Specialetaarten.nl (also known as glutenvrijetaart.nl) is a bakery that makes, among other, gluten free cakes, gluten free breads (view assortment) and gluten free pastry (view assortment). I ordered a gluten and dairy free cake to celebrate my partner’s birthday.  It was a cake for 10-12 persons with a filling made of chocolate mousse. It was amazing. The dairy free chocolate  mousse turned out beyond our expectations.

Birthday cakes from Specialetaarten can be ordered online here. Once you choose a style and a size of a cake, you will have to fill in a short questionnaire. This smart system allows you to choose taste, allergens to avoid, type of filling, color, decorations etc. It is very easy and I must admit – convenient. It leaves no room for misunderstandings. You can have the cake delivered to you (extra costs) or pick it up in one of the shops (Almere, Heemskerk, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn). I live in Arnhem so I went to The Free From Shop in Apeldoorn to get my cake. If you are interested in my review of that shop you can read it here.

The baker Joop Siervogel is very famous for his work.

This is the cake I ordered

Everybody just loved this cake! Our guests couldn’t believe it was gluten free.

If you want to order a gluten free cake for a special occasion I recommend Specialetaarten. Another equally good option is Gebaksjuwelier (my review of the bakery is here). At Gebaksjuwelier only gluten free products are made so there is no chances of gluten contamination. At Specialetaarten, although they do bake conventional products, they take measures to prevent contamination.

An update: A gluten free birthday cake can be order as well at Zoete Bakselz. I didn’t order anything yet but I just found out that it is possible. Also, The Welsh Bakestone in Den Haag makes gluten free cakes if you order it 2 weeks ahead.

Cheers,

Kati xxx

Specialetaarten.nl

Glutenvrijetaart.nl

info@specialetaarten.nl

Zandzuigerstraat 53

1333 MV Almere

The problem with the salted caramel hearts is that they all contain the same filling. Where is the surprise? Where the chocolate romance?!

I sought handmade, high quality, delicious gluten free bonbons and I found Villa. Villa is an online shop that distributes, among other, gluten free bonbons.

‘ GENIETEN VOOR IEDEREEN!

Iedereen vindt chocolade lekker, maar smaken verschillen.
Bovendien mag niet iedereen alles eten.
Dat kan bijvoorbeeld zijn om medische reden of vanwege bepaalde allergieën.

Villa Chocola wil zoveel mogelijk mensen laten genieten van goede kwaliteit chocola.
Oók mensen met wat meer specifieke wensen zijn we daarom graag van dienst.

Zo hebben we een ruime keus in suikervrije en glutenvrije bonbons.
Zelfs lactose-vrije chocola vind je bij Villa Chocola.’

For the security, I emailed them and asked if the chocolates were suitable for people with Celiac disease. To their knowledge the gluten content (if present) is below 20 ppm. I am always a bit skeptical when products have no certificate but I enjoyed them and I had no problems. Besides, one rarely eats more than 1-2 bonbons at once so the chances of getting glutened (if there were any) are small.

The quality is very good. The bonbons are delicious and beautiful.

Cost: E 15.00,- for 500g exc. sending costs (E 6.75,-).

I am looking forward to enjoy them again!

Cheers,

Kati xxx

A couple of months ago, the Jumbo supermarket began to sell fresh gluten free bread Yam. I found it inconvenient that it had to be pre-ordered. You couldn’t just go to a shop and buy a loaf of bread. It had to be planned ahead. One more thing to occupy my already busy mind – no, thank you.

It is such a joy that since 25^th August (2014) the AH supermarket sells fresh gluten free Genius bread, buns and muffins (products and prices). No pre-orders necessary. We can enter (almost)any AH supermarket in the country and get our fresh loaf of bread. It feels so good!

Besides, the number of gluten free products provided by the AH increased. Amongst others, products of Crazy Bakers (contain wheat-derived ingredients not suitable for sensitive Celiacs) or Livwell are now accessible (btw. the pita breads from Livwell taste so good!).

Genius Breads and Buns and Muffins are WHEAT FREE and DAIRY FREE !!! 

There are 4 types of Genius breads available in AH

• White bread
• Brown bread
• Multi-seeds bread
• Sweet bread with fruit

We can choose between two types of buns

• White buns
• Multi-seeds buns

Besides, there are chocolate muffins in the assortment.

So far, I tried 5 products of Genius: the white buns, the multi-seeds buns, the sweet bread, the chocolate muffins and the multi-seeds bread.

How do I grade the above four products

Nr. 1 – the multi-seeds bread (great texture, amazingly good taste, smells good, well tolerated by my body)

Nr. 2 – the multi-seeds buns (great texture, great taste, rich aroma, well tolerated by my body)

Nr. 3 – the chocolate muffins (good texture, perhaps just a tiny bit too dry, taste is okay, well tolerated by my body)

Nr.4 – the white buns (typical poor gluten free texture, crumbling a lot, terrible taste, well tolerated by my body)

Nr.5 – The sweet bread (very good texture, wonderful taste and cinnamon aroma, gave me terrible headache and other symptoms). I am truly disappointed in my reaction to this bread. It was the best gluten free bread (from a package) that I have tasted so far. Another explanation to my bad reaction could be gluten contamination of the bread. This product was the only one (that I tried)  which wasn’t in a sealed package. I have read on forums that in some shops the bread bags weren’t well closed while laying in a bread department. I might give it another go in a while again. (An update: I tried it one more time and again I got i terrible migraine). If my body wouldn’t react to it so bad – it would be a candidate for a Nr.2 :-)

Overall, the Genius breads contain mostly starchy flours. The list of ingredients of the sweet bread is suspiciously long. But yeah, it has to feel ‘fresh’ for at least 1 week, if I remember the expiration date correctly. Such easily available breads are handy from time to time but I know that I am not able to tolerate such ‘heavy’ cocktail of functional food ingredients on daily basis. Unless I want to walk around with inflamed tummy (read: balloon).

