Reviewed - The London Dessert Collective

One of my favourite memories from this year's Allergy Show in London is the London Dessert Collective. We coeliacs, as a group, tend to be well acquainted with the rough-and-ready pasties and pies, biscuits and cookies, and tasty-but-quite-average-looking cakes. So the French patisserie style refinement of the LDC stall immediately drew the eye.

Decisions, decisions!

Although the LDC are not exclusively gluten free as a company, the items on offer for coeliacs are plentiful enough to be noteworthy, especially given how unusual and special some of them are.

I suffer from a pretty serious addiction to pistachio (I say 'suffer' but I really quite enjoy it), so the lovely-looking pistachio meringue cake was a no-brainer. To go along with it, I had to try a brownie. Yes, it does seem as though we are forever being offered brownies (currently purchasable in every Costa, Starbucks AND Cafe Nero, for heaven's sake), but the temptation of a fresh, gooey, rich brownie was too much to resist, especially when it's flavoured with salted caramel.

My sister bought a few of the macarons you can see in the picture above and kindly let me try the raspberry one. Although these morsels appear delicate, they pack one hell of a flavour punch! The raspberry shells are sweet and strong, and are cut through perfectly with the dark chocolate ganache. Heaven! She almost didn't get any of it!

When I got home, I tried the brownie and it, again, was wonderful. There is no picture of it, since I ate it so fast, so here's a (slightly fuzzy) pic of them on the stall. The salted caramel is bottom left.

Selection of brownies

My only slight let down with the brownie was that the rich chocolate completely overpowered the salted caramel that I'm assured was hiding in there somewhere. More of that salted caramel, please!

Given the deliciousness of the first two items I tried, I was filled with heady excitement by the time I got to the pistachio meringue cake, and here, I'm afraid, was my real disappointment. I really loved the guys at the LDC, so I'm loathe to say anything negative, but it would be no good to avoid the issue. This cake, they told me, consisted of layers of meringue, pistachio cream, and pistachio sponge. Ooh, my tastebuds were a-tingling! My fork dove in, but as soon as the meringue cracked, it sprung out of the box and half of it landed on the floor! It was simply laying on top of the cake, rather than being held down. Sad! The pistachio cream was beautiful, but there was so very little of it that this it was unable to hold the meringue in place.

Please excuse the chipped nail polish!

The real disappointment, however, was the sponge, which was so solid I struggled to get my fork through it. Combined with the green colour typical of pistachio cakes, it gave the appearance of a florist's oasis! Sadly, the sponge rendered it inedible, and what was left was consigned to the bin, which was a great shame. A lighter sponge and more pistachio cream would have made this a perfect pud but as it was, it fell short of being worth the £3 I had paid for it.

In all, there are more positives than negatives for the LDC, but if they can sort out their meringue cakes, I think there are few companies who could surpass them. I would definitely recommend a try if you're looking for something gluten free but with that air of class and refinement.

Read more about the LDC at their website.

Coeliac Awareness Week Day 4 - Coriander in Bournemouth, Reviewed

Alright food fans. It's nearing the end of the week and you're thinking you might want to find somewhere to eat out on Saturday night. You run through the list of pizza places and take-aways but you want something uplifting. Fun. Lively, perhaps.

Let me introduce you to my absolute favourite restaurant - Coriander in Bournemouth town centre.

I should tell you first of all that it isn't usually surrounded by imposing scaffolding!

As you can just about see, Coriander is a Mexican restaurant. It's hard to pinpoint just one reason that this is a fantastic place for a coeliac to eat, so if you'll allow me a few minutes of your time, I'll tell you the many, many reasons that I place it miles ahead of any other restaurant I've been to. Ever.

1. You're never too old for crayons.
When you're seated, you look down and think 'Okaaayyy...why is my placemat a sheet of A4 paper?!' Then you see the crayons and let me tell you something, after a few cocktails (oh yes, there is a cocktail menu, and there are virgin cocktails for the teetotallers), anyone can start to think they're Picasso. But what's especially great is they keep the best ones to display and/or frame on the walls, like so:

A plain piece of A4...

Can become something special...

Especially after a few tequilas...

And may even be framed!

2. The AMAZING food. There's no separate gluten free menu because, rather than make a coeliac feel awkward asking for their own menu, they slap all the gluten free things right there on the normal menu. And what's even better, they make ALL their enchiladas and their nachos using gluten free corn tortillas, so the risk of cross-contamination is extremely low. Everything is made fresh to order, so you know you're getting top-quality.

