NOW CLOSED Talk to Mrs Crimble's about gluten free cooking and shopping and be in with a chance of winning a hamper of goodies

[TheOtherHelenMumsnet]

We've been asked by Mrs Crimble's to find out what your top tips are for a gluten free diet. We've posted a few questions below to get you started but please feel free to add any other comments/tips you have here too. Mrs Crimble's would also love it if you checked out some of the recipes on their website. Everyone who posts their comments on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a hamper of Mrs Crimble's goodies.

~ If you buy gluten free products, where do you tend to buy them from? Do you ever buy Mrs Crimble's products? If so, which ones and where do you buy them?

~ Do you do lots of gluten free cooking? If so, what are your top tips for knocking up delicious gluten free meals/snacks? Please do share any brilliant recipes you have here - Mrs Crimble's may feature the ones they like the most on their website.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw
MNHQ

A survey about GF !!!!! Thank you !!!

And I lurve Mrs Crimbles. Too much in fact

I buy gf food from many places - the supermarkets, Whole Foods (particularly good), online, health food shops, farmers markets, farm shops etc. After 15 years GF, I have a complex shopping pattern depending on what I want/need.

I do loads of gf cooking, and am well known for my cakes. My latest discovery is chewy choc chip cookies - the secret ingredient is angel delight!

I'm not GF but am addicted to Mrs Crimbles apple rice cakes, but they're not easily come by for some reason. So tend to stock up when found

I made a friend a GF chocolate cake as a christmas present this year - she was really pleased.

Some years ago there was a stand at the Royal Show where there were lots of kits for GF (and indeed non GF) cakes and breads - and the tasters they had made up were delicious - but its so difficult buying things like that that are 'honest' GF products that taste really good - the outlets just don't seem to be interested in holding the stock.

I have started as gluten free (Paleo) about 5 months ago, and I am not keen on the substitutions! I would actually rather be without most of them and after a while I didn't even miss bread. I cook most food from scratch as I am trying to avoid processed foods, GF or not. For me that best thing was to just not substitute. I typically eat omelettes or green smoothies for breakfast, salads with tinned fish for lunch and meat with lots of vegetables for dinner. But sometimes I just need something crisp, and here are two of my favourites:

Excellent and really simple maccarons:

2 egg whites
2 cups dessicated coconut
1 tbsb melted butter
Melted dark chocolate (with a few ingredients as possible)

Mix egg whites with coconut and butter. Shape into 8-10 small balls with a peak, if possible. Bake for 10-15 min at 175 Celcius. When they are cooled, dip the base in the melted dark chocolate.

Also I make some excellent crisp bread:

1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup water
1 large egg
1 tsp. salt

Mix everything and set aside for 1 hour. Then put baking paper on baking tray and spread the mix (use a rubber spatula) evenly, about 1/2 cm thick. You may need 2 baking trays. Bake for 2 hours at 120 Celcius. When cooled, break them into odd pieces. Great with butter and Marmite!

ha now interestingly I got really into it as i was having a mate around and she is gluten free

PUDDINGS are the issue - there is only so long you can rehash meringue

If you buy gluten free products, where do you tend to buy them from? Do you ever buy Mrs Crimble's products? If so, which ones and where do you buy them?

Yes, we buy quite alot of gluten free products. I am wheat intolerant & my DS is autistic & I've read that gluten may be something to avoid - so we try to. I buy Mrs Crimble's products from whatever supermarket I happen to be in, usually Tesco or Waitrose. We love the macaroons, particularly the mini orange ones, although they seem to be hard to find. We also like the bakewell slices, the brownies and the jam & coconut rings. I'm not often in Sainsburys, but their own brand gluten free range is very good.

~ Do you do lots of gluten free cooking? If so, what are your top tips for knocking up delicious gluten free meals/snacks? Please do share any brilliant recipes you have here - Mrs Crimble's may feature the ones they like the most on their website.

This is my most favourite chocolate brownie recipe ever & it comes courtesy of elanaspantry.com, which is a fantastic gluten free website. I have amended it slightly, as it was too sweet for me.

Chocolate Brownies
1 (16 ounce) jar peanut butter
2 eggs
1 cups agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup cocoa powder
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

In a large bowl, blend almond butter until smooth with a hand blender
2.Blend in eggs, then blend in agave and vanilla
3.Blend in cocoa, salt and baking soda
4.Grease and line a 9 x 13 inch baking dish

1. Pour batter into dish

6.Bake at 325° for 25-40 minutes Makes about 24 brownies

The brownies should be quite squidgy & are beyond delicious with a dollop of whipped cream.

A friend has coeliac disease, so I have learnt a couple of recipes that she loves. Nigella's flourless chocolate brownies is one, and they really are delicious.

I love Mrs Crimble's coconut macaroons, and I get them every time I pass a Holland & Barrett .

My mum is coeliac so I buy GF when catering for her. I like Mrs Crimble coconut macaroons! Will buy GF from supermarkets mainly although Mrs Crimble goods are in some of our local farm shops. Bought quite a bit in M&S for Christmas -all their sausages & stuffing are GF now, also their GF iced Christmas cake is not bad. The best GF pudding I have ever made is Nigellas choc cake.

