The Gluten Free Blog

The nice people at Dietary Specials sent a gluten free starter pack to GFB towers this week. (Have you signed up for your starter pack yet? Do it now).

Inside were some DS Ciabatta white rolls (which were nearly as delicious as their brown rolls). Plus a packet of TruFree Digestive biscuits which I’m ashamed to say I practically finished off in one sitting. As a coeliac I’m used to eating gluten free delights. But how do they compare to the real thing? So, before I scoffed the entire packet, I let my gluten eating work colleagues try them out.

They described TruFree’s gluten free digestives as crispier and crunchier than normal digestives. Sort of chunkier, more like a cookie. Not as smooth as a normal digestive but that didn’t matter. And less sweet, which was nicer. And concluded these gluten free digestives would be perfect for cheese but not necessarily for dunking.

So there you have it. Market research. Sort of. If you’re a coeliac in a gluten eating family you could probably slip a packet of TruFree’s digestives into your biscuit tin and there probably wouldn’t be too much hullabaloo. Or you could hide them at the back of the cupboard and keep them for yourself.

TruFree gluetn free digestive biscuits are available in most UK supermarkets priced at approximately £1.80.

Gluten free ciabatta rolls from DS Gluten Free

At Gluten Free Towers we’re always getting sent new things to try.

Last week we received some gluten free ciabatta rolls from DS Gluten Free. DS is one of our fave brands: their products are all good quality, well priced and available in most UK supermarkets. Oh and don’t forget to visit the DS website and sign up for their gluten free starter pack.

Anyway, back to the ciabatta rolls. After five minutes in the oven – to give them that homemade freshly-baked vibe – we scoffed the lot with some Covent Garden Leek and Potato soup (yes, we still like soup – even in the summer). And, we have to say, they were very good indeed: moist, light and bouncy in the middle and with a nice nutty flavour. They’re a good size as well and perfect for packed lunches stuffed with a tasty filling.

Ciabatta brown rolls come in packs of four, cost around £2 and are available in all major UK supermarkets. Try them for yourself and let us know what you think.

You can read more about these gluten free ciabatta rolls on the DS website.

A packet of DS Gluten Free Brown Ciabatta Rolls

Marks & Spencer has got a new range of gluten free breads and cakes. It seems they’re not available in every store, but we hope that’s just a temporary glitch and we’ll see all these gluten free goodies in all branches of M&S soon.

I recently tried the Orange & Polenta Loaf Cake which is made with – as you may imagine – polenta, orange juice and sweet almonds. The cake was buttery and sweet without being sugary, although I did think it was a tiny bit dry. My Father, who is also a coeliac, disagreed and loved it.

The Orange & Polenta Loaf Cake costs £2.29. Give it a whirl and tell us what you think.

We’re a big fan of salads, here at Gluten Free Towers.

So when we were sent a couple of new gluten free salad dressings to try out, by the nice people over at Righteous, we couldn’t wait to crack them open.

There are three dressings in the range but only two are gluten free: Lemon and mustard seed and raspberry and sweet basil. All the dressings, however, are made with 100% natural ingredients and have none of the additives, preservatives, artificial colourings or gunk usually packed into salad dressings.

So what are they like? Well you can really taste the flavours. The lemon and mustard dressing is totally tangy and kicks like a mule, which means you only need about a teaspoon to brighten up your plate of salad. And that’s probably just as well because a 15ml serving (about 2 and a half teaspoons) is a fairly hefty 68 calories. But it’s all good fat. Because all the dressings are made with rapseed oil, which, according to the press release, is a well-known source of polyunsaturated and monosaturated fats, vitamins D and E, and can help lower cholesterol, improve the immune system and strengthen bones. 

The raspberry and sweet basil dressing is fruity, sweet and pretty in pink. Fruit dressings are not my favourite. But this one grew on me and was particularly nice with a goat cheese salad. And at 49 calories a serving it’s a bit lower than the lemon and mustard dressing.

Righteous was started by foodie Gem Misa in January 2010 after years spent trying to find tasty dressings. She began making them on her kitchen table and in just a few months had secured shelf space in some of London’s swankiest stores.   

 “We want to show people that salad dressings can be natural, healthy and taste great. We only use the best ingredients in our recipes, which means that the flavours really stand out. Unlike other salad dressings we never add water or starch to our products to bulk them out and dilute their flavour.” says Gem Misa. 

Righteous salad dressings are so right for the barbecue season. You can buy them from £2.69 a bottle from Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Whole Foods and Partridges.

A while back we wrote a blog post about the gluten free products you could enjoy at McDonald’s. One of the items we mentioned were the fries, which according to the McDonald’s website and forums were definitely gluten free.

However, a couple of our readers left messages in the comments section that they had become ill after eating McDonald’s fries and they had been led to believe that the fries were often cooked with gluten products.

I called McDonald’s UK to ask them if the fries were gluten free; are they ever cooked in the same vat as gluten products; and could there be any risk of cross contamination?

This is their reply:

Our French Fries and Hash Browns are gluten free, as are Fruit Bags, Carrot Sticks and the Garden Side Salad, our core McFlurry ice creams (i.e. not promotional) and our Chocolate and Strawberry Milkshakes, but not Vanilla.

I was sorry to read that one of your blog community members had concerns about cross-contamination of our French Fries. This should certainly not be the case as we make absolutely every possible effort to apply the highest quality measures throughout all procedures. We cook our French Fries in a dedicated vat and prepare them in a dedicated area. Whenever we cook a promotional side order containing gluten, such as Onion Rings, they are cooked in a separate vat some distance away from the Fry station. Gluten free promotional items are cooked in the same way as our French Fries and to the same standards.

Our menu is constantly being reviewed to create the most varied choices available for all customers. We also work closely with the Coeliac Society to provide them with updated information for their members’ booklet, but if your blog community have concerns about the available information please let me know and we can look at how we can better outreach on this issue.

Steve Heywood, Press Officer, McDonald’s UK

So it does seem McDonald’s are on the case when it comes to gluten free products and the care that needs to be taken when preparing them.

The concern, I guess, is that the odd individual restaurant is not adhering to these standards. Have you experienced this at all? Let us know in the comments.

For more information on allergens and the nutritional value of McDonald’s products visit the McDonald’s menu site.