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Annie’s Larder Christmas Hampers

18 Nov

Those who have been following Gluten Free by the Sea since the beginning may remember me visiting Annie’s Supperclub during a trip to London in August.  Such fantastic food and Annie has recently branched out to form Annie’s Larder, providing lunch deliveries in London, supplying gluten free pizza bases to some London pubs and cakes to local cafes.  I have seen great reviews about the gluten free lunch service from my London based coeliac friends.

Those of us outside of London can now have a chance to sample Annie’s great food as she is currently taking orders for gluten free Christmas Hampers, and offering UK delivery.  See here for more information.  Choose between such goodies as Christmas Cake, Christmas Pud, Mince Pies, shortbread and an array of local produce such as cheeses and chutneys.  I particularly have my eye on a gluten free Yule Log!


This week I was lucky enough to be asked to do some taste testing for Annie.  A hard job but someone has got to do it!  I received a generous sample of brownie, shortbread and fruit cake.  I am annoyingly fussy and don’t like fruit cake as I don’t like currants or raisins, so I roped my parents in to assist with the sampling.

The brownie was amazingly light and moist, with beautiful chocolate flavour.  I really loved this as did my mum.  Despite dad not liking brownie he still gave this a “very nice” verdict.  The shortbread came out as the real winner though.  All three of us thought these were brilliant.  Best summed up with a quote by dad; “The shortbreads were amazing, light, good texture very tasty.  To die for!!!!”.  I couldn’t disagree with that, and I quickly packed away the leftover shortbread to take home before my parents could get their hands on the rest!  I left my parents to taste the fruit cake, and they both agreed this was “very tasty” and had great flavour.

Finally I asked my gluten eating parents the all important question; “would you know it was gluten free?” and in stereo they both answered a resounding “no”.  So there we have it, good enough for everyone to eat which I know is Annie’s mission.  I am sure if you get a chance to sample Annie’s food you will be equally impressed.

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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Gluten Free Hidden Treasure

24 Oct

Whilst at the supermarket, I’m sure we’ve all spent far too many hours perusing the Free From section.  When we wander outside of our comfort zone into what I refer to as “the normal person aisles”, we must then spend our time reading ingredients lists in tiny tiny type.  Sometimes we’re even lucky enough to have an allergy advice box to assist us with our label checking.  Every once in a while though you strike gold, an item in the “normal person” aisle with the words “gluten free” on the packaging.  An item good enough that it is fit for consumption by regular folk, yet the manufacturers have been kind enough to label the item gluten free for us poor old gluten intolerants.  This is something that I refer to as gluten free hidden treasure.

So here are the hidden treasures that I’ve found over the past year:

Sakata crackers: You may hear the words “rice cracker” and have the instinct to run a mile.  However I cannot recommend these Japanese beauties highly enough.  These little crackers are packed with flavour and I particularly love the BBQ version (be aware this is made with gluten removed soy sauce so may not be suitable for those with wheat allergies).  Great for dipping too, and the classic cheddar flavour with some salsa is a great combination.  They’re even 97% fat free, but be warned they are addictive and I have demolished an entire pack on more than one occasion!  You’ll find these lurking in the cracker aisle next to the Jacobs and Ritz, somewhere you’d never normally look!

Pom Bear crisps: These crisps have achieved somewhat of a cult status amongst the gluten free community.  Found in the regular crisp section, these crisps are delicious.  Prawn cocktail, cheese & onion, salt & vinegar, bacon and the Halloween special pickled onion flavours  are all well worth a try.  In fact one of the advantages to being coeliac is being able to eat these teddy bear shaped snacks without anyone being able t0 mock you.  These are medicinal, and not for kids 😉

Burts crisps:  Crisps hand fried locally in Devon, these crisps are delicious and all flavours are labelled gluten free.  Burts also produce the Nandos crisp range, which are also labelled GF.  Plenty of choice in flavours too and even the new Guinness flavour is gluten free.

Heinz baked beans:  The good old classic Heinz baked beans are also labelled gluten free.  I’m sure most of you know this one, but it’s worth noting that some of the cheaper brands do contain gluten.  They’re even one of your five a day!

Birdseye potato waffles:  Beans on toast doesn’t taste the same with gluten free bread?  Don’t worry, pour your Heinz baked beans over some potato waffles instead and it tastes even better.  They’re waffley versatile too.  Some of the cheaper brands do use wheatflour in the coating so it’s great that Birdseye label their waffles gluten free.

