Review: Glory Foods ~ Gluten free baked goods

Chris and Rosalie Barton a married couple who also have their own business.

A business i very much admire as it involves food, Gluten free food! :)

Glory Foods are a Scotland based company who home bake gluten free goodies for cafes, restaurants and many other places with a tourism industry. They originally started out just baking cakes for Chris's mum who is (like me) a Coeliac, and things have grown from there.

Being a fairly new company and in the process of moving business address, they are still working on packaging their goodies. However my package was in an air-tight container and wrapped securely so the tasty content was not broken or damaged.

The lovely Rosalie had whipped up a batch of her gluten free chocolate chip cookies for me to try.

These are made with gluten free flour, fair trade sugar, free range eggs, Scottish butter and fair trade chocolate. I really like the fact they're combining local produce, fairtrade and free range together to make their yummy items. I couldn't wait to open them and tuck in!

The cookies are just right, perfect texture that's moist yet still chewy and crumbly at the same time. The lovely deep taste of the chocolate hits you as you bite into the generous chunks that are scattered on the cookies.

I was very pleased to find that they weren't to sweet, most gluten free products compensate flavour for extra sugar, which isn't good for anyone and taste's horrible. Not these well balanced cookies.

It would've been interesting to know more details about the content though, maybe send an information sheet with them about the RDA of fat/energy etc... content.

Needless to say they didn't last long....

Chris said he will be sending me some more of their goodies to try out and review for you all to read. I'm looking forward to seeing what else the fabulous Rosalie can make :)

Meanwhile you can have a nosey around their website and read more about them here.

Review: DrSchar.com ~ TRUfree and Dietary Specials foods

The lovely Becky from Dr.Schar.com sent me a box of goodies to try. Inside were a variety of tasty things by TRUfree and Dietary Specials.


From TRUfree we received some rich tea biscuits and their tasty pretzels...

My daughter instantly spotted the biscuits and demanded to try some. When we opened the box (125g) we found 3pks of 6 biscuits each, i think this is great as it gives more freshness and life to them to make them last longer. However 6 biscuits is quite alot, maybe 4 packs of 4 biscuits would be better?
So i opened them and was disappointed that most of the biscuits were already broken into pieces, I've had these before and they were the same so it wasn't method of delivery. I just think that the biscuits are to thin, if they were slightly thicker then they'd break less. I made some tea to go with them and was disappointed that my tea ended up full of soggy biscuit crumbs.
The taste of the biscuit was nice though, the classic sweet and buttery taste that's plain and simple just like an ''original'' rich tea biscuit.

Next the pretzels got spotted by the non-coeliac in the house, Justin. He loves these and i regularly buy him them as he says (in his words) ''They taste like the real thing''. I find that i defiantly need a drink with these as they are very salty and hard. The bag is quite large, 60g, as just a snack. One for sharing, picnics or even opening a few bags at a party. I'd like to see smaller snack packets of 30g/40g sold in multi packs (6) for convenience, and some other flavours such as chocolate covered or garlic and herb? Yummy :)

From Dietary Specials we had their Chocolate & Orange crispy bars,

bread sticks and brown ciabatta rolls.

The crispy bars didn't stay in the packet very long as they looked really tasty! Inside the 180g box you get 5 individually wrapped bars, one for each week day :) They were very tasty with quite a tangy orange flavour, little pieces of orange were also dotted around the bars. Nice and chewy but not enough chocolate, it would be nice to have the chocolate running all the way though instead of just on the outside. This also might help to make them less dry and bland? Also available in apricot and raisin flavour, yummy.

Next up were their *new* product, bread sticks. They come in a 150g pack and inside are separated into 3pks. This is excellent for freshness and sharing, if you only want to nibble on a few the rest are still sealed and fresh for next time. Or open them all up for a party! I found them to be a bit dry and crumbly but with a dip they were fantastic :) Also they make a good alternative to biki-pegs for a teething toddler, hard enough to help with teething but edible and flavourless for them to like. Little snack sizes packets of these in miniature form would go down well at kids party's, in a lunch box or your handbag as a quick snack when on the go.

