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 :)
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!
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