Did you already try new gluten free products from AH? I am curious what you think about them.

Cheers,

Highlights

• Gluten free, wheat free, dairy free and soy free!
• Easy to make
• 10-15 min preparation & 15-20 min baking
• Suitable as lunch or dinner

Ingredients

• Flour mix – 375 g of Pizza & pastry multimix from Orgran
• Dry yeast –  7 g
• Sugar – 1 tea spoon
• Warm water – 250 ml (I use warm tap water)
• Fat in a liquid state – 20 ml
• Gluten free flour – a couple of spoons (to sprinkle the bowl/board used to knead the dough)
• Red tomato sauce or tomato puree (I used a pre-made red sauce AH Excellent because I was out of tomato puree at home ;)
• Anything that you want to put on your pizza dough (I used: champignons, yellow and red peppers, tomatoes, arugula (in Dutch: rucola), cheese)
• Optional: ketchup or garlic sauce

Ingredients of Pizza & pastry multimix from Orgran: Maize starch, Potato starch, Maize flour, Raising agents; Glucono delta lactone, Sodium bicarbonate, Pea flour, Salt, Stabilisers: Xanthan gum, Carboxymethycellulose, Methycellulose.

* The Orgran gluten free flour mix for pizza contains more food additives than conventional (wheat based) pizza flour. As much as I found it very delicious, it is healthier to use it in moderation (just like any other foods).

Needed appliances

• A bowl
• A measuring cup
• A spoon/spatula or a sushi stick
• A cutting board
• A knife
• A baking plate
• Baking paper
• A pre-heated to 200 oven
• Optional: a kitchen balance

Tips

• If you do not have any red sauce at home or tomato puree – you can use ketchup.
• You can easily make your own red sauce by heating some tomatoes on a pan together with Italian herbs and garlic.
• According to the recipe printed on the Pizza flour box – the oil should be added to water with gist and then all together added to the flour BUT I have messed up the order (my partner was helping;) and we added oil to the flour directly. As you can see – it made no difference!
• If you cannot tolerate even small amounts of cheese (dairy, lactose intolerance) – you can skip cheese or use a lactose free version
• If you are in a hurry and don’t feel like cutting your vegetables – through some slices of g-f ham on your dough and you are ready to go!
• If you like to have pizza dough edges filled with cheese – make them before applying the sauce (between the steps 10^th  and 11^th )

[See image gallery at glutenfreelady.nl]

Preparation steps

1. Switch on the oven, set it on 200 ºC
2. Cover the baking plate with baking paper
3. Wash and cut the vegetables
4. Measure 250 ml of warm tap water and dissolve one tea spoon of sugar in it
5. Add the dry gist to the sweet water and allow the gist to activate for 5-10 min before you add it to the flour
6. In a meantime, place the flour in a bowl
7. Now it is time to add the liquid fat to the activated gist solution
8. Combine the liquid ingredients with flour and knead for 2-3 min
9. When the dough becomes too sticky – sprinkle some gluten free flour on it (I used a leftover of a brown bread mix)
10. Now spread the dough on the baking paper using your hand (sprinkle the dough with some gluten free flour)
11. Apply the red sauce on top of the dough
12. Decorate your pizza with anything you like
13. If you want to use yellow cheese – I suggest to place it on top
14. Now, place the raw pizza in the oven for 15-20 minutes

Enjoy your meal,

Highlights

• Gluten free, Wheat free, Lactose free and Soy free
• Very easy recipe (from Schar, on the package of the flour mix)
• 10-15 min preparation and 20-25 min baking
• 5 ingredients

Ingredients

• Mix A Margherita from Schar (500 g)
• Eggs – 4
• Butter (ghee, coconut fat,duck fat or any other) – 125 g
• Milk (lactose-free, almond milk, or other substitute)- 60 ml
• Fresh fruits: apple (1), rhubarb (in Dutch: rabarber)(2)

Ingredients of the Mix A from Schar: sugar, maize starch, potato starch, thickener: locust bean gum, raising agent: glucono deltalactone and sodium hydrogen carbonate, emulsifer: mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids. Soy-free, wheat-free!

Price: about E 4,- for 520 g of the mix. 

[See image gallery at glutenfreelady.nl]

Needed appliances

• A bowl
• A measuring cup
• A kitchen mixer
• Muffins form
• A preheated to 180°C oven

Tips

• Actually, I had left 460 g of the mix A (I used some of it before) and it worked out really well
• Eat in moderation :-) The mix A from Schar contains simple, refined sugar and muffins contain heated fats (how to choose foods good for Celiacs)
• You can use any fat that you like/have (best for baking are fats from animal sources)
• I used lactose free milk but almond/rice milk would be fine too
• Cut your fruits in small, thin pieces and add as many as you can – they make the cake feel moist and delicious
• The taste reminds me of my grandma’ s cake with berries. Next time I replace rhubarb and apple with blueberries.

Preparation steps

1. Start heating your oven ( 180°C)
2. Prepare your muffin forms
3. Place the mix A in a bowl
4. Add half of butter (or 125 g of any other fat)
5. Add 4 eggs
6. Measure 60 ml of milk (of your choice)
7. Mix everything using a kitchen mixer for 5 minutes
8. Peel and cut your fruits in small pieces
9. Fill the muffin forms with the dough
10. Decorate the tops of muffins with pieces of fruits (press the fruits slightly so they are partly hidden in the dough)
11. Bake muffins till golden brown (about 20-25 min)

[See image gallery at glutenfreelady.nl]

Enjoy your meal,