 Lastly we tried the brown ciabatta rolls, 200g with four rolls. Winner of the bread and bread mixes catergory at the Free From food awards. I had never tried ciabatta before having these and now i love it!

They are fresh enough to eat as they are but the taste develops if you warm them through. Either a few seconds in the microwave or a few minutes in the oven, for that beautiful fresh bread taste and smell :) I enjoyed mine oven warm with some margarine and a hearty beef stew. The outside turns crispy and the inside stays soft and fluffy with it chewy seeds, fantastic for moping up the gravy. I have previously used these to make garlic bread, again in the oven with fantastic tasty results. I wonder if some larger ones could be made to use as sandwiches? Yummy!!! 

I was overall very impressed with both of these brands, with their easily recognisable packaging and quite impressive products. I am keeping my eyes peeled for any new makes from them, i will be sure to give them a try out to :)

Dietary Specials also has an impressive frozen range including pizzas and pies, very exciting, low fat and flavoursome products again!

If you wish to purchase any of these products or just fancy a look at their full ranges then head over to your local supermarkets which are bound to stock of few items from each company or shop directly from them online here; Dietary Specials and TRUfree.

Review: Organix, Toddler's Mighty Meals

We received an email from Sarah at Organix asking if we'd like to try their new toddler's dinner range, 'Mighty Meals'. She described the fives different types to us and i was very pleased to see that two of them are gluten and wheat free, being Coeliac its just what my household has to eat!

Its great to see the variety of something for everyone with the four main meats and a veggie option. Meals like these are often not free from for allergy sufferers so this was very exciting for us!

We received the Pork Meatballs and the Spinach Falafel dinners. Both looked great straight away, a great picture on the front which makes them look homemade and yummy! I love the little fork symbol at the top with the suggested age range, 1-3.

I think the portion size (200g) is just right for the age range, giving the older child other things to eat if needed. My 17mth old Lydia would eat all of this and want a yoghurt afterwards, she loves her pud!

Saying that Lydia was not interested in eating these on the two days i tried :( She's been teething and has been rather funny with anything besides yoghurt!

First we tried the Pork Meatball's in a tomatoey chickpea & sweet potato sauce

Lydia usually loves things that have a bit of pork in, with this she was happy to nibble on a meatball but didn't like the chickpeas in the sauce, once she had bitten one of them she refused to eat anymore of any of it! That was only on meatball one :(

If she wasn't in such a tetchy mood with her teething I'm sure she would've allowed me to pick out the meatballs for her to eat separately. But she was being fussy so me and daddy shared it! It was really tasty, she missed out! lol

I did find the sauce was quite dry, which is probley what she didn't like. Its the dryness of the chickpeas, so maybe a bit more tomato sauce is needed? Or you could swap the chickpeas for a more softer bean? (baked beans maybe? yummy!)

Next it was the Spinach Falafel in beany sweet red pepper sauce

Another gorgeous meal for my fussy not wanting to eat toddler to try. This time she dove in to the sauce first, chewed a bean and spat it out :( Then refused to have anything more to do with it. Again i think it was the dryness of the beans, but that's my toddler's fussiness and not the foods fault! Just have a drink with you.

This meal is the vegetarian option in the 'Mighty Meals' range, and i think it is gorgeous! I love falafel, so to try a spinach falafel was great. I'd be happy to buy this for myself as lunch!

Lovely bite-size balls for adults to eat (like the pork meatballs) but i feel they need cutting in half for the younger of the eaters out their.

A very well rounded meal with delicious flavours. And Lydia will be trying these two again once she's feeling better from teething :(

However Lydia did love playing robots with the cardboard sleeve packaging....

... funny child of mine!

So if your now hungry or fancy trying these for your toddlers then here's where you can get them!

They're on offer in Boots from the 6th May for 6wks they will have 20% off, along with other Organix goodies to try. Or buy them directly from Organix online shop for £1.99 each.

Also from June/July time they will be available from big supermarkets like Sainsburry's, ASDA and Waitrose.

Review: Honeybuns ~ The new mini range

What better to wake up to than a box of yummy treats?! A rare occurrence if your a Coeliac, intolerant to wheat and gluten. But not if you've heard of Honeybuns!