 I'm especially pleased about this because frankly, if I could eat one thing every day for the rest of my life, it would be their nachos:

And that's just the starter!! Check out the spinach and cheese enchiladas (aka - heaven on a plate):

Quick explanation needed here - they look a mess because I slathered them with guacamole and sour cream before I remembered to take a photo. But as you can see, the portion sizes are extremely generous, and I've never walked away without being full up, having only managed dessert as well twice. And yes, they do have some gluten free desserts, including ice cream. Want to try something different for dessert? Try their Patron XO Chocolate Shake (on the cocktail menu). It's incredible!

Oh, and did I mention their range of sauces that come with your meal?

L-R: fresh salsa, blow-your-mouth-off hot sauce, and sour cream

3. The little touches that make every trip special. 
For example, on the day we went (Wednesday) the enchiladas were half price if you ordered a starter. PLUS they are, at the time of publishing this post, running a promotion that entitles you to a free shot of tequila (ooooh!!) if you take a pic of yourself wearing one of their much-famed sombreros, post it on Facebook or Instagram, check in at Coriander, and show it to your waitress.

Yes, that is my 85 year-old Gran, yes that is a sombrero, and no, she didn't drink the tequila!

4. It is THE best place in town to have a party. While we were there, a 21st birthday was finishing up and another party was settling in upstairs. Having had a few parties there myself, I can honestly say they know how to get the party atmosphere going and while coeliacs would normally need to worry about the dangers of eating safely when a whole party is being catered for, I can proudly say Coriander is the ONLY place to (so far) never have 'glutened' me. Quite an achievement where many have failed.

Downstairs

Upstairs - the 'party' floor with its own bar

So there you have it! As a coeliac, and a vegetarian, and a lover of having something different on a night out on the town, I honestly cannot recommend Coriander enough. From the Mexican music in the background, to the art on the walls, to the spectacular food and service (our waitress didn't need to write our order down and STILL got all three orders completely right), to the happy and fun-loving atmosphere, you'll never regret giving Coriander a go for your night out.

A Quick Digression From Baking To Talk About....Ice Cream!

I promise I'll get back to baking after this, but it's of absolutely vital, life-and-death importance that I tell you about this. Well, maybe not life and death, but I'm going to tell you anyway!

Like a lot of women, I'm something of an ice cream officionado. I've tasted almost every gluten free ice cream out there, and up until a couple of years ago, I would have said the chocolate gelato I had in Rome was the best. Or maybe Haagen Dazs Chocolate Pralines and Caramel. But then, one day, we decided to take a drive out to the New Forest, and on the way, we stopped for a little walk around Lyndhurst High Street.

That was when I first laid eyes on what would become one of the (increasingly growing) great loves of my life...Forest Glade Ice Cream.

Now, I'll grant you it doesn't look like anything terribly special from the outside, but on the offchance, I nipped in to see whether they do anything gluten free. And why yes, they do! With the exception of cookie crunch (which I've only ever seen once anyway), all of their flavours are totally gluten free AND they're made in-house, so you don't have to worry about some far-away factory making a mess of it.

And the best part is that, in addition to the usual flavours - chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, yaddi yaddi yaddah, they squirrel away at making interesting new ones. The shining glory in their crown HAS to be the pistachio. It's refreshing and delicious, as well as being creamy and light. But today, I found out they've introduced a brand new flavour - salted caramel. Hardly innovative, but utterly delicious because they have the ratio of salt to caramel spot on. Oh, and don't forget their sinful white chocolate ice cream with chunks of dark chocolate!

Clockwise from the spoon: pistachio, salted caramel, honeycomb, and white choc with dark choc chunks.

I must admit, it's a bit of a trek to get out there, so in the summer we tend to combine it with getting fruit from the Pick Your Own farm at Sopley, but for an occasional treat, it's well worth it. After all, look how happy I am!

WFBD Jam Doughnuts - A Review

As promised, what follows is a review of the jam doughnuts by the Wheat Free Bakery (Wheat Free Bakery Direct).
 

So...at first glance, they appear pretty promising. You get two in a pack for £1.49, which seems a reasonable price to me, although they are quite small (see picture). They're also quite squishy. What a great word. SQUISHY. Anyway, as a group, we're used to doughnuts you could kill, or at least mildly concuss someone with, so the general squishiness of them is encouraging.

The jam inside the doughnuts is plentiful, which is great to see, and the oozy jammy sticky sweetness (I'm very into adjectives today) works perfectly with the doughnut, especially since the sugar on the outside had either melted or slid off. I'm not sure which?