McCain rustic oven chips:  When first diagnosed I spent a considerable amount of time reading labels trying to find oven chips that didn’t use wheatflour to crisp the coating.  I discovered these chips from McCain were not only labelled gluten free, but contain only 3% fat.  The ingredients are simply potato and sunflower oil.  I like the fact that the skins are left on too.

Almondy Toblerone dessert:  This cheeky little number can be found lurking in the regular dessert section at Tesco.  A cake like base, with a mousse topping that reminds me of a Milky Way, covered in chocolate and chopped almonds.  Really delicious and well worth a try if you are looking for a quick and easy dessert.

Amoy noodles: Amongst the Amoy range of noodles, there are a couple of varieties of rice noodle that are very clearly labelled gluten free.  They are straight to wok so perfect for stir fries, and it’s really nice to have a change from rice.  I’d recommend the ribbon variety if you can get them, as they are a bit more substantial than the thinner variety rice noodles.  Other varieties contain gluten so make sure you pick up the correct ones.

Options hot chocolate:  Well with winter approaching it’s nearly time to start enjoying a nice hot chocolate in the evening.  Finding a gluten free hot chocolate can be tricky however, but luckily the Options range use gluten free labelling.  I’ve tried the Belgian Hot Chocolate variety and it’s very nice, I’m not 100% sure if the other flavours are labelled gluten free so as always check the packaging (their packaging is far more helpful than their website I have to say). EDIT: I’ve checked the packs in Sainsbury’s today and all flavours I could find were labelled GF, including mint choc, orange choc and white choc.

Discovery Mexican:  I’ve mentioned this range in previous posts, but many of the Discovery products are labelled gluten free.  This includes the taco trays, most of the spice mixes and even the crumb coating.  Not all of the range is gluten free though, and sadly the tortillas contain wheat.

Packaging is subject to change as we have seen recently with Seabrook’s, so always make sure you read the label.  So what are your gluten free hidden treasures?  Please comment below and let everyone know!

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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A Piece of Cake Bakery

27 Sep

As you probably know by now, Gluten Free by the Sea is always happy to showcase Plymouth based companies doing great things in the gluten free world.  The latest company I have discovered is a brand new company, A Piece of Cake Bakery.  A Piece of Cake Bakery is an exclusively gluten free bakery founded by Louise Pen-Collings RD.  Louise is a registered dietitian and has decided to set up her own gluten free cupcake company after her experience of helping coeliacs through her work.  As a coeliac it’s heartening to hear of someone being inspired in this way.

The company officially launched this week and I noticed there was an introductory offer of four cupcakes for five pounds.  Eating four chocolate cupcakes sounded like extremely hard work, but as a dedicated blogger I thought I’d struggle through and polish some off so I could tell you all about them 😉  Louise hand delivered these and it was lovely to meet her.  The cupcakes arrived beautifully presented in a nice presentation box.

After eating so much tiny gluten free food, I was struck by the size of the cupcakes.  They were slightly larger than a regular cupcake and I certainly didn’t feel short changed on this occasion.  The frosting was beautifully piped and equally delicious.  The cake itself had a real home made taste, and I mean that in a very complimentary way.  Overall I really enjoyed these and I had one just before I wrote this blog post, actually that’s a lie as I had two.  They were calling me from the kitchen, “eat me!”.  Louise also informs me that these can be frozen with no issues, though I suspect not many will get as far as trying that.

It’s also good to hear that Louise has been taking advice from Coeliac UK to ensure these cakes are suitable for coeliacs.  These treats are currently on sale at Langage Farm Coffee Shop, in Ridgeway, Plympton and also at Plymouth Greengrocer in the Chaplins car park also at Plympton.  I am of course a regular visitor to Plymouth Greengrocer so will no doubt be picking these up on a regular basis in future.  A Piece of Cake Bakery will shortly launch a website at http://www.a-piece-of-cake-bakery.com/ but for now you can keep up through Facebook and Twitter.  I wish Louise every success with her new venture.

UPDATE 01/05/13: Sadly I must pass on the news that A Piece of Cake Bakery is no longer trading.  Louise has taken on a full time job for another company, and so no longer has time to commit to A Piece of Cake.  She will however continue to supply fruit cake to Bistro One.  Louise has asked me to pass on her thanks to everyone who supported her while the company was trading.

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