Lottie over at Honeybuns sent me some of their new mini's range to review.... 

Five gorgeous mini's

1. Snowy Hill's ~ Ginger polenta shortbread and lemon sponge flavour, double layered cake :)

Once opened you get the beautiful smell of ginger instantly, but the shortbread taste's more of butter than ginger which was a bit disappointing. Biting into it you could taste the tangy lemon sponge which was deliciously soft, and i would have liked a piece of that just on its own. The whole piece was moist in texture but, the ginger polenta left gravelly/sandy bits in your mouth, need a cup of tea with this one i think.

2. Milk Chocolate brownie with coffee ~ Once opened you get the classic smell of homemade brownies,amazing and unmistakable. The brownie was really yummy and moist with good size pieces of nut to chew on. However i couldn't taste the coffee at all? I love coffee and chocolate flavours together so i was very disappointed that the taste wasn't there :( The brownie had small chunks of chocolate on the top, which is usually an excellent extra to nibble on, but they were horrible and tasted very bland. Not like chocolate at all? More like hamster chocolate.

3. Almond Moon ~ Almond cake with cranberry's (Not Alfie Moon).

Another double textured cake with strong almondy flavour and the bitter sweetness of the cranberry's. I found this also to be very buttery, but once you bite into one of the fat juicy cranberry's all is forgiven! Overall you could compare it to marzipan, but its not a sickening in flavour. I really like the double layer of this one, makes it 'different' from your average cake.

4. Heathcliffe ~ Brownie with orange (not the fat cat or Wuthering heights).

This was AMAZING! The beautiful tangy orange scent hits you first then you bite it and get what i describe as 'the Terry's orange effect', lovely milky chocolate with an orange that you just want more of!

Moist, chewy and gooey, just what every brownie should be like. More please :)

5. Coppice cake ~ Hazelnut, chocolate and cranberry cake.

Wow, this one blew me away. I read the label and thought it sounded like a rather odd combination, then i tried it and totally changed my mind. To be honest with you i couldn't eat it quick enough!!!

A very balanced cake that's not to sweet, the cranberry's that add a light sharpness that's needed but they're not to harsh as they in turn are softened by the chocolate and sugar. Running throughout the taste is a background of hazelnut, which is gorgeous and not ''to nutty''.

Soft, moist and moreish (please, hehe).

Over all i found these mini cakes great!

Fabulous for tea-party's, lunch box's, handbag snacks, children, quick snacks, party's and gifts!

They are all gluten and wheat free (apart from the flapjack which i didn't review), its hard to find a beautiful cake that i can eat and now i know of five! Also its great how they're not in your face about being free-from, they just are :)

All of them are wrapped in colourful bio-degradable packaging and re-cycled cling wrap. They each come with a little story/information to read so non of the packaging is left un-used, which makes a lovely little read whilst you happily chomp away :) Very inviting to look at and read, makes you want to buy more, and learn more about what Honeybuns do,where they are etc...

So if I've made you hungry you better log onto Honeybuns and get some! They are also available in selected heath food shops (infinity foods), Waitrose, John Lewis and Salisbury's Cafes as well as other independent delis and cafes around the UK. Yummy!



Review ~ Isabel's Naurally free from: Dough Balls

Isabel over at Brazilian Flavours sent me a box her gorgeous cheese dough balls to try.

Being a Coeliac is hard to find tasty, healthy quick snacks for party's or for just enjoying. Well Isabel's Cheese dough balls are gluten and wheat free, and they fit the requirements just great! Also they're low in salt, sugar free and vegetarian :)

They won last years 'Free-from food award', and i can see why....

Just after they'd been cooked

When i first opened the packet i felt a little disappointed that all it seemed was that you'd just paid £2.69 for a small bag of flour. I was very wrong. When i opened the bag i could smell a subtle hint of cheese and the flour was very smooth and soft, like it have just been sieved.

