golden brown, flip over, and serve when ready with your favorite pickles.
90 calories per slice
Storing: I keep mine in freezer. Very easy to take out a slice.
(Scroll to end for latest update on the status of these which have been MIA for months!)
RAVE
“Perfect for hummus and dips and for sandwiches. Heat and enjoy!” (frozen)
I really love good pita bread. The fresh “pita bread original pockets” at Trader Joe’s have been OK in a pinch but its far from what I would call good pita (not too mention they used to give you 6 and now its just 4! Shrinkflation in action)
This “original pita bread” ($1.59) Trader Joe’s is fairly large, and on the thin side. I’ve always found these quite not sturdy enough to count on to make a pocket in, and hold the food. They kind of tend to fall apart when you fill them with ingredients as you are eating them.
This has changed with this new pocket bread/pita.
With the new Egyptian Baladi sourdough pocket bread Trader Joe’s finally has an excellentand authentic pita which is sturdy enough to split open and make a pocket that will hold ingredients, for say a falafal sandwich. And it’s Delicious. The BALADI SOURDOUGH POCKET BREADS are made by an Egyptian bakery for Trader Joe’s. So the real McCoy. These say “Product of Egypt”. Baked, then frozen, so as close to fresh as possible.
Trader Joe’s says: “We now offer Trader Joe’s Baladi Egyptian Sourdough Pocket Bread in our freezers. Made for us by a supplier in Egypt, these versatile (vegan) Baladi Pocket Breads take only a matter of minutes… to heat… before they’re puffed up, toasty, and ready to eat. Once heated, they have a tasty, slightly tangy Sourdough tinge to their flavor profile, and are ideal for stuffing with your favorite fillings. We’re partial to going with a classic combo of Falafel, chopped cucumbers, and our Garlic Spread-Dip, though they’re equally excellent when stuffed with our Gyros or Shawarma Chicken Thighs, too. And, of course, you can just serve them for dipping in hummus or tahini, as they do in Egypt.”
Here is my honest review of Baladi Pocket Bread. Wow. These are EXCELLENT. A great product. I was so impressed at how good these are and found them these pita breads to be so tasty and satisfying. They were even delicious just eaten simply with butter on them too as bread with our meal. Versatile. Between this new Baladi pocket bread and TJ’s Lavash I am super happy to have these Middle Eastern bread options.
Nice light whole wheat flavor. Natural ingredients. No preservatives. They come frozen in a resealable bag, with 5 breads inside the package and cost just $2.29. What a great deal. They are soft, fluffy inside yet sturdy enough for a pocket, or to use to scoop up any dip like hummus or what have you, pick up foods, hold up to falafal, or use for any sandwich, or even I think used as the base for mini pizza (see below).
Match these with your favorite hummus for sure!
HEATING: I took them out for about 10 minutes, left them out on the counter to defrost a bit (optional). I heated them, trying two ways; in the oven and on top of the stove in a covered pan. About 4-5 minutes. Both methods worked fine. In a pinch you could nuke them from frozen, but I think they will still benefit from a few seconds over the burners turning and flipping for the best texture like they just came out fresh from the oven they were baked in.
PS – I did try them for the base for pizza. Came out quite tasty! I’d say it kind of worked for a pizza base, if you are OK with the knife and fork kind of pizza. Next time I may split one open and just use the half for a thinner base, and see if I can get more of a bake on the bottom and get it more crisped up. Worth trying for easy pizza.
UPDATE – (Aug/Sept ’25) Unfortunately Trader Joe’s Sold Out of all the stock of these quickly as these seemed to have gone Viral on social media soon after they first appeared. Trader Joe’s staff looked it up for me and said, they are waiting for new stock to arrive, Late Fall or Early winter. They expected it sooner but that it was likely held up due to tariffs(!)
UPDATE 2 – MID OCT 2025 – HURRAY! THESE ARE FINALLY BACK!!
“Trader Joe’s authentic Lavash Flatbread is a delicious and versatile alternative to sliced bread for sandwiches. Use for wrap sandwiches, burritos, soft tacos or flatbread pizza”
What’s Lavash? Its a traditional Armenian / Middle Eastern flatbread. In 2014, lavash was added to UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, highlighting its cultural significance
I’ve been wanting to try TJ’s Lavash for awhile and finally got around to it. In short, I really liked Trader Joe’s LAVASH. This bread is a great Trader Joe’s product. I give this a big thumbs up.
As you can see in the picture, it’s a thin flatbread. It comes in a large square and is soft and flexible, especially after warming. Its good for many things, like making sandwich wraps or roll-ups, thin sandwiches, tacos, burrito type dishes or just using it to scoop up hummus or any kind of dip or pieces of food for that matter. Grilled meat or chicken? Great as a base for little cheese bites. Wrap some grilled halloumi cheese up in this. You could use it to make a Club Sandwich as they suggest on the package. This bread can even used as the base for making a thin pizza. (someone left a Comment here that they make pizza in the Air Fryer with this lavash) Again, this stuff is really versatile.
