Kelkin - Jaffa Cakes

As I was sitting there eating one of my firm favourite sweet treats, it came to my attention that I've never blogged about it! I have lost count of how many times I have bought the Kelkin Jaffa Cakes but I have yet to speak about them in this little corner of the internet.

A box that contains 12 of these cakes are around the £2 mark, but can be found on offer quite often. Being suitable for veggies, this plus point means that more people can enjoy a jaffa cake as some of the orange jelly in mainstream ones are not vegetarian due to using gelatine.

Described as a light sponge cake with a tangy orange centre covered in delicious dark chocolate, these cakes fit their description to a tee. Being a sponge there is a fear of it being quite dry, but this is not the case (unless you leave them out too long, like all cake). There is a good amount of jelly which is vividly bright orange and flavoured so fully. There is no mistaking the orange in this cake. I find that the chocolate too is delightful and richly dark but I would enjoy it if there were a little more, particularly over the jelly. I quite enjoy when you get a slight snap of chocolate as you are biting into a jaffa cake, which is something these do not provide. But other than that, on the whole this cake is well rounded.

Free from wheat and gluten, these cakes are 100% suitable for coeliacs. There is no mention of milk in the ingredient list, although it warns that they may contain milk, nuts and lupin, so I would presume that those with an allergy to milk could possibly try these at their own risk. Like all things it's best to asses your own situation and reaction you may have when deciding whether to try a product, but I would advise if you have an allergy rather than an intolerance, or your intolerance is severe, it is best to not try these, just in case. Unfortunately if you are vegan, or suffer an egg or soya allergy, then this is definitely not the cake for you, as both egg and soya are in the ingredient list.

I find these are the perfect magazine and coffee kind of cake and I would love to know what you think of them!

Hannah x

Norfolk Eats - Gluten Free

James and I went to Norfolk for the week, so as and when I remembered I took a snap of what I ate and thought I would show you the highlights and if I made the meal, how I did it!

Chicken Nachos
The first night we got there I intended to make chicken nachos, but we were so tired we had potato smilies so I postponed this meal till the second night. Simply created, this meal consisted of the Bfree fajita mix being thrown into some pan cooked chicken, I added water and a little butter to make a thicker sauce out of it to flavour the nachos. I then dished a plate of tortilla chips added the chicken and finely diced pepper, spring onion and tomato, then I grated a ton of cheese over and popped them in the oven for a few minutes until the cheese had melted! Simple!

Caramel Macchiato
I am a through and through Starbucks addict, nothing can make me part with my money quite as easily as a Starbucks can. This holiday we thought we would get creative. We had a Nespresso machine in our lodge so I decided to create my own coffees! My personal best were the caramel Macchiato style ones I made with a decaf pod, vanilla extract, milk and my milk whisk as well as a tad of M&S toffee sauce, they tasted just like the real thing. I experimented and tried hazelnut extract and it tasted just like the limited editions they do, so I was very pleased! James loved the mocha I made, this consisted of the Selfridges hot chocolate, a decaf pod, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, sprinkles and fudge pieces as well as my trusty milk and whisk. They were perfect, we even bought along our starbucks mugs to make it like the real thing!

Salmon on Toast
We had many different breakfast, from avocado on toast to local bacon with eggs, but my personal favourite has to be the salmon on toast. I used Genius white bread with soft cheese and salmon, I also added salt, pepper and chives. Delish!

No.33 White Chocolate and Raspberry Cake
No trip to Norwich is complete without stopping into No.33 for one of their amazing gluten free cakes. I don't know how they do it but they are always amazing and so moist. This one was white chocolate and raspberry. The slices are always huge, I have yet to finish one. I had this with hot chocolate to make it a real treat. I just wish they were much closer so I could enjoy them more often!

Giraffe Steak
We went into Norwich a couple of times on the trip and we stopped into Giraffe. Giraffe are able to do gluten free chips in a different fryer, which is great. This being the case I had steak which was tender with such lovely crispy chips. Eating this outside seemed to make it taste to much nicer too! I had my favourite iced tea from them, which if you haven't tried, you really must!

Tuna Pasta Bake
I made a tuna pasta bake this holiday so we could try the Isabels dough balls. These are so fun to make and they turned out so well, so simple and effective! We had ours with garlic Lurpak and I honestly could have just had them for dinner!