I followed the preparation instructions which i found very clear and easy to read and follow, A simple four step job. Isabel said to make sure i used the exact amount of water shown in the recipe and not to guess as this will alter the results. I whizzed mine up in the food processor which made less mess and was much quicker than by hand. However if i was making these with children i would do it by hand, get your hands messy and have fun. They'd love it! And its very simple that not much could go wrong really.

I love how versatile this product is, you can add in your own favorite flavours to the mix. I added in some cheddar and mixed herbs. I LOVE cheese so i added a bit more than the recipe suggests :)

Next was to separate the mix into balls, the recipe says around 3cm in diameter will make you 26-28 dough balls. Mine made 27! :)

Now at this stage you have an option to cook now or to freeze for use at a later date, fantastic for preparation for party's/sleep-overs/movie night etc... Then all you'd need to do is pop them in the oven!?!

I put mine on a baking sheet with greaseproof paper, the oven was pre-heated to the correct temperature (180* fan assisted), if the oven is to hot or to cold the balls won't cook through properly.

These cook for 20-25mins until they've turned lightly golden in colour.

Once cooked i removed them from the baking tray and into bowl to serve, they kept the warmth in very well and were totally scrumptious to eat! My 16mth old daughter loved them to :)
The outside was crispy and golden with a yummy soft and slightly chewy centre, almost like ''normal'' glutinous dough balls would be.

Next time i think i will make them slightly smaller than the recipe suggests. Two reasons, one being that they were quite big to take your first bite from without squashing or ripping them open, and secondly purely so you get more :) yummy!!! These are an excellent sharing food, even though i could've eaten them all!

I will deffinatly be buying these for future gatherings, partys or just as something to keep in cupboard as a quick snack when i need one :) Mmm...i want more now!

Just before i devoured them!

Some ideas i have for future use of this product are; using dips, adding a small lump of mozzarella into the centre so it gives a melt in the middle effect, brushing the tops with milk or egg and sprinkling with sesame/poppy seeds before cooking, making them into tiny sandwiches for fun food for kids, adding garlic butter to the mix to create restaurant like dough balls to accompany pizza or pasta.

Also if you have an egg allergy you can use an egg replacer to make this mix, so get on it!

Dough balls can be purchased from ASDA and directly from the Brazilian Flavours website along with their other gorgeous products. The dough balls are priced £2.69 for 250gram box and are currently on offer, £2 off is you order a case of 8 box's. Yummy!!!

Also Isabel's products can be found in Waitrose and Ocado.

Review: Hale 'n' Hearty foods ~ Gluten and Wheat free products

Catarina over at Hale & Hearty sent me a box of treats, I was so excited as it contained lots of new yummy things for me and Lydia to try. Being Coeliac it is hard to find new tasty and good for you products, all i had to do was open the box and eat them!


Choco Jungle Pops

The first item that Lydia was immediately drawn to was the Choco Jungle Pops. A brightly coloured box with monkeys all over it, on the back of the box there is a little activity for children to do. Very similar concept of a leading brand product, making Coeliac children feel less left out at breakfast times :)

I was a bit supprised to find the box was only half full, it contained a freshly sealed bag with the cereal in. The bag was Almost half the size of the box, less packaging is needed i think.

The cereal is supposed to be chocolate flavour, i found that it was barely noticed in the taste at all. They were very hard and needed quite some time to soak in milk before they were soft/chewy enough to eat nicely. However, alike a kids leading brand again they did 'make the milk chocolatey'. More so in looks than taste. I found them to be quite sticky to your teeth after being hard to chew, with a very strong taste of the quinoa.

Priced at £2.75 (in Sainsbury's) for 275gram box, i feel is a little steep seeing as you can only get about three decent sized portions from the packet. I think a 350gram would be better value and last alot longer :) But if using them for a child i am sure you'd hear no complaints! (and they eat less)

Gluten-free Breadcrumbs

The next for us to try were the breadcrumbs. I was very impressed with these. A real loaf (gluten&wheat free of course) is cooked then used to make the breadcrumbs, this gives a very soft and tasty result.

