Gluten & Fibro Free

Peter Behringer has grown up making gourmet chocolates and candies. He founded his company Sweet Pete’s, out of a desire to provide consumers with “Pure, simple, sweets made the traditional way with real cane sugar while using natural flavors and colors.” Sweet Pete’s entire kitchen is gluten free. On their website they do sell products that contain gluten, however they are manufactured at separate facilities. Read more about their gluten-free standards on Pete’s Blog.

To make gourmet candy, you have to start with the best ingredients. The chocolate that is used to make Sweet Pete’s gluten free gourmet sweets is produced by Callebaut. From the Callebaut website:

Abstaining from foodstuff to feel better
In general, the “Free-from” product category includes gluten-free, dairy free, lactose-free and sugar free. Typically, this category “focuses” on people suffering from allergies or food intolerance. The latter term describes an adverse food-induced reaction that does not involve the immune system. Lactose intolerance is one example. In contrast, the immune system of people suffering from food allergy reacts to a certain food causing hives, asthma, or other – in some cases life-threatening reactions. The only way to prevent an allergic reaction is to avoid the triggering food.

Chocolate indulgence for everyone
Barry Callebaut works constantly on making chocolate accessible to everyone, which is one of the keystones of the company.

To me it seems that Callebaut is another company that is looking to provide quality products for people that suffer from various food intolerances. The fact the Sweet Pete’s is using superior ingredients to make their candies made me want to try them even more. Who can resist handmade caramels, lollipops, and chocolates? Not me, that is for sure. Read on for my thoughts about some sweet treats I was lucky enough to sample.

Sea Salt Caramel, Rocky Road, and Chocolate Dipped Kinnikinnick Kinnitoos

Sea Salt Caramel
A sweet and salty, chewy caramel that is truly decadent. This is so good they sell it by the pound! One of Sweet Pete’s best sellers and it is delicious.

Ingredients: Sugar, Corn Syrup, Sweetened Condensed Milk. Salt, Sea Salt, All Natural Vanilla Extract

Rocky Road
Pictured lower left, the rocky road candy bar has a fluffy marshmallow filling covered in milk chocolate and topped with pecans.

Ingredients: sugar, cocoa fat, dry whole milk, unsweetened chocolate, soy lecithin, sugar, water, corn syrup, honey, corn starch, all natural vanilla flavoring, pecans, Canola oil

Dark Chocolate Sandwich Cookie
Before going gluten-free, Oreos were one of my favorite sweet snacks. Of course Kinnikinnick Kinni-Toos quickly filled the void left behind when I could no longer indulge in Oreos. Perhaps one of my favorite holiday treats was a chocolate dipped Oreo. Years have passed since I have had a dipped Oreo, and this dark chocolate dipped sandwich cookie from Sweet Pete’s did not disappoint. So rich was every bite that I think one cookie could nourish the craving of a chocoholic for a week! I cannot wait to order these dipped in white chocolate. Pictured above on the right, these cookies are also available dipped in milk chocolate.

Milk Chocolate Pirate Lollipop and Hard Candy Apple Flavored Frankenstein Lollipop

Ingredients: sugar, cocoa mass, emulsifier, natural vanilla flavor, soy lecithin, icing, sugar, flour mix, organic palm oil, cocoa powder

Milk Chocolate Lollipop
Sweet Pete’s makes lollipops in a variety of shapes and flavors fitting the season or your liking. With Halloween nearly here, I sampled a devilishly sweet milk chocolate pirate lollipop that was melt in my mouth good.

Ingredients: sugar, cocoa fat, dry whole milk, unsweetened chocolate, natural vanilla flavor, soy lecithin

Hard Candy Lollipop
My son and I also taste-tested an apple flavored Frankenstein lollipop that was so yummy my son asked if we could buy some more. These lollipops are also vegan!

Ingredients:corn syrup, water, sugar, natural flavors, natural color

Corn Syrup Substitution
Those with corn sensitivity may request their lollipops, taffy and caramels be made with tapioca syrup instead of corn syrup. Products made with the tapioca syrup will cost about 10% more than those made with corn syrup. Obviously, corn syrup is cheaper to produce and thus the reason for an additional charge for this substitution. Customers can call Sweet Pete’s to place a phone order for the substitution. Ingredient substitutions are not available in the online ordering.

My son enjoying a lollipop made by Sweet Pete's.