I buy gf food (both specialist and just ordinary food that's gf) from Ocado, and Abel and Cole. Get some specialist gf food from Goodness Direct website as well.

Don't have a lot of Mrs Crimbles. My sons (the coeliacs in the family) don't like the macaroons - which is a shame as they're quite readily available.

THINGS I WOULD LIKE TO FIND MORE OF

• Packs of individually wrapped gf treats (biscuits, cakes etc) so that I don't waste a whole expensive box on one child wanting a biscuit one day.

• More child-orientated (small sizes, plainer flavours) snacks

• More savoury snacks

We do a lot of gf baking at home and all our family meals are gf, mostly cooked from scratch. Quite straightforward once you've identified what 'normal' ingredients are gf.

I buy some gluten free products and love Mrs Crimbles, although I might love them more if there was a little less sugar in some. Used to get chocolate brownies from a health food shop that closed and the local Sainsburys don't seem to stock them. The jam coconut ring things are loved by everyone as were the brownies when I could get them I know I could get them online but postage costs too much and I'm not a frequent purchaser of gluten free cake.

Gluten free cooking is simple if you mainly have roast meat meals (being careful with gravy), salads or stir fries with rice. Gluten free bread is terrible and its best to make your own. Xanthum gum is a miracle ingredient and Pig in the Kitchen www.piginthekitchen.co.uk/ is the best source for recipes. Kallo rice cakes are superior to other types.

I'd suggest you made all your products nut free if possible as families with intolerances may also have allergies. It would also be helpful if products containing Rye had that in larger letters, rye isn't gluten free.

We have recently started eating mainly gluten free, due to suspecting a gluten intolerance and changing our diet.

If you buy gluten free products, where do you tend to buy them from? Do you ever buy Mrs Crimble's products? If so, which ones and where do you buy them?

I am not familiar with Mrs Crimble's products but will now look out for them.

Do you do lots of gluten free cooking? If so, what are your top tips for knocking up delicious gluten free meals/snacks? Please do share any brilliant recipes you have here - Mrs Crimble's may feature the ones they like the most on their website.

I have been mainly cutting out gluten and not replacing with anything, although I have baked with Doves Farm gluten free flour but wasn't very satisfied with the results. These days we tend to eat meat/fish/eggs with lots of veg instead of having pasta or even other carbs as that seems to agree with us more. I will be keeping an eye on this thread for recipes!

I love Mrs Crimble's!
We get most of our gluten free foods from the supermarket. We get through a fair bit of gluten free pasta.
I don't really do any gluten free baking, but I might give it a go if I was trying to make a cake for a group of people for a party or something.
I wish there were more individually wrapped single portions of gluten free treats available. And more non-chocolate/healthier snacks too.

I'm wheat intolerant and buy a lot of GF foods, including Mrs Crimble's lovely cakes and chocolate / coconut macaroons (although I try to avoid them TbH as so full of sugar and not good for a sweet tooth like mine, I can eat a whole pack in one go!). I buy GF pasta (Doves farm), bread (genius) and own brand things like hot cross buns from Sainsburys, Tesco or Waitrose.
I would love it if someone would make a really decent GF pizza base. Sainsbury's are the best of the supermarket ones but still not great. Prezzo now offer GF pizzas in their restaurants, if Mrs Crimble's could come up with something as good as theirs I'd buy them like a shot!

I am coeliac and find cutting out gluten very difficult at the moment. Marks and spencer are amazing as they have loads of products that are gluten free, but not hidden away in a section on their own and bumped up on price.

Shopping takes twice as long as you have to check the packet of everything.. And I mean everything. I got glutened from a pack of beansprouts from sainsburys apparently they are packaged on the same line as gluten products. Why?!

Mrs Crimbles stuff is great, I buy things for myself as a treat but not as often as I tend to find my friends buy them when in coming round. It's nice that its not a 'gluten free' brand and isn't labelled and marketed as such. Some of the gluten free packaging can look rather unappealing.

Waitrose rolls are great. Warburtons and genius breads are perfectly edible but why so small?

I don't bake a lot but when I do I tend to bake fron normal recipes and modify them. Mainly because I find it very hard to find gluten free recipes - many go all out and are 'free from' recipes so no dairy/nuts etc. when I'd rather have all the milk and cheese I can eat

Definitely agree that more healthy snacks would be good.

Also party food.

My 10y/o son and I are both coeliacs. Mrs Crimbles have been amazing for us as they help my son to feel normal, because they're sold in so many places we can always grab a snack wherever we are, it's not easy finding gluten free food on the run!

I don't tend to buy many specialist gluten free products now, I find it easier, healthier and cheaper to home cook/bake now. We do most of our shopping at Tesco, but occassionally Sainsburys and Waitrose. The only specific gluten free brands we buy are Mrs Crimbles (we buy the macaroons, faves are the chocolate base ones and the ones with jam in the middle, bakewall slices and the triangle cheesy bite crisp type things, also the choc chip muffins, really don't like the brownie slices though, feel they let the range down) and Genius for their seeded bread, fruit loaf and chocolate croissants.

