THE NIBBLE » Gluten-Free

TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: Indulge Caramels

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:53:36 +0000

We taste plenty of caramels; fewer than a dozen brands have qualified as worth our attention.

Indulge Caramels, an artisan endeavor in Portland, Oregon, has made a specialty of flavored caramels—currently nine varieties plus a chocolate-dipped option for every flavor. They’re worth taking note of, and are so affordable that they can be enjoyed as a daily indulgence—just one is quite satisfying. They’re delicious with coffee or tea, and are a gluten-free food.

Making caramels that won’t crystallize requires practice. The recipe is deceptively simple when you look at the ingredients: just sugar, cream, butter and flavoring (vanilla, coffee, sea salt, etc.), along with corn syrup to prevent crystallization.

Follow this recipe and you get a soft, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth caramel. Scrimp on the recipe—substitute margarine or oil for the butter, for example—and the product changes.

Mass marketed products only approximate what a real caramel is. Your eyes will widen when you see the ingredients lists of two top products in the full review.

They may also widen when you pop the first Indulge Caramel into your mouth. These small indulgences are so affordable that you can try all the different flavors.

Indulge caramels are made in 9 flavors;
all can be had chocolate-dipped, as well.
Photo by Evan Dempsey | THE NIBBLE.

Hand-making caramels is a labor of love. Try Indulge Caramels; you’ll appreciate the labor. Read the full review to learn more about these buttery treats.

Find more of our favorite caramels in our Gourmet Candy Section.

Take our Caramel Trivia Quiz.

TIP OF THE DAY: Low Calorie Party

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:50:36 +0000

This barbecue pork loin saves many calories
with a sugar-free blackberry sauce. Here’s
the recipe. Photo courtesy The J.M.
Smucker Company.

Want to throw a get-together but fear for your strict diet? Have a pot luck diet lunch or dinner.

Everyone brings his or her best low-calorie dish, along with copies of the recipe to share and, if it’s a buffet, an index card to set in front of the dish, with the name of the dish and the cook, the ingredients and, if possible, calories per saving.

For more party fun, everyone can rank their top three dishes, and winners can be named.

The prizes?

Something low-calorie, of course! Or something no-calorie, like fancy brands of mineral water.

It’s a great party idea: Less cooking for you and the opportunity to try lots of new low-calorie recipes with your friends—who will be very thankful for all the new recipes they’ll be taking home.

This party concept works with any dietary restriction—fat-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, low carb, vegan, etc.

PRODUCT: Amy’s Organic Soups

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:30:42 +0000

Just in time for the cold spell come three hearty soups from Amy’s Organic.

If you don’t know this brand, try it and become one of the many fans. The products are organic, tasty and better for you than most supermarket brands.

Amy’s aims to appeal to vegetarians and vegans as well as the general audience.

The three new soups include Chunky Tomato Bisque, Fire Roasted Southwestern Vegetable and Spanish Rice and Red Bean.

Chunky Tomato Bisque is creamy, velvety and sweet as sugar. Alas, that’s because there are 14g of sugar is per serving—almost three times as much as the other two varieties. You’ve heard us say this before, but there is more sweetener hidden in our food supply than is necessary or healthy. That Amy’s uses organic evaporated cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup means nothing to your glycemic index.

Fire Roasted Southwestern Vegetable Soup is vegan, a flavorful mix of tomato, potato cubes, roasted corn, bell pepper, black beans and onions. Green chiles and chipotle are listed on the label, but we tasted pepper rather than chile heat.

Stay warm this winter with Amy’s Organic
soups. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

Spanish Rice & Red Bean Soup is mis-named. Spanish rice is a spicy white rice side dish prepared with tomatoes, onions and green peppers. Putting the words “Spanish rice” in front of this red bean soup with tomatoes, corn, bell pepper, zucchini and brown rice (which is the eighth ingredient on the label—i.e., not a whole lot of rice) is misleading. But the soup is hearty and nicely peppery.

The line is gluten free, certified organic by QAI and kosher by Ner Tamid K. The soups are low fat, cholesterol free, high in fiber and have no GMOs.

PRODUCT: French Meadow Bakery Gluten Free Bread

Editorial Assistant — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:55:56 +0000

French Meadow Bakery’s Whole Grain Bread,
Sandwich Bread and Italian Rolls. Photo
by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

French Meadow Bakery makes certified organic and gluten-free products that are casein-free, lactose-free and peanut-free, as well as kosher (parve). We recently tasted a selection of company’s gluten-free line of breads and cakes.

When we taste gluten-free baked goods, we do it from the same perspective as we taste all products. We don’t judge if the product is “good for a gluten-free product,” but if it is a good product that anyone would enjoy. We tasted two products in French Meadow Bakery’s gluten-free line that scored on this front; anyone in the family would enjoy them.

