Halloween crispy Treats - Nestle Gluten Free Cornflakes

Halloween means one thing... Lots of naughty treats! So today I have made some chocolate crispy's and chocolate and marshmallow crispy's for my youth groups halloween party tomorrow, but as this is me and I want a nibble too I have substituted ingredients for a gluten free diet!

This is a super simple recipe I would have thought you all have done before but just incase here is what I did.

• One large bar of chocolate - half a bar for each recipe
• Nestle gluten free cornflakes 
• Mini Marshmallows
• Any decoration or chocolate chips, fudge chunks, glace cherries etc. of your choice

Chocolate crispy's are simple, melt the chocolate throw in the gluten free cornflakes divide into some cute cases and hey presto!

For the marshmallow version add in some marshmallows to melt down with the chocolate then mix in the cornflakes, this will be tricky as there is a very gooey consistency to this mixture, you can always add some water or milk to thin this down.

Throw in some whole mini marshmallows and chopped glace cherries or any other treat at this point for a twist to either mixture.

I spooned both mixtures into some cute halloween cupcake cases I found in Ikea for £1 and added some marshmallows on top of the marshmallow mix so those who are vegetarian know not to eat them!

Crispy cakes are quick and simple and you can even make these dairy free or vegan by substituting the chocolate for a dairy free alternative as well as any other ingredient which may not fit your diet.

Who said dietary requirements have to make life boring!

Hannah x

Gluten Free Fish and Chips?!?!?!

Around my local area I have seen more and more fish and chip shops having gluten free days. This is a vey scary prospect but yesterday I finally went to one of the chippy's to see what it was all about!

I am not going to lie I was verging on petrified whilst eating my dinner as it looked just like a regular battered piece of cod, granted the batter was slightly thiner and cruncher but still so similar it looked like the real thing. I found the batter tasted as I remember from a chip shop and it was lovely to be able to eat something and feel normal by joining in. I also had no issues after eating the meal which was great.

Although none of the fish and chip shops near me are on this list (possibly because they aren't part of the federation) I have found a list of a few gluten free chip shops here: http://www.federationoffishfriers.co.uk/pages/gluten-free-directory-596.htm

I would really recommend looking out for gluten free fish and chip shops, if I have three near me you must be able to find one too!

Hannah x

Tesco Finest Free From Oat and Raisin Cookies

Tesco finest has finally joined the gluten free game! This is a prospect I am very pleased about as I find many of the products in the gluten free market are aimed at children. This is not a huge issue to me as I quite like reliving my childhood, but bringing round a pile of animal shapes biscuits to other people's houses can raise a few eyebrows!

When I saw these on my local Tesco shelves I grabbed them as quick as I could, I was so excited I had to eat one in the car. This product certainly did not let me down it was just as well as otherwise my poor boyfriend driving would have had to put up with my disappointment speech all the way home!

There is no doubt these are the perfect consistancy oat cookies to me, as they are smoothly buttery, have a good chew and there are not too many raisins, as I do not like when raisins have a habit of taking over.

These cookies have a great chew to them and the oats have been nicely cut with no husk creeping in, which is a pet peeve of mine and puts me completely off any oat product. The raisins too are also soft which is perfect as a tougher raisin would have made an imbalance to the texture.

As for taste these cookies are quite buttery and subtle in taste, however this does make them very moreish so I have no make sure I limit myself.

James who is not gluten free tried one too and told me he couldn't tell the difference! So what is better praise than that!

A box retails for £2 and contains around 8 cookies, these cookies are the size of a typical biscuit so I think the value for money is great, particularly as this product is marketed in the finest range. I found these quite easily in my Tesco so with any luck they should be easy to find. If you do not have a Tesco store near you I would 100% recommend trying shopping online as not only it will give you access to the store but I find so many things that I never find in store.

Hannah x

What's In My Desk Draw - Gluten Free Style!

