Rosy's Gluten Free

Having spotted Rosy's Gluten Free on twitter and hearing about all the lovely products on offer, Sous Chef J and I finally made it into the store today!   What a find... we were greeted by the lovely Rosy and loads of our gluten free favourites on the shelves.

Located in Leicester, the store is a treasure trove of hard to find goods - like Eskal Wafer Rolls (don't get me started... ) and Baked to Taste sausage rolls and pasties.  Even better, we got to buy some of the award winning focaccia we'd heard so much about on twitter.

There are shelves of goodies to look through and select from.  Freezer and chiller cabinets stocked with breads, pizzas, sausage rolls, pork pies and so on. 

 Our haul... waiting to be paid for!

The frozen foods we purchased were Baked to Taste sausage rolls, part baked mini focaccia with caramelised red onion and also some with orange and almond.   Focaccia Per Tutti are a Leicestershire based company and they were winners of the Free From Food award 2014 for bread... so we're keen to try their goodies out for ourselves. 

We also bought some spicy hummus chips, coconut flour, falafel mix and a peanut oat bar.   Now we know that the shop has such a great range of stock, we'll definitely be making the trip there again.  Only 15 minutes from J21 of the M1 ... post code LE2 7HN works well in the sat nav... you can park right outside the shop (on the pavement area) which is a handy to know seeing as parking's sometimes hard to find when students are about.

Gluten Free Product Finds

... we've found quite a few new (to us) products recently.  This post will cover some of them and share where they've been bought.  However, as the 'market' never stays still and buyer change the line up of suppliers and goods, seemingly randomly, some of them may suffer from 'reliability of availability' issues - a subject that drives many a tweet/rant and has been mentioned in blogs before.

We found these Genius Pains au Chocolat at Waitrose, North Walsham, Norfolk.  Unfortunately, they aren't stocked at our local store but, as they're deliciously crumbly and taste very good indeed, it's probably no bad thing we have to make the effort to find a store that stocks them - a treat for special occasions will be how we consider them. 

Also from Waitrose, we like these falafels... and often have them with our Curry Houmous as a dip.

Genius foods also sell these cupcakes - a two pack of either chocolate or lemon - which we like for days out treats.   Apparently there is quite a selection available in Tesco and Asda but we've yet to get into these stores to see if they're stocked locally.


Online, Ocado has a great range of gluten free goods on sale.  We bought these Eskal Wafer Rolls a while back and, last time we looked, they weren't available... however, Ocado's twitter feed said there's a problem with supply.  Hopefully this will be sorted in time for the summer as Sous Chef J really likes them!

Also from Eskal are these Ice Cream Party Tubs - we leave a pack in the car for days out use when Ice Cream vans don't have a Gluten Free option - a dollop of sorbet in them works wonders if the ice cream isn't gluten free. There's no reason why basic flavours of ice cream should contain gluten, but some do, and this is something we always check.

Eskal also do a range of biscuits including these Tea Biscuits and a Lemon Wafer which is very much like the Pink Panther wafers (which are our staple "take to other people's houses so everyone can eat them" food offering - we buy ours in Sainsbury's)


At ocado, Celia Organic Lager and Clive's Pies were offered as a bundle deal - so that was a good way to get B a different brand of lager to try.


Sainsbury's usually has the largest range of free from items of all our local supermarkets and Marks and Spencer has recently enlarged its range of Gluten Free (made without wheat) products which we blogged about here.

Lazy Days make a range of Gluten Free and other freefrom biscuits and snacks that we also like.  A particular favourite is the chocolate dipped ginger biscuits... yum!

We hope this post has given you a few ideas and shown there is a wide range of Gluten Free products about... even if you do have to shop around to get them.

Almondy Sundae

We have long been fans of Almondy frozen 'cakes'... and the Toblerone version is a particular favourite.  Having seen a number of tweets from Almondy, tempting us with their fare, we decided to give our own twist to a gluten free Sundae.

The ingredients we used to 'assemble' the dessert were - Almondy Toblerone (one slice), Swedish Glace Vanilla Ice, mini marshmallows, chocolate buttons (and chocolate sauce or cream can be used too).

A couple of small scoops of the vanilla ice were placed in each bowl.

A slice of the Almondy cake was chopped into three, then cut into small pieces which were added to the bowl.

Next, some mini marshmallows were sprinkled over...

... before adding the giant chocolate buttons (chocolate sprinkles, stars or curls could also be used).

Adding the Eskal Wafer Rolls (and a drizzle of chocolate sauce or dollop of cream, if you like) and our speedy dessert was ready.

We have been trying to get Ocado to stock Almondy as, for us, it's the easiest way to get our frozen goods delivered.  No news on this yet... but the request(s) have been made!  All the other items used to make this dessert came from Ocado so to be able to buy a 'bundle' of all these ingredients would be FAB...

Further Festive FreeFrom Fare

Following on from our earlier Free From Festive food post, and as part of our pre-Christmas prep, we found ourselves looking through the Marks and Spencer Food to Order booklet.  It was great to see how many items are labelled as Gluten Free.  There are loads of stuffed meats which are Gluten Free (we're thinking of having the Easy-carve Stuffed Duck) and garnish packs are also looking tempting.  We'll have to sort out our own vegetables though as the Luxury Vegetable Selection (potatoes and parsnips, red cabbage, sprouts and carrots, cauliflower cheese) contains gluten.  Having started so promisingly, we were more than a little disappointed to find that not one of the desserts in the range is listed as Gluten Free.  However, cannot imagine why the Pannacotta Terrine would have gluten in it - none of the ingredients appears to contain gluten and gluten is not listed under 'contains'.  It's frustrating that M&S have got so close to offering a full Christmas meal to order that is Gluten Free (and doubly annoying that the macaroon tree that looks so appetising has wheat flour in it).

Searching the M&S website looking for mail order options, we found this Classic Claret with Gluten Free Festive Treats on sale at £30.  At least M&S have something to send from their Hampers range.  Plus, even though we're not planning on having a party, the Gluten Free Party Selection in the food to order range looks like something Sous Chef J would like to try and, as the components are freezeable, we may order a pack and divide the food up for special treats later!

In store the other day, we picked up some items Sous Chef J liked the look of...  Mini Chicken Kievs, Bacon Twist Lollipops and Sea Salt & Black Pepper Crackers.  We've frozen the bacon twists as they were 'easy-to-stick-in-the-freezer' size but we ate the chicken kievs at the weekend.  They were judged to be a 'nice change' although there was lots of garlic butter leakage during cooking which was a bit messy... the packet says they can be frozen and cooked from frozen so seem to be a good standby item.

Being in 'seek and find' mode for Festive food, Sous Chef J spotted these 9 Christmas Cake Bites in Waitrose.  They are VERY small bites of cake - so don't think they'll last long.  Apparently they also have Gluten Free Mince Pies but the shelf space and stocking in our local store means we haven't actually seen any... you may be near a store that's got a wider Free From range (according to Sous Chef J, this wouldn't be difficult!)

Ocado have a good range of gluten free products all year round but they've expanded this to include treats like Amaretti Biscuits in a tin which would make a lovely gift, a dairy, gluten and egg free chocolate Advent Calendar and a selection of Christmas Cakes.  The Hale and Hearty range on sale at Ocado also offers a number of products we find difficult to source elsewhere.

Another brand Ocado offer is Eskal and Sous Chef J particularly likes these crackers which he uses to dip in soup but are tasty with cheese too. 


We'll be making our own Christmas Cake again this year... here's a link to last year's blogpost about it in case you want to give it a go.