Halloween Special
Sweet Pete’s is offering a deal on the purchase of their lollipops for Halloween. Buy any four lollipops and get 20% off. Also if you buy one pound of the sea salt caramels, you will receive free shipping. These deals will last until 10/31/11, so take advantage and order some of Sweet Pete’s handmade natural gluten-free candy for you and your loved ones this Halloween.

I like that Sweet Pete’s is making candy the old fashioned way and that they are using natural ingredients. Making gluten-free candy for those of us that have had to go without will help individuals with gluten-intolerance feel included during the holidays. Unfortunately, I feel that Sweet Pete’s online ordering could be a bit more allergen friendly. I have multiple food intolerances, and when I was getting ready to place an order I had to contact the company via email to see if I would be able to eat what I wanted to purchase.

I would like to see Sweet Pete’s list the ingredients, or at least the major allergens on its ordering page. Also, it would nice on the gift baskets to know exactly what products will be included in the purchase. I have a nephew that must eat gluten and casein free. I wanted to order him a gift basket for the Holidays, but I will have to phone or email to see what he can have. I really enjoyed this candy and I will become a regular customer of Sweet Pete’s.

Note: Sweet Pete’s provided samples for review purposes, however the opinions represented in this review are 100% my own.

Review Candy, dessert, Food, holiday, Sweet Pete's

New Gluten-Free offerings at select Subways in Texas

Since January, Subway has been testing a bun made of egg whites, corn starch and tapioca starches for customers with gluten sensitivities at 700 outlets in Dallas and East Texas.¹ They are even offering a gluten-free brownie for dessert made by French Meadow Bakery. It sounds like Subway has trained their staff well, and has gone to great lengths to insure little chance of cross contamination. The gluten-free blogger at TastyEatsAtHome is lucky enough to live near one of the Subways that is test marketing the gluten-free offerings. Read her review about the new products.

I really hope that Subway will decide to carry these food items. The convenience of being able to get a sandwich at a Subway again would be amazing. Eating gluten-free gets easier everyday as more restaurants begin to offer food specifically for us!

Read More Reviews:

Gluten Free Angel
Celiac About.com

1. CNN Health [↩]

Restaurants Buns, Food, Gluten-Free, restaurants, Sandwiches, Subway

As someone that has multiple food intolerances, I was delighted to find out about Shabtai Gourmet. They specialize in providing sweet treats to individuals following restricted diets that must exclude gluten, lactose, soy, casein, peanuts and dairy. The pictures on their website look very enticing and I was excited to sample their products.

Shabtai Gourmet Bon Bons

The first product that I sampled was the Shabtai Gourmet Bon Bons. The box that the bon bons came in was cute, and they were shrink wrapped in plastic to preserve freshness. The chocolate was rich with a creamy marshmallow filling. What I didn’t expect was the crunchy cookie center. I think I expected more of a soft cake center than the crunchy cookie. The creamy filling combined with the smooth chocolate contrasts too much with the crunchy cookie, in my opinion. One of these was enough to feed my chocolate craving for the week. They are good, but oh so decadent.

Shabtai Gourmet Bon Bons

I thought that these bon bons would be great to serve up at a party. They truly are a gourmet dessert; however the smooth chocolate seemed to stick to the Styrofoam tray they arrived on inside the box. I had a terrible time plating these treats, but I thoroughly enjoyed scraping the chocolate off of the Styrofoam tray. I had some of my co-workers sample the bon bons, and everyone agreed that the creamy filling was delicious. Although a handful said that the cookie center was too crunchy, one person thought that was the best part. I bet those that were hoping for more of a cake would prefer the ring tings instead.

Shabtai Gourmet Swiss Cake Roll

Although the bon bons were good, my personal favorite so far has been Shabtai Gourmet’s Swiss cake roll. What a sinfully delightful treat that reminds me so much of my youth. My grandma always had a brown paper bag in her pantry full of Little Debbie snack cakes, and in that bag I would always grab a swiss cake roll. So reminiscent of the comfort food from my youth, this gourmet chocolate cake with a cream filling has been rolled and dipped in chocolate. I can see myself serving this up at Christmas time, but I think that they would sell better if they looked more like the snack cakes from my youth. Call it comfort food, or call it junk food – people with allergies like to enjoy their favorites too!

I also think the swiss cake roll might sell better as a snack cake because of a problem I encountered when slicing into the cake. The smooth, rich chocolate kept crumbling and falling off the cake when I went to cut a slice. I found this somewhat annoying, but enjoyed eating the bits of broken chocolate anyway. When I would eat those Little Debbie Snack Cakes growing up, I would bite the chocolate off first anyway before I bit into the cake itself. So this isn’t really a big deal, unless you are serving this cake up to impress someone.