Today I thought I would do something a little different, I was sitting at my desk this afternoon and felt it was time for a naughty snack so I opened my desk draw where I keep my food and it suddenly occurred to me that since I no longer work from home all of us on a gluten free diet must have one of these draws at work, so why not show you what's in mine!

As you can see many products are in the draw awaiting review, some have been recently been reviewed and some are long term favourites and what I feel are essential! so Lets take a look!

Eat Natural Milk Chocolate with Peanuts and Cranberries

These are always in my desk as I find them a staple, I do prefer the dark chocolate with raisins and macadamias  but they were out of stock so I had to settle for these ones! They are good too but as a dark chocolate lover they can compare to my favourites. 

A kiwi spoon and knife

well this talks for itself really!

Whitworths Sweetened Cranberries

I have a few bags of these dotted around, I find them a great low calorie snack as a bag is 100 Calories and I can't even manage to get through a third at a time, I would recommend finding unsweetended ones but that can be quite tricky so I normally settle for sweetened. 

We Love Cake Cherry Bakewell Tart

I had two of these but the first one was eaten a few days ago, this one is sitting in my desk ready to be reviewed, so I need to resist temptation and not eat it until I have taken photos!

Natures Path Choco-Knobbly Crispy Rice Bites

I used to live on the fruity version of these, particularly when I was on holiday! But I think they are no longer produced as I have not found any in months, so I picked up a box of the chocolate ones, these are in my desk as a light snack but I will be reviewing these at some point in the future.

Prewetts Milk Chocolate Digestives

These are purely in my desk for review purposes as a biscuit is quick and easy to try at work, I also brought these in my lunch break so I thought I would just keep them here as I have an obscene amount of biscuits at home.

DS Gluten Free Crispbread

A pack of these are always by my side as these have a good texture, very little tastes and low calorie so they are great for eating cheeses, pates and anything you would put on toast really. 

Mrs Crimbles Original Cheese Crackers

These I recently reviewed here, but this pack in particular stays at work to eat with cheeses and houmous at lunch some days. 

Robinsons Squash'd Orange and Peach

We have bottled water at work so I sometimes give a squeeze of this into the bottle to have something a bit different. I keep it in my desk so I don't lose it on the mess I call my desk!

PG Green Tea Samples

Sample sizes are great for work so I tend to have packs of various mint, green or fruit tea in my desk, you'll never find 'normal' English tea as I cannot stand it!

Peanut Butter

I have a very small love affair issue with peanut butter so I have a tub at all times, I eat it with vegetable batons and the DS crispbreads, its high in protein so it can't be that bad! 

Todays post was a little different but if you're anything like me, it satisfied a bit of nosiness on a monday afternoon! 

Hannah x

Sunday Staples - Genuis White Sliced Bread

This week when Tesco.com substituted my typical wholemeal genius bread for the white variety, it suddenly dawned on me I talk about so many cakes and biscuits that I try but I don't talk much about the bread and staples I use on an almost daily basis.

Out of all the breads I've tried I have to say Genius is my favourite, I find it's the most true to taste bread and is not ridiculously dry!

I have heard people having issues with finding holes so large in this bread that it is no longer useable, I have brought over 100 loaves and I can agree I have found some with holes but never so large it is unusable so I think it must be unlucky to find a loaf in that state.

This bread is the size of a mainstream loaf whereas a typical gluten free loaf is smaller. This size is very convenient for sandwiches and toasties, as tiny toasties are never good! Each slice of bread is 99 calories and high fibre. The Genius loaves retail at around £3 each which isn't bad as it is an average price for a gluten free loaf unfortunately, but on the bright side I have received some coupons from time to time!

This bread has a bouncy soft texture and toasts to a crisp finish. This bread toasts well and takes roughly 5 minutes to toast to how I like it.

Genius have got their bread to taste almost identical to a mainstream loaf, granted this white loaf in particular is soft but isn't as soft as a mainstream would be, but I feel that's to be expected but the flour blend they have created tastes very accurate and has not got an unpleasant aftertaste.