The Lavash becomes better warmed up a little bit. It will get more flexible and softer, so easier to roll. To warm it, I usually just put it right on the burner for about 10 seconds moving it around and flipping it. Or sometimes I warm in a pan or griddle, covered.
Once warm eat right away or keep the lavash warm as you would tortillas when you serve.
The sheets are large but are scored in the middle so they can be torn in half easily. To store it more than a day or two I keep the Lavash in the freezer, tightly sealed. It’s so thin it can defrost in just a few minutes and I am usually tossing it on a burner or into a pan to warm it.
It you baked it it would get crispy enough that it could be like a pita chip.
I like the Egg Burrito suggestion they have on the package: warm the lavash, add scrambled eggs and grated cheese and roll up like a burrito.
Its made with Whole Wheat so healthy. It’s low fat as it is so thin and low cal. A 1/2 flatbread has only 90 calories, yet has 5 gr of Protein and is a good source of fiber. It is also LOW CARB as its so thin.
Lavash is quite versatile, and as you explore using it, you will find many ways to use this interesting tasty flatbread. Again,perfect for scooping up hummus and middle eastern mezze or other dishes. Use it like Naan with Indian foods.
TIP: The lavash paired perfectly with Trader Joe’s Middle Eastern BEEF KEBABS. I cooked the kebabs, and put them in warm lavash with a garlic yogurt sauce with arugula; Or use the Tzaziki. Yum!! Basically a 2 ingredient meal….
“A soft rustic sandwich bread with rolled oats, molasses, flax seeds and sunflower seeds”
WHY TRADER JOE’S MULTIGRAIN RUSTICO SANDWICH BREAD IS A MUST TRY
Trader Joe’s Multigrain RUSTICO BREAD – This is a very tasty bread you may have seen at Trader Joe’s at some point. Its a little soft with an oblong shape, kind of like a long skinny rye bread. The slices are roundish, again like a rye bread. The outside is coated with rolled oats and seeds.
I tried it and liked it. I found it good for making all kinds of sandwiches and seems especially good when toasted or grilled. RUSTICO BREAD is both a little “rustic” as well as seeming a bit on the healthier side from some of the ingredients such as whole wheat, rolled oats, molasses, flax, sesame, and sunflower seeds. While its soft it’s not too soft, this has a little hearty body to it.
Each slice has 4 grams of fiber. At 80 calories per slice, its a bit on the lower calorie side as some Trader Joe’s sliced breads come in at 120-150 calories per slice. The roundish slices are probably a tad smaller than regular square shaped sliced bread. While the bread is soft it still has a little rustic nature from the seeds and oats hence the “Rustico” name. And while it has seeds I would also say its not “too seedy” for those picky eaters who might object to seeds, like some kids I think might. This is a good compromise all around.
Both of us really liked this bread trying it out for the first time. We found TJ’s RUSTICO BREAD to be another good addition to all the many breads we would gladly pick up again at Trader Joe’s, which is a list which seems to keep getting longer and longer all the time, as they have so many good breads.
The RUSTICO BREAD makes excellent toast and sandwiches. For example, say Avocado Toast or a Tuna Melt. Heres what it looked like all grilled up for a Tuna Melt I made on RUSTICO Bread. It looks good and tasted even better.
So as you can see from the Ingredients in this bread, you are getting a lot of variety of whole grains for one thing. You are also getting a good amount of fiber in this 100% Whole Grain High Fiber bread. Each slice has 5 grams of fiber.
That is about 18% of the recommended dietary amount. It’s not hard to eat two slices, perhaps in a sandwich or just as toast. Do that and you are getting 10 grams of fiber, which is about 1/3 or more of the daily recommended fiber amount (daily dietary fiber is recommended at 25-38 grams).
How does this bread taste? I like it. It actually tastes pretty good. Like a 100% whole wheat bread. I find it just the tiniest bit on the dry side, but you have to take all that fiber into account.
This tasted quite good when I toasted it up, and ate with butter and marmalade.
It’s got no preservatives, and no additives. Seems pretty All Natural. I would buy it again.
1 slice = 120 Calories, 4 gr Protein, and 10 gr of whole grains
Trader Joe’s EUROPEAN GRAINS & SEEDS BREAD is a European / Scandinavian style bread that Trader Joe’s introduced not too long ago. Here’s what they have to say about it :
“Our Danish bakery partner starts with a hearty sourdough rye Bread base, bolstering it with flax seed, sunflower seeds, rye flakes, and wheat bran before baking it to a deep brown hue. The resulting loaves are classically European—moist, toothsome, and somewhat dense, with a slightly sweet, delightfully nutty quality in each thin slice.”
I’m a big fan of these types of dense, hearty loaves of bread, seen all over Europe plus every Scandinavian country. I love these kinds of breads that have lots of whole grains. These type of breads are usually square loaves, sliced on the thin side as they are dense. Hearty, and delicious.
