Jules Gluten-Free Mixes

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jules

The kind folks at Jules Gluten-Free sent the group a Jules Gluten-Free Bread Mix and a Jules Gluten-Free Cookie Mix.

We use Jules Gluten-Free Flour Mix all the time for a variety baked goods, but this was our first look-see at the bread and cookie mixes.

Cookies

Since we [when I say we, I mean Peg since she's the one with the baking skills] were short on time, we [Peg] decided to mix up the cookie dough Thursday night and store it in the fridge until Friday night. These cookies require the dough to be chilled before baking anyway.

Peg had one pan in the oven and one pan of dough balls on deck. As I peeked into the oven and saw that the cookies were a good 3+ inches in diameter, I mistakenly asked if the dough balls were the right size.

Yeah, that remark got me "The Look", Hey, my only concern was that we'd have enough cookies for the entire group, that's all.

Peg prompted me to take a look at the large bowl of dough that was waiting to be made into cookies and said not to worry. As in most cases, Peg was right. This mix makes 50-60 cookies! I bow to her baking prowess - I am not worthy...I am not worthy...

*I slunk back to living room to finish prepping for the meeting*

Most of the cookies survived the night and made it to the meeting. Indeed the cookies were a hit! One member exclaimed - "These taste just like Toll House cookies!" Sure'nuff, they do!

If you run out of your own ideas on how to use this cookie mix, Jules sells an eBook with recipes for twelve different cookies.

julesgfcookiesingle        julesgftowercookie



"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me"


Bread

julesgfloaf

Peg was a bit nervous about the bread. The dough was dense, not the texture of most gluten-free breads that she is used to making, as well as not rising very well in the warm oven.

Learning my lesson during the "cookie incident", I decided it best to play the supportive spouse...

This means nodding, actively listening and quietly being "the canvas" in which she can "paint the picture" of her concerns. It does not involve me offering up any suggestions on how to "fix" said problem - something guys are genetically programmed to do.

I may have mentioned that my baking skills and knowledge are limited, but the primal, in-born male instinct to "fix things" often times overrides the fact that males may lack the proper knowledge to offer up any type of useful suggestion...this is how arguments start. :-)

julesgfbreadsliced
By the time Peg was done "painting the picture", the bread had risen and it was time to bake!

Hmmm, it appears that being the supportive spouse had paid off. Whoohoo!

As you can see by the pictures, the bread turned out well. In fact, my pictures look very similar to those found on Jules' website.

I was surprised at the size and height of this loaf of bread! It did not suffer from shrinkage that I've seen in other gluten-free breads. [My uneducated guess has to do to with the fact that this dough was drier than some of the others, but what do I know?] Any guy will confirm that shrinkage is not a good thing...

Just like the cookies, members liked the bread.

One member suggested this bread would work great for French Toast. Yeah Toast!

Another member said "I really liked it!"

One of our "chronologically enhanced" members specifically requested to take home the heals of the bread. Bless you Don!!

The bread must've been good, because at end of the meeting, there were only 3 slices left for me bring home.


Certification

I like that Jules' products are certified by the Gluten Free Certification Organization (one of several programs offered by the Gluten Intolerance Group of America). Actually, I applaud any company that deems it important enough to certify their products, either through GFCO or CSA.


Where to find

Jules' products are not found locally, but they can be ordered from her website.

If you are lucky enough to live in a handful of states, you can find it locally.

If you are a first time customer, there is a Welcome Pack and an upgraded Welcome Pack. Either one is a good deal. It just depends if you want 1 or 2 bags of flour.




Thanks again Jules Gluten-Free for
sharing your products with our group!


Jules, LLC | 7120 Minstrel Way, Ste 206 | Columbia, MD 21045
Customer Service: 877-236-3940 or email: support at julesglutenfree.com



Snyder's of Hanover Gluten-free Pretzel Sticks

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snyderslogo
Synder's of Hanover was kind of enough to hook us up with some of their gluten-free pretzel sticks this month. Having tried the other GF pretzels on the market, I was interested in trying Synder's version.

They are indeed as good as my fortunate GF friends that tried them before me said they were! They do look a bit different from the non-gluten-free pretzels in that they are bigger in diameter. It's really not an issue (at least for me) since they have that familiar pretzel taste, crunch, and snap! Besides, it just means there's more pretzel-y goodness per bite.

pretzels
I did feel the need to speak louder during the meeting due to all the crunching going on. :-) Judging by the noise generated, the pretzels were well liked! If we had a Crunch-o-Meter, it would've been off the charts.