I have found a vary comparable seeded loaf from the Tesco own brand free from range but not I've  ventured away from my genius loaf for a very long time for my wholemeal and white bread! That in itself shows how good this bread is!

Hannah x

Amy's Kitchen Broccoli and Cheddar Bake

Life has been rather busy of late and I like to eat as clean as possible, contrary to what it may seem with all my cake and biscuit reviews, but a little in moderation never hurt anyone, well that's what I like to  tell myself!

I always opt for an Amy's Kitchen ready meal as they do not have preservatives and are all natural. They are very quick and convenient in the microwave, but I actually had more time today as my family were eating gluten filled lasagne so I baked my meal in the oven, which makes them a million times better!

I haven't picked up this bake in particular before as I have a bit of a love hate relationship with broccoli, I can't stand it as a vegetable on its own but I love it within recipes such as soup. So I had overlooked this a little but I finally picked one up and I'm pretty glad I did!

This broccoli and cheddar bake consists of a cheesy pasta, very much like the mac and cheese they produce, within this is a good amount of broccoli and a breadcrumb topping.

Firstly I have to highlight how impressed I was with the amount of broccoli, there was huge pieces of florets within the bake, which surpassed my expectations as many ready meals, particularly mainstream ones claim to be a chicken and pasta bake for example and you don't always get that much chicken, so I think Amy's Kitchen have got the balance perfect.

The textures within this bake worked so well together. The cheesy sauce is thick and smooth which blended with the pasta and broccoli which is soft and tender, this then contrasts against the crispy breadcrumb topping.

The flavours within this bake worked very well together as you would assume. As I love broccoli and stilton soup, it was safe to assume cheddar and broccoli would also be a paring in heaven. The sauce does not over power the broccoli and all flavours within the dish were well balanced with no flavour shadowing another one.

Overall I really enjoyed this bake and would add it to my favourite list along side the thai curry, mac and cheese and lasagne!

I would always recommend Amy's Kitchen to anyone gluten free or not as I've not found a bad one yet!


Hannah x

Mrs Crimble's Original Cheese Crackers

I've really been in a cheese and cracker kick for lunch recently. It's quick and easy to eat at work and fills me up nicely until dinner. I tend to have two or three types of cheese with some fruit.

Today I have gone back to a firm favourite of mine that I have never actually spoke about. These are the Mrs Crimble's Original Cheese Crackers. These crackers are much more like actual crackers than the savoury biscuits I've been having so I got them out to make a change before I delve into more of my Angelic savoury biscuits.

Much like all savoury biscuits and crackers that are gluten free, these crackers are relatively fragile and I always have a couple which have broke in half in the box, this does not bother me but just be careful when putting your cheese on or they will break!

The texture to these crackers is what you would expect from it's mainstream counterpart. They have a good snap and crunch to them. They are a dry cracker much like a cream cracker if you have ever eaten one! I find these very pleasant and the perfect delivery system to get the cheese into my tummy!

The taste of these crackers as you would expect were slightly cheesy in taste but most importantly they do not have that gluten free aftertaste which these types of products can be susceptible to as replacing wheat flour with other flours in products that aren't greatly flavoured can lead to an odd taste.

I feel that these crackers taste and textures are comparable to the mainstream versions and so much so the people I tested them on couldn't tell that they were gluten free!

A pack of these crackers retail for £1.60 from all the big supermarkets. These are great value for money and easily accessible to everyone. They are only 79 calories for 4, what could be better than that!

I would strongly recommend to have a pack of these in the cupboard ready for when you fancy them or get invited to dinner where you know cheese and crackers will be served as they have over a year on their best before date and they are foiled sealed giving extra freshness.

Hannah x

Angelic Gluten Free- Double Chocolate Cookies

Everyone needs a chocolatey hit, particularly on a Friday! So today nobody has to miss out as Angelic's double chocolate cookies do not contain dairy, gluten or egg meaning we can all have one together (if we had a giant box that is).