I can't go so far as to say this is my idea of the 'perfect' treat; it's still a bit dense to bite through, and the dough itself isn't as flavourful as I might like. But it would be a great treat for coeliac children and it would go very well with a cup of tea or a mug of coffee for an adult, especially for just £1.49 for two! However, be warned: if you can't eat two in two days, and you have nobody to share with, I strongly advise against purchase. They're nice doughnuts and they CAN be frozen. But they turn very tough once defrosted if you freeze them. DON'T DO IT!!!!

I'd give them a good 3 out of 5 stars and a jammy-fingered thumbs-up! 

Wheat Free Bakery Direct Review Series - Part I

Regular readers will know the general euphoria I feel at the discovery of a new product, and while the Wheat Free Bakery Direct is not exactly new to me, I still feel a great deal of excitement. Why? First of all, it's been over a year since I ordered from them. Secondly, in that year they've been busily working away on their products, so they've improved since my previous experiences.

I should explain why it has been over a year since my previous order. Although I have never stopped being a fan of the WFBD, I had previously been VERY eager to try their caramel fudge doughnuts, but I'd been disappointed. The icing had slid off the top and what there was of it had a very peculiar, synthetic taste. The doughnut itself was like a rock and not really the squishy, squashy, doughy texture I'd been missing since I was diagnosed.

But when a friend said she wanted to order something and she wondered if I'd be interested in placing an order too, I jumped at the chance. Delivery is quite expensive, at just under £6, so we've always done orders en masse to make it really worthwhile. My order arrived today and what a lovely array of goodies it was!

So, what you see above is (starting from bottom left and working clockwise) parisienne demi-baguettes, tiger demi-baguettes, sandwich rolls, jam doughnuts, crusty bloomer (let the jokes commence!), apple and caramel flans, and iced ring doughnuts.

All the products are best eaten on the day of delivery, but clearly attempting that would be ridiculous, however tempting it might be to try! So for convenience, everything can be frozen. Lactose intolerant coeliacs will also be pleased to learn that much of the range is also dairy free. Happy days all round!

So from this point forward, I'll be doing a review of each product as and when I eat them, so you'll know what products you can really trust and look forward to!

If you want to check them out in the meantime, you can visit the Wheat Free Bakery Direct at their website: http://www.wheat-freebakerydirect.com/index.html.

Note added 15 April 2014
 Unfortunately, there were mistakes in the above blog post and I'd like to take the opportunity to make the necessary corrections, as follows:

- Baguettes have a 5 day shelf life
- Caramel& Apple flans have a 5 day shelf life
-Crusty Bloomer has a 5 day shelf life
- Sandwich Rolls have a 14 day shelf life

Ooh La La! Genius Croissants, Reviewed

That's right folks, today we're taking a little trip across the English Channel to France. Unfortunately, the only French I know means 'I am 13 years old' so I'll have to do all this in English.

If you're a fellow coeliac, you're probably already aware that the good people at Genius have released all-new croissants. You might recall they previously had sold this product, but after taking off their shelves, it seems they've worked their magic on them because not only are they back, they're more delicious than ever!

Let's start with the price. At £2.75 for two (reasonably sized) croissants from Tesco (they're also available in Asda), these are more of a decadent treat than a regular purchase, working out at around £1.35 each. This is less than you'd pay for a 'normal' croissant in, say, Starbucks, although it's worth bearing in mind they are larger than the Genius croissants.

The instructions on the pack say to heat in the oven for 9-10minutes at 190 degrees C. Refreshingly, these instructions turned out to be accurate. I say this with my tongue firmly in my cheek, as we coeliacs are all-too aware of how often heating instructions (albeit not those provided by Genius) turn out to be inaccurate.

Having removed my croissants from the oven, I let them cool before I feasted. I'm delighted to say they remained light, crispy and flaky, rather than reverting to tiny blocks, a la most gluten free items you have to heat before eating.

I chose to have mine with salted butter and good-quality set honey - a truly sumptuous breakfast. And ahh...that first bite. Little flakes of pastry crumbling away and melting on the tongue, finishing with a buttery sweetness that tells you you're eating something truly sinful but worth it. Those few extra pounds on the bathroom scales? Pah! Worth it. And I must say the butter and honey complemented the croissants perfectly. Another time, I think it would be worth turning them into almond croissants and pairing with some fruit and a good cup of coffee. What a perfect start to a busy day!

Genius Puff Pastry - A Review and a Recipe for Ratatouille Pie

Gluten free puff pastry?! There's no such thing, is there? Well, thanks to those clever bods at Genius, there is now! My Dad bought me a pack to try and immediately my brain started to whirl with the possibilities. Ahh...to do pastries or to do something savoury? Eventually, I settled on a pie...a ratatouille pie! Yes! Excellent!