Ice cream station
Did you ever go to pizza hut as a child and love their ice-cream factory? I know I did. So we created our own! With a selection of the Waitrose one ice creams and some sauces, flakes and 1.2.3 gluten free brownies, and of course some sprinkles for good measure!

Prosecco Breakfast
Ok I may have lied, this was the best breakfast of the holiday! James and I celebrated six months of engagement on this holiday and I was awoken on the Saturday to breakfast in bed. He bought me through as glass of prosecco, a glass of juice and a selection of the Genius pastries with some butter, lemon curd and some grapes. Of course I made him a coffee in return!

Chicken Ceaser Salad
The Saturday evening we decided to eat at the fine dining restaurant where we were staying. To start I had the most amazing chicken ceaser salad, the flavours were so intense and luxurious, hands down the best thing I have eaten out in a long time! For mains we both had a beautiful steak with fluffy chips, and some rose to wash it down!

I hope you have a great week!

Hannah x

Isabels Dough ball mix

What pasta dish isn't complete without some garlic bread or dough balls? For years it has been hard to find good gluten free sides, but there have been quite a few new products hit the market  recently from Tesco, such as their dough balls and garlic bread (which I have reviewed here). But I have never tried the old classic of Isabels Doughball mix, so I thought it was about time I should!

The mix only needed some cheese (we used mature), an egg and some oil (I used butter as I had no oil to hand). Very simply all you need to do is combine these ingredients with the dry mix, form into balls and bake! No need to leave it to settle before baking or messy prep work, I had put off making them for a while because I thought it would be a messy task, but I couldn't have been more wrong!

The mix said it would make 12 balls but I managed to create 15. This maybe because mine were quite small, but I enjoy more bite-sized pieces, which is the beauty of making your own, you can choose the size. Once out of the oven, these golden brown dough balls are very crisp on the outside and are soft and bouncy in the middle, I think that the fat in the cheese helps create this winning combination.

These very cheesy dough balls are rich and perfect with some Lurpak garlic butter. We had ours with tuna pasta bake but they would be perfect with any pasta dish, pizza or even on their own as they are very addictive in taste and texture! I find packet mixes seem to have much more superior taste and texture to many shop bought pre made equivalents.

I would love to know if you have tried these dough balls and what you thought, or even if you have used the mix in part of a recipe I'd love to know! I am thinking about trying making something similar to the Dominos dough ball bites by stuffing them with pepperoni before baking!

If you are interested in trying this mix, you can purchase it here!

Hannah x

1 2 3 Gluten Free Brownie Mix*

It's been a good week since my last post as I was on holiday and the wifi and signal was awful, so I have eaten plenty and just need to blog it all! One of the things James and I love to do is to bake, so we thought we would take the 1.2.3 Gluten Free brownie mix that was sent to me from Make it Gluten Free Ltd on holiday with us for some evening baking. (You can find their website here)

The box claims to make 2x more than other brownie mixes and let's face it, we love brownies! And not even we were able to get through it in a week and ended up bringing half the brownie home with us! It is huge! It is such good value for money if you are looking to cater to a party of gluten free people. Also on the box it claims to be free from wheat and gluten, dairy and casein, peanut and tree nut, as well as corn, soy, sesame and eggs (that's if you use an egg replacer) so is pretty much perfect for anyone with the main dietary allergies. To top it all off it is also free of artificial flavours and colours! What more could you want!

The recipe was super simple too, just add 4 eggs and 118ml of butter, that's it, done! We poured the mix into a baking pan with some parchment lining the bottom and left it to cook for around 20 minutes. Out of the oven, the top had gone lovely and glossy and had a slight crackle effect. It looked perfect!

Once cooled slightly I cut a slice and it was a beautifully dense brownie, much like the ones that are sold in Costa Coffee, although you can make a whole tray for the same price as two of their brownies! I didn't add any nuts or fudge chips which are listed as optional extras as I wanted to try the brownie as it was. By itself it is extremely chocolaty and very rich with a crisp top and soft middle, it is simply delightful!

I would recommend if you are baking this for only a few people, to split the mix before baking and add some nuts or fudge into one. This way you have a few different flavours to choose from, as there is plenty of mix to do this.

From children's parties to afternoon teas, I will certainly reach for the 1.2.3 Gluten Free mix as it makes plenty for everyone and James loved it too. This means I know I can safely serve this to gluten eaters without the fear of them thinking it tastes different or odd! We just added a side of squirty cream and mini fudge chunks or just vanilla ice cream and sprinkles to make some fun desserts! You could even crumble it into a glass and add ice cream, cream and sprinkles to create sundaes!

