The Gluten Free Blog

A selection of Truly Simple Foods products

After all the excesses of Christmas, including numerous gluten free mince pies, it’s been nice to spend January eating healthy, homemade grub.

We’ve been helped on our quest by our friends over at Truly Simple Foods in Nottingham who offer a range of delicious cooking products including sauces, purées and seasonings that have no added salt or sugar, and are gluten and dairy free.

Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know about you but I hate being out and about and struck down with the munchies. Most newsagents don’t have much in the way of healthy, low calorie vegetarian, gluten free options. Often I’ll stick a couple of rice cakes in my bag to ward off hunger pangs although – let’s be honest – some are like cardboard.

So we were chuffed when the nice people at Oloves sent us some of their olive packs to try. Read the rest of this entry »

Nairn’s Gluten Free Products

You’re probably already familiar with Nairn’s gluten free products. They’re available in all good grocery stores including Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda. And what’s more they’re tasty, filling and low in calories too.

If you’re a gym bunny or a runner (like me) they’re the perfect pre and post exercise snack. But until now we’ve always eaten our gluten free oatcakes plain and simple and straight out of the packet.

However, the good people at Nairn’s sent us a box of gluten free oatcakes and biscuits this week, along with a bunch of recipes from their nutritionist, aimed at boosting our energy and replenishing sore muscles. And it’s made us rethink our oatcakes approach! Read the rest of this entry »

Just got back from the Allergy & Gluten Free show at London’s Olympia. And as usual it was a packed show full of good ideas and tasty foods.

Kent & Fraser

Our regular favourite brands such as Doves Farm, Hale & Hearty, and Orgran all had stands. But as usual we tried to hunt down some less well-known names and products. We chatted to the lovely Danny at Kent & Fraser who make scrumptious gluten free cookies, biscuits and shortbread, and whose packaging is eye-catching and contemporary. I can highly recommend the award-winning Stilton and walnut biscuits. Imagine these with a wedge of cheese and a glass of red on a warm summer’s night. Mmmm.

We said hello to the Rude Health girls. I’ve never come across this brand before. But it’s available in Waitrose and Sainsbury’s and numerous health food stores across the UK. They do gluten free honey puffed oats, puffed rice and honey rice flakes. In fact, we came away with a whole box of honey rice flakes, so we’ll do a taste test on those next week. Again, great packaging and a quirky website. Check it out.

Continuing to tickle the savoury tastebuds were Amisa’s organic gluten paprika and chilli crackers. These were crispy and flavoursome. Definitely recommended. Amisa is available at health food stores throughout the UK.

M&S chocolate and cherry cake

Good to see M&S have a stand this year. Marks has been rolling out its gluten free brand with its distinctive green packaging for a while now and we’ve already written about their orange and polenta cake and gluten free sandwiches. It was a good opportunity to chat to Helen, M&S’s nutritionist, and I asked her why M&S gluten free products were so expensive. She told us that gluten free products contain lots more ingredients than ‘regular products’ and some of those ingredients such as almond flour, are costly. The gluten free sandwiches had come down in price a bit apparently – so that’s good news.

Whilst I was chatting to Helen I took the opportunity to scoff two bits of M&S gluten free chocolate and cherry cake. Oooh this is a winner. And only £2.99.

We couldn’t leave without having a quick chat to our friends at Genius bread. Julie was on the stand (follow her on Twitter @geniusfoods) and we chatted about the latest addition to the Genius family: the sliced multi-seed loaf, which is available from May 16th 2011 in Tesco. Tasty, springy and substantial. Just what you’d expect from Genius.

Genius multi-seed bread

And last but not least, we have to mention the Warbutons stand which included a sushi-style conveyor belt! Great stuff.

The Allergy and Gluten Free show is at London’s Olympia until Sunday May 8th.

Did you go to the show this year? What did you think of it? Did you discover any new products? Let us know in the comments.

As you know, we always like to find new and local gluten free brands, here at the Gluten Free Blog. So, last week, when we stumbled across Knead Bakery, a new allergy friendly baking company in London we were all rather excited.

Knead Bakery's gluten free, dairy free sugar cane free goodies

Knead Bakery, it turns out, is run by the talented and lovely Sim Smith, who’s a former journalist and long time allergy sufferer.

Determined to prove that a diet void of gluten, dairy and cane sugar needn’t be a diet void of tasty treats, she’s set up Knead Bakery, which has launched with six scrumptious products, including chocolate chip cookies, ginger cookies, mini blueberry muffins, mini lemon and poppy seed muffins, carrot cake and double chocolate brownies, all of which are free from gluten, dairy, cane sugar and additives and preservatives.

And we were fortunate to get a first look last week when Sim dropped into the office with a bag of goodies for us to try.

So we started with the muffins. They were light and fresh, with a bouncy texture and sweet without being sickly. The combination of sweet lemon and the almost peppery poppy seeds was divine. And the blueberries in the blueberry muffins were fresh, plump and juicy like they’d been picked that morning.

Next up were the cookies. You know how so many gluten free cookies and biscuits leave that taste of sugary nothingness in your mouth? Not these. The chocolate chip cookies were incredibly chocolaty and chewy. And the ginger cookies. Well, they were really zingy and mouth-watering. I love ginger cookies with a cup of herbal tea. And these take some beating.

The double chocolate brownie tasted ‘just like a normal chocolate brownie’ said Phil, a non gluten-freer. And it did. Moist and with a lovely consistency, I was left with dark chocolaty taste in my mouth and the feeling I’d eaten something really substantial. ‘Hmmm…perfect with a coffee’ said Miles.

Blueberry mini muffins and lemon and poppy seed mini muffins. That's my hand!

So then we tucked into the carrot cake. Now, Knead Bakery sells this by the slice and also as a whole cake. And I would encourage you, for any celebratory gathering whatsoever, to buy an entire cake. In fact, just by a whole carrot cake for yourself. I won’t tell. Because rarely have I eaten cake that has given me goose bumps. And this carrot cake did. Laced with fresh lemon curd and topped with a soya yogurt frosting, the combination of flavours is exquisite.

What we love about Knead are the quality ingredients Sim uses. So the chocolate chip cookies and the chocolate brownies taste of rich, dark chocolate. The lemon curd tastes super lemony. And you can really taste the vanilla, ginger and cinnamon in the products.

Gluten free, dairy free and sugar free carrot cake

Knead offers a personalised baking service. So if you need an allergy free cake for a special occasion such as a wedding or birthday give Sim a call. She also does gluten free, dairy free and sugar free goodie bags and gift bags which are ideal for corporate events, fashion shoes and even kids’ parties.

The online store will be available soon. In the meantime you can order from Knead by emailing info@kneadbakery.co.uk or calling Sim on 07920 102 284. Mini muffins and cookies are just £3.40 a bag. The chocolate brownie is £2.99 and the carrot cake is £3.99 for a substantial slice (but just get the whole cake!).

For more information visit Knead Bakery, London.