I followed the recipe for breaded chicken nuggets. I adapted the recipe to my taste and added some boullion, herbs and garlic powder. Shallow fried them until golden brown and ate! They were so yummy that my non-GF/WF boyfriend wanted more than his share, to be honest so did i! He said he was very impressed with the results and generally doesn't like to eat 'my' food as it tastes different and is to dry, not these though, he said they tasted like 'real food'. They keep well if you seal them back up, i used a clip-grip on top of the original bag.

It was a few days later and i  had half a packet left over, so i decided to make some proper beef burgers. Using the meat, herbs and egg as usual i then was able to add some edible breadcrumbs to bind it all together. They made my burgers nice and sturdy, very tasty and filling for once!

A product idea for H&H could be that they make a few 'ready to use' versions of the breadcrumbs for certain recipes. A herby one, one with dried parmesan ready for the nuggets etc....

I am very impressed with these teeny crumbs, fish fingers are next on my 'to cook' list :)
At £2.79 (waitrose) for 250grams the price seems quite steep, but for the amount of use you get from them i think they are well with the investment! Yummy!

Mini Breadsticks & Mini Breadsticks with Parmesan



All i can say i is...they didn't last long! These breadsticks are so good!!! With a little help from my 16mth old daughter a whole packet of these were gone in about 1/2hr, so yummy and moreish.

If they lasted as long as to get them on the table they'd make a fabulous party nibble, add in a couple of dips and your off! Alternatively be a piggy like me and just devour the packet as it were a bag of crisps.

They're crunchy but not to hard, make you salivate so are not to dry and are cooked just enough to give you a satisfying toasted flavour.

The size of them is just great to, being the size of my thumb i could happily let Lydia munch away on them without fear of her choking on a small piece (before biting of course) or poking herself in the eye with a huge one.

I'd love to see multi-packs of smaller packets for snacking or to give to children to nibble, maybe 4-6pks of around 30-40grams.

That being said i would also love to see these in full sized restaurant style breadsticks for the adults, for dipping and enjoying the same way.

Priced £1.59 (Sainsbury's for the plain breadsticks) for 100g, fantastic price for a fantastic product! I always have an emergency packet stashed in my cupboard, not that they stay there very long....

Cassava Crisps

The last items we had to try were the multi-packs of Cassava crisps. Available in three yummy flavours; superbly spiced, perfectly peppered and beautifully barbecued. The spicey is just right, not over powering or to hot with chilli. And the barbecued is lovely and tasty, not burnt. And lastly the pepper flavour is a nice simple alternative to ready salted, plain and simple without being to hot.

Made with Cassava root rather than your usual humble spud these give a very different but tasty flavour. Its fantastic to know you can just grab them to eat and not have to worry about reading the label for that sneaky well known comment of 'may contain traces of wheat or gluten'.

The flavours are quite different to the normal flavours associated with crisps, and i would love to see more being made available. Two ideas i have and would love to see and eat are, plain salted and cheese & herb flavours. And making a larger 'to share' bag of the current individual flavours would make an ideal food for party's/film nibbles etc....

Priced at £2.59 (Tesco) for 6x30gram bags, i find is a good price. Average to what you'd pay for a normal multi-pack of crisps, but better because you know your safe to eat them and they're a healthier alternative. 

Over all i find Hale 'n' Hearty foods are of fantastic quality, value and a necessity to any healthy diet. I can't wait until my next food shop so i can find more of the range to try out.

The range is widely available to buy in these retailers; Sainsbury's, Waitrose, ASDA, Tesco, Holland & Barrett, Ocado, Booths, As Nature Intended, Planet Organic and Whole Foods Market.

Definatly a name to recommend to all your Coeliac or health conscious friends and family :) Yummy!

Review: Village Bakery ~ Gluten and Wheat free products

The lovely Fran from  The Village bakery sent me over some of their gorgeous food to review. Included in my bundle were; Apricot slices, Date slices, 4bars seeds, 4bars fruit, 4bars nuts, ginger cake, rich fruit cake slices, rye bread and rye & coriander bread.

I am a Coeliac and have to follow a strict diet containing no wheat, gluten, malt, rye, barley or oats. This meant i was unable to try the bread or slices. However, Justin is sensitive to eating to much wheat so he tried out these for me :)

Justin tried the Apricot and Date slices first....