The one major issue with this pastry is that it comes as one huge block, rather than two smaller blocks. This is obviously so you can use it for something really large, but as it needs to be used within 24 hours of defrosting, it would be more convenient in two pieces.

Rolling it out once defrosted (around 6-8 hours, depending on house temperature) was a doddle, and I must say it puffed up pretty darned well! We brushed it with a little milk for that 'glossy' look, and although it was slow to puff up - it started after about 20 minutes in the oven - when it did puff it rose by about an inch. But eating the pastry was the real treat. It tastes just like the puff pastry I remember. Delicate without being too crumbly, flakey and buttery. When you bite into it, it manages to have a crisp bite, yet it melts beautifully. Overall, it worked incredibly well and our dish would have been far poorer without it. I will DEFINITELY be buying this pastry again.

Want to know how to make this delicious, yet healthy pie? Here's the recipe!

Ratatouille Pie - serves 3-4

1 large courgette, thinly sliced
1 large aubergine, thinly sliced
1/2 large bell pepper, cut into strips
4 large cloves garlic, minced
40g grated parmesan (or, if you prefer, 60g extra mature cheddar)
1tbsp each dried rosemary, thyme, oregano and basil
300g passata (sieved tomatoes
100g chopped tomatoes
1/2 pack of Genius Puff Pastry, defrosted
Salt and pepper to taste
1 egg cup of milk
Deep lasagne dish or casserole dish. (We used a lasagne dish around 22cm x 10cm)

Dry-fry the aubergine slices until each side is golden brown, then line the bottom of a deep lasagne dish with them, spreading evenly.  Layer the courgette slices evenly on top, and sprinkle salt and pepper over the top. Add the pepper slices, then repeat the three layers. Add more salt and pepper.

In a saucepan over a low heat, lightly fry off the garlic - but don't let it go brown or it'll be bitter - then add the passata, chopped tomatoes, all the herbs and season well with salt and pepper. Turn the heat up to medium and let it bubble away for 10minutes. Spoon the mixture on top of the vegetables, giving the dish a little wiggle to help it work its way between the layers. Sprinkle the cheese on top.

Roll out the puff pastry until it's around 5mm thick and big enough to cover the top of the dish. Place it on top, then remove the edges with a sharp knife until it's covering the cheese, but not overlapping the edges of the dish. Brush the pastry with milk, then place in the oven at 200 degrees C / 400 degrees C / Gas Mark 6. Leave for 25-30 minutes, or until the pastry has puffed up and turned a golden brown. Serve piping hot, with a side salad if you wish.

God Bless The Chickpea! Two reviews.

As much as I enjoy cooking, I'm always on the lookout for something new and interesting to eat that I can buy from a local shop. This is partly because I'm on the committee of the Bournemouth & Poole Coeliac Support Group, so I like to find new things I can recommend to our members when I produce the newsletter. But it's also because, for me, there are few things more exciting than something new to try.

So just imagine my joy when I came across these little beauties in our local Makro (and yes, there are two missing...*ahem*...:

 

These falafels are just one of the new options on offer from the Great Food Braver With Flavour range, which includes:

• Moroccan Falafel 
• Mediterranean Falafel (pictured) 
• Sweet Potato Pakora
• Original Falafel
• Spinach and Pine Nut Bites

 I decided to try the Mediterranean Falafel, which I paired with the Tesco Finest Slow Roast Tomato Houmous, pictured below.

The falafel can be eaten cold straight from the pack or you can heat them up for 8-10 minutes at 180 degrees C. You can also heat them in the microwave for 2-3 minutes, making them perfect for a working lunch.

I tried them cold first, splitting one open to see the inside, where I could see pleasingly large chunks of chickpea still intact. The immediate flavour is a little spicy, without overpowering the flavour of the other ingredients. The texture is dense and crumbly, which means they fall apart when you chew, but can be a little messy to eat if you don't want to look too greedy by stuffing a while one in your mouth in one go!

But it's when you heat them that they really start to shine. The crumbly nature is reduced and the heat from the spice is brought out, along with the flavour, which really does burst into life on the tongue. Of course, all falafel should have some form of accompaniment, so I dunked them in the houmous, which, if anything, helped bring out the flavour any further. Tomato is a great side for most savoury foods, and this houmous proves the point. I'm sorry to say that the entire pack you see pictured at the top was scoffed down in one go, along with most of the houmous (the remainder of which will last in the fridge for 1 day after opening, so will be used for fresh sliced veg tomorrow).

You can buy Great Food's Braver With Flavour products in Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsburys and Costco, at varying prices (the falafel were £3.99 in Makro but £2.40 in Tesco). For more information, check out their website: Great Food.