Certification

Beyond the taste and texture components, I like that they are certified by the Gluten Free Certification Organization (one of several programs offered by the Gluten Intolerance Group of America). Actually, I applaud any company that deems it important enough to certify their products, either through GFCO or CSA.

If you want read more about Snyder's certification process, you can read the press release from GFCO. Please take the time to do so, it gives you an insight as to what goes on in the certification process.

Snyder's offers a web page that lists their GFCO Certified gluten-free products, gluten-free products, and products made with gluten-free ingredients. It states that their GF products are tested for 20 parts per million or less. Their made-with-gluten-free- ingredients could contain trace amounts of gluten.


Testimonials (from gluten-eaters at that!)

We had a bag left over from the meeting, so I took it to share during Adult Education Hour at church.

Those are really good! Where did you get them?
~ Lisa (a gluten-eater)


I like those pretzels
~ Shirley (a gluten-eater)




It turns out our local Pick n Save does carry these pretzels, so during the holidays we made a batch of Chex Mix using Synder's GF pretzels. As it was disappearing from the bowl, I asked my wife's niece her favorite item...

The pretzels!
~ Jackie (a gluten-eater)



Where to find

Closest place to get Snyder's Gluten-Free Pretzel Sticks:

Ripon Pick n Save

Snyder's Store Locator does not list our Pick n Save at this time. I have brought this to the district sales manager's attention. Hopefully it will get resolved.


Thanks again Snyder's of Hanover for
sharing your products with our group!


Snyder's of Hanover | P.O Box 6917 | 1250 York St. | Hanover, PA 17331
Phone: 1-800-233-7125 Ext. 1410


Gluten-Free Turkeys

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turkey
The holidays are upon us, here's a list of turkeys that are gluten-free.

Always, always, always check the ingredient list!


Jenni-O Products.

Jenni-O is a Hormel Company. Hormel will clearly gluten (wheat, barley/malt, rye, oats).

Jenni-O's website shows a Gluten-Free icon on each GF product.

JenniOGFIcon


http://www.jennieo.com/products/WholeBirds/PremiumBastedYoungTurkey.aspx

A moist and delicious whole bird available in two sizes: 12-14 pounds and 16-18 pounds.

*
The meat does not contain gluten, but the gravy packet does.


http://www.jennieo.com/products/WholeBirds/FreshYoungTurkey.aspx

A fantastic whole bird available in two sizes for your convenience: 10-16 pounds and 16-20 pounds.

The meat does not contain gluten, but the gravy packet does.


http://www.jennieo.com/products/WholeBirds/FreshYoungTurkey.aspx

Please note, the meat does not contain gluten but the accompanying gravy packet does.



Honeysuckle White

http://www.honeysucklewhite.com/FaqNutrition.aspx#nutrition1

The majority of Honeysuckle White® products do not contain Gluten.

However, the following list of products do contain Gluten: 

Asian Grill Marinated Turkey Strips
Teriyaki Flavor Turkey Breast Tenderloin
Frozen Italian Style Meatballs
Fresh Italian Style Turkey Meatballs
Beer Smoked Turkey Brats



Purdue

http://www.perdue.com/util/faq.html#gluten-free

Purdue's Gluten-Free List

Do you have any gluten-free products?
Yes. Many PERDUE® products are free of gluten. Perdue chickens, chicken parts, and turkeys are all gluten-free. These are sold fresh as well as frozen and some are flavored with seasonings. Feel free to check the ingredient listing on individual packages, download the list here or order the list by phoning us at 1-800-4PERDUE® (1-800-473-7383).



Butterball

http://www.butterball.com/contact-us

Verified by phone: All turkeys are GF except for the stuffed turkeys. They are in the process of switching over to rice flour for their gravy packets. Check the ingredient list for rice flour instead of wheat flour.

Do Butterball® products contain any allergens like gluten?

Butterball product labels let consumers know whether any of the top eight allergens may be present in the product. For example, a label may read “contains wheat and dairy.” Specifically, gluten is not present naturally in turkey. Two retail products contain gluten: our stuffed turkeys and our Italian Style Meatballs. Our gravy packets have been reformulated to eliminated gluten; check the labels to be certain.


HoneyBaked

http://www.HoneyBakedOnline.com/HBOnline/Shop/Help.asp?Ref=21126446:1951070990#10


Do your hams or turkey breast contain glutens?
We have reformulated our glaze to be considered free of allergens. This means our hams and turkey breasts DO NOT contain glutens.


Rudi's Gluten Free Bakery

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Rudi'sLogo

Our samples for November's meeting came from Rudi's Gluten-Free Bakery in Boulder, CO.

Rudi's bread is another one of those gluten-free breads that are amazingly good. We got to try their products at the GIG Conference in June.

