So 2012 was to be my first gluten free Christmas since my diagnosis. I’ve now nearly been GF for a whole year. My “GF anniversary” will be next month.
Christmas can be a difficult time of year for coeliacs, in fact for anybody with food allergies. If you think of most of the traditional foods we chomp our way through during the festive season, chances are you’ll find that most of them are a gluten fest, hidden or overt. I haven’t actually had much baking time recently, due to a busy time at work, so despite my best intentions of recipe experimentations and making my own GF Christmas pudding weeks in advance and making my Christmas chutneys, my time actually got completely taken over by the project I’m running at the moment, so that had to take precedence, and when I dragged my frazzled self home from work of a night, the last thing I felt like doing was shopping and cooking. I haven’t entirely done Christmas out of a packet, and there will be more on a future post about the Christmas cookery hits and misses that I have managed (gluten free tuiles being very much a hit) but this post is dedicated to the gluten free Supermarket Saviours, or rather, a gluten free Christmas for busy people without the time to experiment with gluten free suet.
At number 5, is Marks and Spencers’ gluten free stuffing range. I’ve had a few attempts making my own stuffing with gluten free breadcrumbs, but the result has been fairly stodgy. These are, however, meat based, the sausagemeat is made with gluten free rusk. We tried the pork and caramelised chestnut stuffing with our Christmas dinner, and it was definitely a hit, even with my non-coeliac BF. It was meaty, satisfying, and had some texture in from the chopped chestnuts, as well as a pleasant flavour with a hint of sweetness. I’ve saved a pack of the pork, bacon and leek version to take to my Dad’s on Sunday, so that there’s some stuffing I can have. I’m expecting good things!
At number 4, The Co-op‘s gluten free pigs in blankets. Co-op’s range of GF sausages has impressed me before, and these didn’t disappoint. They cooked well, the bacon had plenty of flavour and crisped up nicely, and I have honestly never noticed the difference with a gluten free sausage to its wheat rusk based counterpart. In fact, if anything, the GF ones tend to have a higher meat content, and therefore more flavour. These would make great party food as well as an accompaniment to a Christmas roast.
At number 3 – my all time favourite cheese biscuits from Mrs Crimbles.Their website only shows the sundried tomato and pesto version, but I can assure you that they do other flavours of these yummy cheese crackers – a cheese version and my personal favourite, rosemary and onion. My local Tesco stocks both flavours, but the rosemary and onion just edge it for me as a cheese biscuit. They have a briliant snap and crunch, no hint of powderiness that often besets GF crackers
My number one and the runner up both come from Marks and Spencers Food. M&S food has improved their gluten free range a ton over the last year, and they seem to have been releasing new products every month, including the gluten free sandwiches they now do, which always seem to sell out. They have started labelling some of their ready meals and soups as well, so you can clearly see what’s gluten free, and they do a decent range of GF sausages and fishcakes as well.
My number 2 is their Gluten free Christmas pud. Miniature they may be, but they pack a brilliant brandy punch, are crammed with fruit and nuts, and not a hint of stodge, unlike some other free from puds I’ve tried. Highly recommended with their brandy cream.
My number 1 for this year has actually been my number 1 for a few years in the mince pie stakes. M&S’s gluten free mince pie is topped with a star, and is a Christmas food star. The genius foodie scientist types at M&S have worked something out that very few “free from” manufacturers yet have – that gluten free pastry is a) hard to get right; b) doesn’t keep well; and c) is generally not very nice, so it’s best not to use too much of the stuff if you don’t have to. The star topping the pie is made of marzipan, adding a nice almondy dimension to it, the mincemeat is rich, and the pastry case, despite my general dislike of GF pastry in general, is very much not like concrete. These are so good that my local M&S sells out of them, and they are the mince pie preference of my family, coeliacs and non coeliacs alike.
It’s good to see the mainstream shops catching up on the gluten free front and catering to us gluten dodgers for the festive food fracas. Time was when you’d have to either go to your friendly local health food shop, or a pharmacy to get it. However, not everyone who follows a gluten free diet necessarily wants sprouted soybean bread or to give up deodorant and toothpaste; nor do we particularly want our GF bread on the shelf below the incontinence pads at the chemist (yes, I have seen this). Even more importantly, if you have both GF and non GF family members or partners, Christmas is hectic enough without having to go to several different shops for your feastings.
So those are my festive favourites – what are yours? Have you established any GF festive foodie traditions? How do you do your Christmas meal – does everyone have the same food or do you buy different things for GF and non GF eaters? Feel free to share your GF festive experiences!
Panda's Kitchen 