Thursday 21 February 2013

Review: A Gu product I can eat!

A regular scene in a supermarket these days consists of me checking the ingredients of every single pudding in the dessert aisle (yes, even those with "cream" in the title), whilst Mr LFL looks on in an annoyed-yet-defeated manner. I am of the opinion it is always worth checking, because you never know when the ingredients of a product may have changed. 

On Valentines Day, Mr LFL was in Waitrose, tasked with finding a suitable dessert for our meal that evening. He must have wanted to impress, because he found himself checking each individual pudding as well. Which is a good thing, because we found a Gu pudding I can eat!! 

Before I go into more detail, I must point out that it does contain butter - so those with severe intolerance's or allergies will need to continue the search for a chocolate dessert they can eat. Because I am more mildly intolerant, I can eat some butter (and believe me, it's worth taking the risk for anyway!).

The pudding I can now eat - and will be at every available opportunity - is the Gu Chocolate Orange Melting Middle Puddings: http://www.gupuds.com/our-puds/after-dark-ramekins/chocolate-orange-melting-middles - available at most supermarkets. At £2.39 for 2 (when we bought them), they are not the cheapest pudding, but nor the most expensive, although you could sit and eat both in 1 go (or is that just me?) 

Both Mr LFL and I couldn't believe the only dairy was butter, and we checked the ingredients several times each. In fact, I was found to be checking the ingredients whilst eating it, because I couldn't believe something so yummy, creamy, and chocolaty didn't contain some milk or cream! The pudding needs to be heated for exactly 30 seconds, and apparently any more could lead it to be too un-melty in the middle. Both times I feel Mr LFL showed his microwave expertise, as they were done perfectly.

The pudding is basically a very soft chocolate sponge filled nearly to the edge with an chocolate orange sauce. It is gooey and yummy and very chocolaty and should definitely be tried by everyone! As said previously, I could have eaten both in 1 sitting, although I may have been sick as they were very rich. There is no bitterness from the dark chocolate thanks to the orange addition, and yet the orange doesn't overtake the chocolate flavour, hence  the rich texture and taste. 

Overall, I plan to buy many of these for any occasion I can think of, and enjoy every one of them!

LFLx

Review: Dark Chocolate Brownies by Ok Foods

In my real life (as opposed to the blissful world of blogging!), I am a Maths teacher in a secondary school. On various occasions (birthdays, good days, bad days, days when we just want to), biscuits, cakes and other sweet treats are bought in by a kind soul for the rest of us to enjoy at break time. Since becoming lactose free, I'm a lot more limited in what I can eat, and so sometimes don't get to partake in the eating. It's not a problem, and I always have enough food to feed an army with me in any case. However, I have some lovely colleagues who, on occasion, try and find something I can eat to bring along. This often takes the form of ginger nut biscuits, as they contain no dairy and are a safe option - I eat many ginger nuts on a near daily basis now! But the other day, one of my great fellow Maths teachers bought in Dark Chocolate brownies, by Ok foods. These are stocked in Co-op (and somerfield, according to their website). I must confess I've never tried the free from food in co-op, and as the brownies were also wheat and gluten free, I must admit I was a little unsure of how good they would taste (many a bad experience with nice looking, bad tasting free-from-everything food!), and the addition by a not-so-kind colleague of "taste free" on the packaging didn't quell my fears!

But, these were good!! They contain no dairy at all (or wheat, or gluten, as I said). The chocolate in them is dark chocolate, and there is also some sort of nut added. The texture is very very slightly different to a "regular" brownie, but only when you are trying to spot the difference. The nut taste is quite strong (presumably to try and replace the not-normal-flour twang you sometimes get?), but there is a good hit of chocolate and overall a really good brownie.

Now, I can't vouch for the value for money, as I didn't buy them (and can't find individual products on the co-op website), but if you're completely dairy free (or wheat/gluten) I think they're worth a try! You can find out about the company here: http://www.ok-foods.com/.