These cookies are less that 75 calories per cookie and a box contains 8, which I feel is a generous number. Comparing these cookies to a size everyone could relate to I would say they are the same roundness as a can of drink, so they are a fair size. The box retails for £3.25 on amazon meaning these cookies are around 40p each which is good value for a sweet treat that tastes great. 

The texture of this cookie is as you would expect, a slight crunch as you bite but a slight softness to the centre with a hit of extra chocolate every now and then when you bite into a chocolate chip. Although I would consider this a quite a dry recipe there is no dry crumbliness to this biscuit that can be quite common in gluten free products. The only downside to this is that I can't insist on eating all the broken ones as I've never had a crumbly one!

The flavour of this cookie is what I deem as a cocoa flavour rather than a chocolate flavour as it is much richer and not as sweet as a milk chocolate style cookie. I really enjoyed this as I love a really rich bitter chocolate this is very much on the same lines so is right up my street!

I would recommend these cookies to those who enjoy a more bitter type of chocolate or chocolate biscuit or cookie as these are perfectly rich in chocolate without being too sweet, or too bitter for that matter. 

If you would like to know more about Angelic as they can not be found in mainstream supermarkets as of yet, click here.

I would love to know if you have tried Angelic's range and what you thought!

Hannah x 

 

Waitrose Love Life Gluten Free - English Muffin

Yesterday my parents went to Waitrose and came home with some treats to try! This morning I tried the first of the goodies they got for me, which were the english muffins.

I would have normally eaten an english muffin with cream cheese or cream cheese and salmon, but as I have never tried these before and wanted to see how they tasted stand alone so I decided to just use some butter this morning.

This product left me pleasantly surprised as in the past I have found most things that are bread based such as muffins and crumpets very disappointing. I always found that many of these have the typical 'gluten free' aftertaste. As I took the first bite I prepared for the aftertaste these may have but they didn't!

The texture is very bouncy and not at all dry, I did have generous helpings of butter though as thats how I like to eat toasted bread. the aeration in these are great, there is lots of tiny air pockets much like you would find if you bite into a wispa bar.

The pack contains three english muffins which I think is a good number as this covers a couple of breakfasts and I will not get bored of them or have the fear that they will go off before I've had a chance to finish them, as my freezer is full of gluten free breads! 

One pack will cost you £2.19 which I think is very reasonable price as that is a mear 73p per muffin and in gluten free terms that is amazing as things can get very expensive. 

The only downside I can see with this product is that I am fortunate to have access to all supermarkets and if you are not near a wait rose you will have to order these online. But that aside these are a great product and give another option for breakfast.

I would love to know what you eat these with if you try them!

Hannah x

Udis Gluten Free Brownie mix

Today I decided to bake one of the packet mixes I have stored and these brownies spoke to me so this is what I chose.

The mix only requires two eggs and 1/3 cup of melted butter. It also had the option to add nuts, but as I don't like nuts in brownies I skipped this step. 

Today I made a little video to show the process so you can view this below:

Once baked I put the tin on the side to cool for around an hour, then I placed it into the fridge to cool completely. Although I followed the cooking time which was 25-30 minutes I believe it would need a little longer the next time as my middle cuts of brownie are very sticky, very tasty but very sticky!

This brownie is by far my favourite brownie I have tried, it had a good crispy top yet a nice gooey centre which is the perfect consistency for a brownie. My whole family loved it too and agreed that they would not know it was gluten free unless I told them!

There are chocolate chips in this recipe as you can see on the cut piece and the texture is thick but not too stodgy, I believe this is down to the aeration in this mix, it makes the rich mixture much more manageable as it is not just one large piece of chocolatey gooey dough!

If you see these in your shop I would recommend picking them up as they are super easy to make, so tasty and suitable for everyone as my whole family who are not gluten free loved it which means if you want to bake a dessert this is the perfect choice as everyone can join in! 

Let me know how your baking goes if you give them a try!

Hannah x