Gluten Free Multigrain Bread is made of a tasty mix of whole grain flour blend (amaranth, quinoa, millet, sorghum, teff), egg whites, organic flax seed, organic millet and organic quinoa and a touch of honey, among other ingredients.

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread is made of corn starch, egg whites, tapioca starch, honey, rice bran and germ, plus raisins and other ingredients.

The Gluten-Free Italian Rolls and Sandwich Bread are more appropriate for those who must restrict their gluten intake.

Some of our tasters enjoyed the Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and ate every last one of the pre-formed, ready-to-bake cookies. We could taste that they were a gluten-free product; but the good news is that, those who can’t have gluten can keep these cookies in the freezer, ready to transform into a warm, fragrant cookie whenever the need strikes.

See the entire line, which includes a gluten-free pizza crust, tortillas, cakes, cookies and muffins, at FrenchMeadowBakery.com.

There’s a $1.00 coupon on the website for any gluten-free product.

Find more of our favorite gluten-free products.

PRODUCT: Dessert Hummus? Delightful!

Editorial Assistant — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:08:04 +0000

America loves hummus, as can be seen by the proliferation of brands and flavors in the refrigerator case of almost every supermarket and deli. It’s nutritious, gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan.

But what about dessert hummus? Dessert from chickpeas? That breakthrough concept is now available, healthy and actually delicious! Flavors include:

Carmel Apple Dessert Hummus

Chocolate Mousse Dessert Hummus

Maple Walnut Dessert Hummus

Peanut Butter Dessert Hummus

Pumpkin Pie Dessert Hummus

Toasted Almond Dessert Hummus

Read our full review, including all the ways you can serve Dessert Hummus.

Stay tuned for our review of our favorite traditional hummus brands in the November issue of THE NIBBLE online magazine.

Find more of our favorite (and more traditional) desserts plus recipes in the Desserts Section of THE NIBBLE.

Serve a trio of Dessert Hummus flavors for
dessert. Above: Caramel Apple, Maple
Walnut and Pumpkin. Photo by Hannah
Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

PRODUCT: More Gluten-Free Whole Grain Chex

Nibble Editors — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:02:48 +0000

Look at two of the hottest food trends—whole grain and gluten-free. Every one of us needs more whole grain in our diet, and one out of 133 people have celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that requires a gluten-free diet. (Still more have simple wheat allergies.)

Corn and rice, among other grains, are naturally gluten free. Chex cereals is the first mainstream, gluten-free cereal line, with Rice Chex, Corn Chex and new gluten-free Honey Nut Chex, Chocolate Chex and Cinnamon Chex.

We recently sat down with a box of “Simply Nutritious Honey Nut Chex With A Touch Of Honey.” WIth 8g or more of whole grain per serving, it is a healthier sweet treat than almost any other processed sweet treat (doughnut, breakfast pastry, raisin bagel), and nicely crunchy, eaten on the go from a plastic snack-size bag. We enjoy it.

But as we spend out days scrutinizing words and labels, we have two questions:

The new version of Honey Nut Chex is gluten-free and made of corn.

“Honey Nut Chex With A Touch Of Honey?” (Italics ours.) Let’s send that one to the Department of Redundancy Department.

Honey Nut?Where are the nuts? (Competitors, note: This could become the next “Where’s the beef?”) There are no nuts in this cereal. So we looked at the package ingredients. Last on the list: natural almond flavor. You can’t taste any almond flavor.

This recalled our favorite Abraham Lincoln quote: “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” We don’t know if there were ever nuts in Honey Nut Chex, but has anyone else noticed they’re missing?

Learn about whole grain cereals.

PRODUCT: Glow Gluten Free Cookies

Editorial Assistant — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:16:07 +0000

Gluten-free cookies and milk. Photo by
Corey Lugg | THE NIBBLE.

More and more people are discovering that they have wheat allergies, if not full-blown celiac disease. Now, they can enjoy cookies so delicious that their wheat-eating friends will be grabbing for them too.

Thanks to the miracles performed at Glow Gluten Free, people on gluten-free diets can happily nibble away on Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Gingersnap and Snickerdoodle cookies. How good are they? The label fell off the tin we were storing them in, and we didn’t realize they were the gluten-free cookies while eating them up at a visit with friends.

The all-natural cookies are also dairy-free and, of course, trans fat-free. (They do contain eggs and soy.) Share the Glow: Pass the word.

The cookies can be purchased online at GlowGlutenFree.com.

See more gluten-free products reviewed by THE NIBBLE.