Hannah x

*This product was sent to me to try, all opinions are my own

M&S Made without Wheat - Piri Piri Chicken Wrap

The Sprit of Summer range hit M&S stores relatively recently and along with that, there was a little revitalise of the gluten free premade sandwich options! They introduced two wraps into the range, a mexican three bean and a chicken piri piri, I have tried both so the mexican bean review will be up soon! But I have to say that the chicken wrap in particular is my favourite gluten free pre packed wrap and the best I have ever tried.

Retailing at £3.50, this is comparable to all M&S wraps in the sandwich section, which is nice that we aren't paying a lot more. The whole wrap is around 360 calories which is comparable to the likes of Costa and Starbucks wraps, but there is an awful lot more filling inside.

My favourite thing about this wrap is it is a bit more adventurously flavoured. How many times have you seen all the options available to everyone else and felt disappointed you could only get chicken salad or cheese, I know I have. This wrap has marinated chicken, sweet chilli sauce, coleslaw and leaves (which I think is mostly spinach).  It has a slight heat but then its cooled by the coleslaw, it's really quite exceptional for the free from market. The chicken is succulent and tender, with quite large pieces and the coleslaw is beautifully creamy, I really cannot fault it texturally or flavour wise

Also unlike most free from wraps that use the Warburton's wraps, these do not, they are a thin soft round wrap, more like the sort you would find from BFree, which makes a nice change. Don't get me wrong I love Warburton's wraps but sometimes I feel like I would like something a little less bread-y and that the bread can over power the filling. This is where this wrap is perfect, it makes it so fresh and unique.

I would really recommend giving this wrap a go, I had to go back the next day to buy another as I enjoyed it so much! I would love to know if you have got hold of many of the new Made Without Wheat range in M&S, my local one doesn't stock all that much but when I see something new I have to buy it! It would be great to know what you think I need to try from the range, I desperately want to try the cheesecake but mine is yet to stock it!

Hannah x

Delicious Alchemy Haul*

We have a new product from Delicious Alchemy to try! My love for Delicious Alchemy is something I don't think could ever be broken. Although they do not have loads of product lines like other gluten free brands, Delicious Alchemy products I feel are always developed to the point of perfection before anything new is released. Because of this, DA's products are always exceptional and everything I have tried has been fantastic, remember how well my vanilla sponge was received by gluten eaters!

So when Delicious Alchemy reached out to me with a new product release, I was most certainly not going to turn down an opportunity to try this great product, as Delicious Alchemy is hard to find in my local stores and only stock a couple of their products.

So here's what I received:

Wonderfully Nutty Granola 
Let's start with Delicious Alchemy's new product. This rather chunky nutty granola contains almonds, hazelnuts and raisins. How truly scrumptious does that sound!?!?! A 50g portion contains 230 calories, 9.9g fat (I assume from the nuts) 29.3g of carbs and 3.1g of fibre. This sounds nutritionally quite a well rounded granola and what you would expect, and as the granola only contains natural ingredients that I can read, I know exactly what I am eating. I find this hugely important at the minute as I am being more conscious of eating whole, natural, clean foods for other health reasons, rest assured though, I am still having my sweet treats! Retailing at £3 online and seeing them for £2.85 in Sainsbury's, this is very comparable to competitors in the same market gram for gram, which is great!

Purely Oaty Fruity Muesli 
This is one product I have yet to see in person, although I know has been around for a while and just never got around to ordering it online, so it is great to now have a bag! Again this product is full of natural oats, seeds and dried fruits and again I can read every ingredient and all seems rather nutritious. Perfect start to the day. Retailing at £2.99, this is fantastic value as although you could make your own muesli easily, this contains a good amount for the price, and you're not left with a 1kg bag full of sultanas as it was the only size in the shop, let's face it we've all been there! These are also dairy free too, bonus!

I will try both of these and let you know what I think, I am tempted to hold onto the granola (if my willpower lets me) and take it on holiday which is only 10 days away, eek! As I think this bag looks about the right size to last the whole holiday without any left overs!

If you have tried the new granola from Delicious Alchemy, let me know, I have no doubt about loving it if their other products can be used to base my opinion on!

Hannah x

*These products were sent to me to try, all opinions are my own