Wonder Bread this ain’t!
Here in the U.S., we don’t see these kinds of breads often enough, so over the years whenever I’ve seen this type of bread somewhere I will generally buy it. Especially pumpernickel breads which I really like.
I was so happy to find Trader Joe’s came out with this style of European bread, which are of course super healthy, compared to most any other breads. Is it any good?
Yes, this bread is good. Trader Joe’s new “European Grains And Seeds Bread” is deliciously nutty, tasty and full of seeds. It is baked for for them in Denmark by a Danish bakery, with the thin slices have a nice, nutty taste from sourdoughwholegrain rye and whole wheat floursplus a lot of seeds.
So healthy. I am going to guess this is probably the healthiest bread you can buy at Trader Joe’s.
How to enjoy European Grains and Seeds Bread: What this kind of bread is great for, is making things like open face sandwiches. Probably not so great for your average (thick) sandwich. It may not hold up. You could try thin sandwiches with two slices but really, think I would think about doing Scandinavian style open face sandwiches.
Of course you can just simply spread a slice with (softened) butter, cream cheese, cottage cheese, any cheese you love, jam, ham, or whatever you like. One way I love to enjoy this bread is to spread a slice with butter and top it with thin slices of cucumber or radish and a few grains of sea salt.
You can eat as is, or warm or toast it a bit. As usual with breads, warming it up even a little bit always improves the flavor. But you don’t have to, its fine at room temp.
While I love how this bread tastes there is one area I think they could improve it. The slices tend to break apart if you are not careful with it, as there are so many seeds in it which make it less solid. Which just means you have to be a little gentle with it. So if using butter for example, I let the butter get a bit softened enough to spread easily, least you rip your slice. Sometimes I cut the slices into half or quarters as its easier to handle. Toasting it makes it a bit more firm so try toasting this too. I do really like it just a little toasted.
I made an simple open faced sardine sandwich on this bread and enjoyed it a lot ; it matched great with the fish. SO GOOD!. Try it with your favorite cheese too.
TJ’s says: “When it comes to toppings and fillings, the thin-yet-sturdy slices of European Grains & Seeds Bread are ready for near-infinite riffing: try topping a slice with a pat of Cultured Salted Butter and a swoosh of berry preserves; sliced Cave Aged Le Gruyère and Rosemary Ham, or ripe avocado and a spoonful of Crunchy Chili Onion. Enjoy a slice as the base of an open-faced sandwich topped with Whipped Cream Cheese, Smoked Salmon Pieces, and plenty of fresh dill. If it’s soft & chewy you’re seeking, use un-toasted slices of European Grains & Seeds Bread to scaffold scoops of tuna salad—and don’t forget the pickle on the side!”
Will this last as a TJ’s product? I hope so. Like all new products, if they see it is selling well they will keep it. However if not enough people buy this, then it may go bye-bye unfortunately. So if you try and like this, keep buying it. I sure will.
I think it’s even gotten a little popular. A few times I have found this sold out, but it seemed to get restocked after a few days.
Trader Joe’s “San Francisco Style Sourdough” is a popular bread at Trader Joe’s. And for good reason. Its just a really good tasting sourdough bread which everybody seems to love and it’s priced reasonably at three and a half bucks.
Here’s my honest review: I buy it all the time. This bread has been one of my standard Go-To pick up items whenever I shop at Trader Joe’s. This has become one of my favorites breads there. And yes they have a lot of good breads! This is a handy stand out bread good for many purposes.
I bet like me you love ingredient lists where the list is nice and short. Which it is here. Basically the ingredients say: “unbleached enriched flour, malted barley, water, salt.”
No preservatives.
Its a round loaf, sliced up. The slices here are a bit thinner than another TJ sourdough, their CRACKED WHEAT SOURDOUGH which I also reviewed with a thumbs up. That bread is sliced thicker with about 13 slices to a loaf, while this one has about 16-17. One slice of this has about 100 calories.
The crust looks slightly shiny, typical of sourdough bread, and has a nice hole structure in the interior. Its slightly dense, slightly chewy, with a nice taste and a hint of that “sour dough” flavor. It makes excellent toast.
I love a slice of this toasted, say for breakfast with some butter and good jam. This make great sandwiches of course. You can not go wrong making a grilled cheese sandwich with this. Ditto avocado toast.
I found some (incorrect) rumors online last summer about it being discontinued which seemed to upset lots of people, only to learn it was not discontinued. Just to confirm that again, I just bought it recently (Jan 2025) As it is popular you might find it sold out, on occasion, but just ask at the front desk when they expect to get more in, if they sold out of all the stock that day.
If you haven’t tried this yet, try it. I would say its well worth every penny.
San Francisco Style Sourdough Bread, $3.49 (1 1/2 lb, 24 oz round slice loaf)
I would buy this again
I freeze it for long term storage wrapped inside another bag (double bagged). If its hard to pry a slice off frozen I just use a knife to pry one off. Can last 1-2 months frozen.
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