Happy Christmas!
I hope you enjoy the selection of free-from Christmas recipe favourites that we have included.
At our Christmas Baking course we taste-tested some of the best free-from cakes, puddings and mince pies available. In addition to our usual favourites we also tried the new M&S Christmas pudding, the new GFree Christmas pudding and the newly improved Village Bakery mince pies. The results can be found below!
Contents
Featured RecipesTop
Click on any of the cards below to view the recipe.
Egg-Free Fruit Cake
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Free-From Mince Pies
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Goats Cheese, Pear and Walnut Salad
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Light Xmas Cake
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Persian Jewelled Rice
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Spinach & Salmon Roulade
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Xmas Macaroons
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Xmas Pud Truffles
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Xmas Spice Cake
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Key:
Brackets indicate that a recipe has an option to exclude a particular allergen.
Xmas Taste TestTop
Here's the results of our Xmas taste test!
| Xmas Pud | wf | gf | df | ef | sf | sof | nf | Texture | Flavour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesco | - | - | Very Moist | Rich and fruity, not too sweet - delicious | |||||
| Sainsburys | - | - | - | Moist | Very fruity, brandy flavour, but bit cakey | ||||
| GFree | - | - | - | - | Moist | Very Light, nice spice..bit like bread pudding | |||
| Morrisons Free-From | - | - | Very moist – could have been more cakey | Dark and very rich | |||||
| Marks & Spencers | - | - | - | Moist - nice soft texture | Dark and rich, sherry flavour | ||||
| Droppa & Droppa | - | - | - | Light/not so moist - cakey | Hint of Indian spice | ||||
| Village Bakery | - | Light/not so moist - cakey | Nutty, nice spice |
| Xmas Cake | wf | gf | df | ef | sf | sof | nf | Texture | Flavour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesco | - | - | - | Sticky moist | Sweet and fruity,nicely rich | ||||
| Sainsburys | - | - | - | Quite moist | Light & fruity, very sweet | ||||
| Droppa & Droppa | - | - | - | Moist | Light, fruity, not too sweet | ||||
| G-Free | - | - | - | Very moist | Light, fruity, not too sweet, very tasty | ||||
| Zedz Foods | - | - | Not as moist | Rich brandy flavour |
| Mince Pies | wf | gf | df | ef | sf | sof | nf | Texture | Flavour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mince Pies | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | Pastry | Filling |
| Tesco | - | - | - | Thick pastry, soft bottom but crisp top | Rich but not too sweet, nice tang | ||||
| Sainsburys | - | - | - | Thick, soft, sweet pastry | Sweet and moist filling | ||||
| Village Bakery | - | - | Nice crumbly pastry, held together, little sweet | Nicely spiced, fruity, deep filled | |||||
| Droppa & Droppa | - | - | - | - | Not too thick – sweetness is just right | Fruity and nutty – not too sweet | |||
| G-Free | - | - | - | Thick, crisp pastry. Looks homemade | Nice – lovely spice |
Summary
It was great to have such a wide choice of allergy-friendly products to try!
Thanks to Tescos, Sainsburys and Morrisons for providing a good traditional xmas range available alongside our weekly shop – particularly pleased to see nut-free xmas puds!
The Village Bakery offer a lighter, tasty, organic, no/low-sugar range with lovely xmas spice, and is available at all good healthfood shops and on-line stores.
Zedz Foods provide a good egg-free alternative Christmas cake. Alternatively why not give our egg-free fruit cake recipe a try!
G-Free and Droppa & Droppa consistently pleased across the panel – appealing to different personal tastes – give them a try.
Conclusion
Our favourites are:-
- Best Traditional Xmas Pud 2008 – Tesco
- Best Mince Pie 2008 – Village Bakery – we love their new recipe!
- Best Christmas Cake 2008 – G-Free (light) and Tesco (rich)
- Best Mincemeat 2008 – Village Bakery
Featured IngredientsTop
The table below shows the availability of our featured ingredients.
| Tesco | Sainsbury's | Waitrose | Health Food Shop | Johnson's Provisions | Wheat and Dairy Free | Goodness Direct | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plamil dark chocolate | - | - | - | - | |||
| Dairy free spread | - | - | |||||
| Biona dairy free spread | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| Coarse Cornmeal/ Fine Polenta (we use TRS) | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Amazake | - | - | - | ||||
| GF Baking Powder (Supercook/Fiddes Payne) | - | ||||||
| Naturally coloured marzipan | - | - | - | ||||
| Soya Flour | - | - | - | ||||
| Ground Rice | - | - | - | - | |||
| Easyblend Instant Yeast | - | - | |||||
| Potato Flour | - | - | - | - | |||
| Rice Flour | - | - | - | ||||
| Xanthum Gum | some stores | - | - | - | |||
| Soya Cream Cheese | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Village Bakery Gluten Free Xmas Pudding | - | - | |||||
| Village Bakery Gluten Free Mince pies | - | - | - | - | |||
| Zedz Foods Xmas Cake | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| G-Free Xmas Pudding | - | - | - | - | |||
| G-Free Mince Pies | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Luxury Mincemeat (Ownbrand – naturally gf) | - | - | - | - | |||
| Village Bakery Organic Mincemeat | - | - | - | - |