Due to a suspected almond allergy, I will not purchase the bon bons again. However I plan to order some ring tings and another Swiss cake roll in the near future. Shabtai Gourmet has some great treats for those of us with multiple allergies. We definitely benefit the most from their mission to provide gourmet treats to people with multiple allergies, but no one would ever know that these products are without allergens.  My husband and coworkers also enjoyed these products and the only thing that gave away that they were gluten-free was that I was eating them.

NOTE: Shabtai Gourmet provided samples for these reviews.

UPDATE (4/17/11): Shabtai Gourmet is now selling Baby Swiss Rolls, AKA “Devils Stix”. I imagine they get their name from tasting so sinfully delicious. I can’t wait to order a bunch on pay day.

Products, Review Desserts, Food, Gluten-Free, Review, Shabtai Gourmet

Our winter warm-up this past week made me realize that spring is just around the corner. Soon grilling season will commence in full force and I don’t want to suffer through another summer season eating hamburgers and hot dogs sans bun because the alternative, gluten-free buns, taste worse than eating sawdust. Over the past year I have tried a variety of gluten-free buns, and many a time I have pulled the meat off and pitched the bun in the trash bin because they are often that gross.

Does this look anything like the picture?

I recently tried Chebe Sandwich Buns, which I think their bread dough might make good calzones, but it isn’t ideal for a hamburger bun. I’m not sure if I was suppose to let the bun completely cool, but I ended up eating a stringy cheesy gooey mess. It didn’t exactly taste bad, but the texture just wasn’t right for a hamburger bun.

Kinnikinnick has some decent products, and they were amongst the first buns I taste tested when I first went gluten-free. I found their buns to always be dry, crumbly and hard, even when lightly toasted or grilled with butter. The taste could be compared to cardboard. I think that recently they have attempted to improve their recipe, but I don’t think I will ever go back to eating their buns.

Another bun I used for a while is made by Against the Grain, the makers of one of my favorite pizza crusts. They also make a french style baguette that makes a great chicken Parmesan sandwich. Up until recently they made my favorite hamburger bun. Their bread products have a tendency to get too crunchy because of the cheese, which is fine for a french style baguette, but not so great when you are craving a soft hamburger bun.

Katz Hamburger Bun Grilled to Perfection!

Thanks to Katz Gluten-Free I won’t have to suffer another summer without a tasty bun for my burgers. I lightly toasted my Katz Gluten-Free hamburger bun in my toaster oven, then sliced it open. I lightly buttered the bun then popped it back in my toaster oven. I wanted a slightly golden bun, and the toaster oven wasn’t cooperating so I ended up putting my bun down in a frying pan for a minute just to slightly brown the inside. This bun was so delicious and soft, slightly sweet, with no after taste. I felt like I was eating a real hamburger again. I thoroughly enjoyed every bite. The only downside to this bun is that it tastes so good I might be tempted to go back to eating more hamburgers! That would be bad for my waistline and my arteries.

The Ultimate Gluten Free Burger on Katz Hamburger Buns

Your guests to your backyard cookouts this summer will not even know these buns are gluten free, so you might as well stock up now. To promote their new buns, Katz Gluten Free is running a deal, buy 3 packs of buns, get one free. Use Coupon Code BBQ. They are so sure that you will love their buns, that they are offering a 100% money back guarantee. So what do you have to lose?

Now if Mrs. Katz could only help me with my hot dog problem. Since Kinnikinnick is the only baker of hot dog buns available for purchase in my area, and I’ve already established how horrible those taste, I’ve resorted to eating my hot dogs on Udi’s slices of bread. I’ve tried following the suggestion on The Gluten Free Survivor’s blog about using an Udi’s bagel, but I find it too messy. Katz Gluten Free should be releasing what they are calling their “Frank Buns” sometime in the near future. I can hardly wait!

NOTE: Katz Gluten Free provided samples for review purposes.

UPDATE (04/17/11): Udi’s should be releasing their gluten-free buns sometime in May. I can hardly wait for them to be in stores. Some online vendors are selling them:
Gluten Free Palace
Linda’s Diet Delights

By the Case:
NEW Udi’s Gluten Free Classic Hotdog Buns 12.9 oz. – case of 8
NEW Udi’s Gluten Free Hamburger Buns 10.4 oz. – case of 6

Products, Review Against the Grain, Chebe, Food, Gluten-Free, Hamburger Buns, Katz, Kinnikinnick, Review, Udi