Our house is naturally gluten free, it stops us worrying about cross contamination. My biggest tips is to turn to food of other cultures, mexican and indian both have many naturally gluten free choices as they tend to use corn flour (mexican) and gram flour (indian) both of which are gluten free, we always head to indian and mexican restaurants when out and about. My favourite gluten free recipes are the ones for homemade GF fish and chips www.glutenfreechild.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/gluten-free-fish-chips.html and chocolate roulade www.glutenfreechild.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/gluten-free-chocolate-roulade-and.html - I must blog more of our recipes!

My MIL is GF as are several friends, so I tend to hoard GF dessert recipes for when they're coming round. If it's just a pop-in visit, I'll go down the shops (Waitrose or Sainsbury's) and buy some chocolate GF biccies, but I've got to confess that I don't tend to notice who made them and I usually give the remainder of the pack to whoever it is!

I'm seriously wondering if I'm intolerant too, at the moment, so I will be watching this thread with interest!

Favourite recipes are the ones subbing ground almonds for flour; luckily nobody is allergic to almonds in the family. Not sure what I'd do otherwise. I often find them on Waitrose's website and in their foodie mag. They just had a lovely one which was an orange and lemon cake, but sadly it's not on their website yet, just in the mag.

to anyone who has to do it all the time

As DP is gluten intolerant I stock up in Sainsburys usually. His favourites are your coconut macaroons, bake well slices and choc chip muffins for a big treat.

I tend to bake quite a lot from scratch using gluten free flour. I find sponge pudding with treacle and custard goes down the best as it hides any dryness.

Been gf for 10+ years. It's got so much easier to have my cake and eat it so to speak! Genius bread has wiped the floor with all other gf bread products in that it actually has bready boingy qualities. I used to love mrs crimble's apple cake but can't find it anywhere these days.

I'm heavily dependant on ground nuts when I bake GF, so am always pleased to find alternative recipes that aren't meringue based.

My best tip is to check out the kosher shops in NW London (and anywhere else, probably!) around Passover time....they are full of GF everything (since the festival requires a GF diet for 8 days!) and you can pick up a huge range of everything (from frozen fish fingers to soup nuts to chocolate spread to surprisingly decent cake mixes and potato flour), which makes a nice change!

We do not usually buy GF food however I did recently bake my lovely neighbour a super GF cake.

It is a almond and honey cake - perfect for afternoon tea

1 1/2 cups whole almonds, toasted
4 large eggs, at room temperature, separated
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line the bottom of 9" springform cake tin.

Whizz the almonds in a blender until really fine. Beat 4 egg yolks, 1/2 cup honey, vanilla, BP and salt in a large mixing bowl until well combined. Add the ground almonds and mix well.

Beat 4 egg whites in another large bowl until very foamy, white and doubled in size, but not stiff enough to hold peaks.
Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the nut mixture - do not overmix. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake the cake until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let it cool in the pan. I used a springform tin and it always comes out well.

The original recipe I had this from said to drizzle honey on top but it was too sweet so we had it plain next time and everyone is amazed how nice it is.

DH has coeliac disease. I like to try and make the same for everyone, so main meals tend to be gluten free. I do buy mrs crimbles products. I buy the chocolate coated macaroons. I like that they cost the same as a non GF packet of similar biscuits would.
We eat GF pasta (doves farm). Dinner tonight will include Yorkshire puddings

3 eggs
140ml milk
50g cornflour
50g doves farm GF plain flour
pinch of salt

Mix well. Cook in hot oven (220) for 20 minutes
They always rise really well.
DH would happily eat nothing else but pizza. He thinks cooking is heating up a frozen pizza especially if he adds a few chopped up veggies to it before cooking! He likes the dietary specials pizzas and also the tesco frozen bases which he tops himself.
He is in heaven now that Dominos have introduced GF pizza. He has also tried Bella Italia, Zizzi, prezzo and pizza hut (you thought I was kidding when I said he'd be happy to eat only pizza!) dominos is definitely his fave.

I do bake cakes too, although not very often as I don't eat them! I just substitute doves farm flour and add a bit of baking powder and xanthan gum. DD2 tends to be the baker in our house as she does eat cake!

My sister is coeliac so we buy a lot of gf products. She likes a lot of the Mrs Crimbles snacks (e.g. Macaroons etc) and tends to buy from supermarkets however price is a major limiting factor of the quantities she can buy.

Generally we try to cook from scratch and find that the main challenge is handling gluten free cake mixes/pastry. They are a lot more dense and the pastry in particular does not handle well, you can't repeatedly roll it in the way you would normal puff pastry. Interestingly the taste is not very different to normal pastry.

Nigella has an amazing recipe for chocolate orange cake, I have made it several times and people are always asking for the recipe. Noone realises its actually gluten free!