Hello my name is Jen and Welcome to my Love Food blogs.
As I am gluten intolerant myself I do find it hard to know what is gluten free and what is not. It’s easy when it comes to the typical gluten ingredients such as wheat flour and rye but it becomes harder when you have to consider cross contamination in things such as chocolate and crisps.
Luckily in January 2012 the new labelling laws means food labels all have to state if they are gluten free or not. But why should you have to miss out on chocolates in work, advent calenders and chocolates friends offer you over Christmas chats just because the law comes into effect in January. So I have been liaising with the chocolate manufacturers to help you out this year!
Which advent calenders are gluten free?
I have been looking into what is acceptable for you when buying an advent calender.I have to say Cadbury’s are the best at making consumers aware of what is suitable for coeliacs. So don’t miss out you can buy the Cadbury Milk Chocolate Advent Calender (100g) or Cadbury Milk Chocolate Magical Advent Calender (187.5g). ThorntonsAdvent Calendar 83g,Advent Calendar 85g, andLarge Advent Calendar 162g are all gluten free too!
What chocolates are gluten free?*
*Please note this was correct at the time of writing this blog
Are you ok to have a chocolate from those large boxes of chocolates in the supermarkets or say yes when work colleagues offer you a selection of chocolates to share? Well I have looked into this as well.
You can share the Milk Tray, the Roses and the Heroes this year! If you usually share bags of sweets with friends or family whilst watching Christmas films then I suggest Twirl Bites, Diary Milk Giant Buttons or Dairy Milk Caramel Nibbles as these are all gluten free and available in sharing bags. Nestle Baci bars are also gluten free if you prefer Nestle over Cadbury. Watch out, you can have Quality Street Assortment packs but the large purple bar may contain traces of gluten, so you may want to avoid it in the assortment pack too (just to make sure).
For Christmas Bendicks have a range of products that are gluten free. The bitter boxes that are gluten free are Bittergingers, Bittermints, Bitteroranges and also Chocolate Gingers,Mint Collection and Victorian mints can be on the Christmas list!
A range of Green and Blacks chocolates are gluten free such as Milk Chocolate, White Chocolate, Hazlenut, Milk Chocolate with Hazelnut and Raisins and Creamy Milk Chocolate. Also look out for Dark Chocolate collection for any gluten free cooking you may be doing such as Glutafin’s Oven baked chocolate tarts or the Chocolate and Date Christmas Pudding.
Toblerone is in a lot of stores and if very christmasy, and even better coeliacs you can have them. You can have the dark, white, milk, milk fruit and nut in all the sizes and also the tinys assorted (198g) and tinys box assorted (30g).
Hotel Chocolat have a range of gluten free chocolate which members of staff are knowledgeable about but also they have clear labelling on the back of their products you can easily look for!
When you and your family are stuffed after the delicious Christmas dinner and pudding, do you find there still always seems to be a pack of After Eights that appears on the table? Well there is no need to miss out on the After Eight Dark mints or mint straws as they are gluten free!
Below are some great gluten free chocolates to buy for stocking fillers!
For those with family members who are coeliac then there are a range of Christmas Cadbury chocolate in the shops now that are suitable to buy. Great for stocking fillers too! This is the list of festive chocolates from Cadbury’s that are gluten free:
- Snow bites- 100g
- Milk Chocolate Tree Decorations (bag 55g and blister 83g)
- Milk Chocolate Carmel Tree Decorations – 144g
- Milk Chocolate Snowman- 100g
- Wishes Star and the Wishes Star Gift set
- Dairy Milk tube- 132g
- Dairy Milk Buttons tube – 100g (with train on front of pack)
- Dairy Milk Chocolate Coins- 59.6g
Thorntons also offer many of their chocolates gluten free and you are best looking on the back of their packs as their labelling is really good. The Classic collection (582g), Continental collection (665g) and Premium collection (291g and 444g) are great gift ideas for coeliacs as these are all gluten free. I have also listed the Christmas range, so you can have lots of christmasy chocolate this year.
Thorntons
- Chocolate Bauble
- Chocolate Dipped Nougat 205g
- Christmas Chocolate Collection 180g
- Christmas Chocolate Collection 400g
- Foiled Milk Penguins 39g
- Marc De Champagne Bauble
- Milk Chocolate Reindeer
- Milk Chocolate Santa
- Milk Chocolate Snowman
- Orange Truffle Bauble
- Penguin & Reindeer 140g
- Robin Alpine Log
- Santa Tree Decorations 110g
- Sugar Coated Chocolate Snowballs
- White Snowman Lolly
- White Snowman Model 45g
- Winter Milk collection 225g
- Xmas Pudding Truffle
I have just been speaking with Lindt about whether their chocolates are gluten free. This is there response. Sorry!
“We declare all utilized ingredients in the prescription on the back of our products. The constituents are listed in decreasing order according to the quantity used. So you always can inform yourself of every ingredient. However we have to additionally point out that we produce different recipes on the same line because of the multitude of our products. Certainly the lines are efficiently cleaned after product alteration. Nevertheless we cannot completely eliminate a risk of traces of gluten even if the raw materials with gluten are not components of the recipe. An allergic reaction is not probable even regarding sensible allergic persons, but cannot be excepted with complete certainty.”
If I find out more Christmas gluten free chocolates soon then I will add them to the list so make sure you keep coming back to the blog!
I wish you a Very Merry Christmas!
Jen