 

He found them to be a bit dry, much better to have them with a cup of tea rather than a snack by on its own. But he enjoyed the tasty chewy fruits inside them. A berry version would be nice.

We wondered if it was possible for them to be made without the barley malt? Then Coeliacs could also enjoy them. Being a man he thought the size of them was small, and had to eat two in one sitting!

These vegetarian friendly bars are made without wheat or yeast and have reduced sodium. Priced at £2.25 i thought they were a good price for 4 healthy and yummy snacks.

Next up it was the Rye bread, and Rye with Coriander bread....

 

Justin had never tried Rye bread before so he didn't know what to expect from it. When he first sliced it he found it quite hard to cut, describing it as a brick! It felt tough, stiff and stodgy, i mentioned that Rye bread is quite 'heavy' like that and he was happy. He described the flavour to be very strange, it was quite dry and hard to chew. I suggested that he toast it and melt butter on it, like a sun loaf or something. He enjoyed the flavour of it more once it was warmed through, but he said he wouldn't eat it again. Being a lover of coriander i thought the Rye&Coriander loaf would go down a storm with him, but no. He was really put off by the nasty colour and smell. He reluctantly tried it and didn't like it at all. I think his view would change if he 'had' to eat wheat free all the time, his taste buds would change.

Priced at £1.55 for a 400gram loaf, i think this is a great price considering other wheat free bread can cost up to £3 a loaf! Its also available with sultanas, i bet that's yummy toasted with butter!

I tried the 4bars, Ginger cake, Fruit cake slices....

The four bars come in three different variety's. Fruits, Nuts and Seeds.

Vegetarian and with no added fat these are a great healthy snack to just grab when your on the go, or put into your bag for later. Really lovely texture that's soft and not to chewy.

The fruit one contains apricot, date and orange. I'd love to see a berry version, cranberry, raspberry and blueberry maybe?

The nut bars contain cashew, walnut, hazelnut and almonds. Yummy indeed! These helped me through my nasty spout of morning sickness, a nice healthy snack with no over powering strong flavours. These ran out very quickly and i needed to buy more!

The seed bars contain pumpkin, sunflower, linseed and sesame. These were also a fantastic emergency snack, excellent to give you a little elevenses boost without ruining your appetite for lunch. I did find them a little dry. But all of the bars are moist enough to hold together without being to soft or gooey.

 

For 4bars/170grams at £2.25 i think the price is great. They are decent sized bars that will leave you happy and wanting more! Also being Organic, very low fat and sodium is an added bonus!

The rich fruit cakes slices come in pack of 5, lots of yummy cake to share. Or not, as these are the moistest, juiciest and tastiest gluten and wheat free cake bars i have EVER tried. (and i like cake! lol) I was so impressed with these. Rich and filling but so yummy and like a treat, defiantly a tea time speciality. I am certainly going to buy more (lots more) and have them at Christmas with some brandy cream, mmmmm....

I let my 15mth old daughter try these, she was that impressed that she said 'CAKE! Mmmm' for the very first time! At £2.65 for a 5pk/200grams, Get in my belly!

                                     

 

The Ginger cake is a lovely treat, and i also found out that it helps with morning sickness! With bits of stem ginger hidden in amongst the moist, tasty sponge-like loaf cake. A soft gingerly flavour that's not to over-whelming is wonderful, a perfect accompaniment to a nice cup of tea.

£3.50 for a 300gram loaf is a good price, your average price of a cake this size I'd say. To know that both of these items have been made in a dedicated wheat and gluten free factory is really pleasing. The last thing i need (being pregnant) is to be ill from cross contamination, no worries with The Village Bakery Melmerby :)

All of the packaging is excellent to! The brightly coloured, easily identifiable packaging is mostly 95% recyclable. And they all clearly state the allergens, health benefits and other needed information. Great!

Available from Sainsbury's (Free From Aisle), Waitrose, Fresh and Wild, Planet Organic and all good health food stores across the UK. Not all items are available in every shop, so please check online first or order directly from here ~ http://www.village-bakery.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1