PRODUCT: Glutenfreeda Gluten Free Burritos

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:59:12 +0000

A gluten free burrito bonanza. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

People cutting out wheat don’t need to be deprived of their burritos. Glutenfreeda has introduced four frozen burrito flavors:

Breakfast Burrito

Chicken & Cheese

Vegetarian Bean & Cheese

Vegetarian & Dairy Free (vegan)

The burritos are easily microwaved. Breakfast Burrito, with well-seasoned ground beef and potatoes, is the most flavorful and our favorite, followed by Vegetarian Bean & Cheese. Chicken & Cheese and Vegetarian & Dairy Free needed spicing up with some condiments—but there’s always a ton of salsa around THE NIBBLE offices.

Glutenfreedas Burritos are made from all natural and organic ingredients and, of course, contain no trans fats, no hydrogenated oils and no GMOs. The four-ounce burritos have a MSRP of $2.99 to $3.29. See retailer locations.

See reviews of delicious gluten free foods on TheNibble.com.

PRODUCT: Sweet & Saucy Fudge & Caramel Sauces

admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:36:10 +0000

If you’re doing your share to celebrate National Ice Cream month, you need some appropriate toppings. Sweet & Saucy makes 20 different buttery caramel and rich chocolate sauces, handcrafted in small batches using quality ingredients. There’s a flavor for everyone:

Caramel Sauce: Original, Aunt Emily’s Cranberry Caramel, Butterscotch Caramel, Chardonnay Caramel, Cinnamon Caramel, Coffee Caramel, Frank’s Whiskey Caramel, Rum Caramel; seasonally, spiced Autumn Harvest Caramel.

Fudge Sauce: Original, Amaretto Fudge, Cabernet Fudge, Espresso Fudge, Mint Fudge, Macadamia White Fudge, Orange Liqueur Fudge, Peanut Butter Fudge, RazzBerry Fudge; seasonal, White Chocolate Peppermint, White Chocolate Strawberry Fudge.

The line is certified gluten free.

If you’re feeling saucy, also check out our Top Pick Of The Week chocolate and caramel sauces from:

Somebody’s Mother’s

The King’s Cupboard

Robert Lambert

From Cabernet Fudge to Orange Liqueur
Fudge to Peanut Butter Fudge, you can have
it your way at Sweet & Saucy.

PRODUCT: Oregon Dan’s BBQ Sauce

admin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:00:50 +0000

We probably receive more barbecue sauce than any other food product. Is there that much barbecue/barbeque/BBQ sauce in America, or is it just a favorite product for people who want to be in the specialty food business? (It’s the latter.) Many people think their sauce (jam, fudge, cookie, whatever) is “the best,” and are encouraged by friends to go into the business.

While the world may need a better mousetrap, it isn’t looking for another sauce (…whatever). It’s tough even for spectacular products to survive. Some of our Top Picks Of The Week—the best of their kind we’ve ever had—have been shuttered (and by the same token, some truly mediocre products continue to sell well, year after year—a phenomenon previously noted by H.L. Mencken). In better economic times, we saw someone develop a unique and needed product to make tofu taste great, and the world did not beat a path to her door. Unless a close family member is CEO of a major food chain, getting distribution for a new product is like swimming upstream, without the genetics of a salmon. That doesn’t make us happy, because people who make specialty foods tend to be nice people, and we always want the best for them.

BBQ sauce with a focus on fruit. Photo by Emily Chang | THE NIBBLE.

Oregon Dan’s BBQ Sauce arrived recently: four attractive bottles in Original (pineapple), Medium Spice (Original/pineapple with a kick), Apricot and Habanero Hot. “Pure Ingredients!” exclaimed the bottle, and it is true that they are all natural, although the first ingredient is sugar. (Pure doesn’t mean healthy.) The recipes are complex. Original also has pineapple juice, tomato paste, onion, pineapple, distilled white vinegar, butter, cider vinegar, blackstrap molasses, sherry cooking wine, cornstarch, red pepper flakes, vanilla, spices and salt. That’s as classy a set of ingredients as we’ve seen on many a barbeque sauce bottle. Habanero Hot adds habanero purée (a quality ingredient—many sauces use the cheaper habanero extract), Apricot adds apricot purée. Oregon Dan calls the whole line “Hawaiian style,” although apricot and habanero are not part of traditional Hawaiian cuisine, as far as we’ve seen.

The puzzler is, why is Oregon Dan selling Hawaiian recipes. Given that the snowy mountain peaks on the bottle labels are not Mauna Loa and the website survey suggests the next flavor will be coming from Oregon (bing cherry, boysenberry, marionberry, peach, pear and raspberry are the options—cast your vote), Dan might want to forget the “taste of Hawaii inside each bottle” and sell “BBQ Sauce With Fightin’ Fruit.” A 12-Ounce jar $5.50 at OregonDans.com. The line is gluten free.