To top our wonderful bread, we had some of Peg's homemade Blueberry and Raspberry jam. YUM!

Two of our group members were going to have garlic bread with their GF lasagna later that night for supper.

At the end of the meeting, there was only a few slices left for me to take home. That means everybody liked it!

While Rudi's Bakery is not a dedicated GF facility, they have excellent manufacturing processes. Their bread is certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization. This means the bread must test below 10 parts per million of gluten.


IMG_7003


Rudi's: How We Make It

How We Make It

Our master bakers worked with gluten free experts and consumers for more than 15 months to get our formulas to taste like real bread. Our passion is baking better bread and we’ve been doing it since 1976. We used our extensive baking experience to create gluten-free bread that tastes and feels like the real thing.

Although we do not have a dedicated gluten-free facility, we do have a segregated, separate manufacturing approach. We bake our gluten free breads on separate, dedicated equipment and on separate production days. You can feel assured our gluten free products never come into contact with something used to make a product containing gluten. As part of our manufacturing process, we also do the following:

• Our organic and gluten free equipment is color-coded for easy segregation
• Our gluten free breads are baked only after our facility has gone through an extensive, full day clean-up process
• All incoming ingredients are also tested and certified to be gluten free
• As part of our gluten free certification, every batch of our gluten free bread is tested and must test below <10 ppm of gluten for distribution
• We also send product to an outside lab to validate our test results and ensure we have less than 10 ppm of gluten


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Rudi's: Where to Buy

The closest places to get Rudi's products are:

Festival Foods
Oshkosh & Fond du Lac, WI

The Red Radish
447 S. Commercial St.
Neenah, WI 54956

The Free Market Inc.
1000 W. Wisconsin Ave
Appleton, WI 54914


Thanks again Rudi's for sharing your
products with our group!


Rudi's Gluten-Free Bakery | 330 Walnut St. Unit C | Boulder CO, 80301
Phone: 877-293-0876 | (303) 447-0495 | Fax: (303) 447-0516


Pacific Foods Condensed Gluten-Free Soups

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Pacific Foods are now offering 3 types of gluten-free condensed soups.

We have not spotted any of these "in the wild", but The Free Market in Appleton carries Pacific's products. You can use their Where to Buy Page to see if there's a store in your area.


Make sure you check out Pacific's Special Diets Page to find products that match your needs. Also look at their Processing & Allergen Handling Page.


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Cream of Celery



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Cream of Mushroom



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Cream of Chicken



Pacific Foods of Oregon • 19480 SW 97th Ave. • Tualatin, OR 97062


Be-Udi-full Udi's!

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gflogo_1
Udi's Gluten-Free Foods from Denver CO, have taken the gluten-free bread & baked good market by storm.

Some how they've figured out how make gluten-free bread smell, taste, feel and act like "real bread".

Is it possible they captured some of those "magic elves" and enticed them to use their magic for good and not evil?

How ever they do it, they were gracious enough to send us a sampler box of their fine products.



UdiSamples



In May, we had a bread tasting event, Udi's bread was the hands down winner. In fact, one of our members had never heard of Udi's.

After our tasting event, he now has added sandwiches to his lunch repertoire.

When Udi's say "We're bringing sandwich back" , they really mean it!

In our box of goodies we found: Cinnamon Rolls, Blueberry Muffins, Lemon Streusel Muffins, Double Chocolate Muffins, Plain Bagels, Pizza Crusts & Bread.







IMG_6928




Cinnamon Rolls

These guys are great at room temperature, but they'd be even better after a short stay in the microwave.

After we got home from the meeting I had heat up a leftover piece.

Ahhhh....yeah...that's the ticket.


There's just something about a cinnamon roll that requires it to be eaten warm.










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Blueberry & Lemon Streusel Muffins

Several of the members said the these muffins were their favorite



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Double Chocolate Muffins

Strangely enough, I think this was my favorite. I don't always like chocolate baked goods, but these had just the right amount. They are rich and chocolatey.

Mmmmmm chocolatey...













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Plain Bagels & Whole Grain Bread.

Our most recent diagnosed member, really liked the bagels. Before I was gluten-free, sometimes I'd have my chili con carne on top of a bagel. I can now have Chili Bagels again! WhooHoo!

The bread - well, what else can I say but...

Udi-licious!




In the Ripon vicinity, Udi's bread can be found at Ripon's Pick n Save, Festival Foods in Oshkosh. The Village Market Shop in Fond du lac. Woodman's & The Free Market in Appleton has the bread and muffins. Need to find other Udi's locations? Try their Store Locator.


Thanks again Udi's for sharing your products with our group!


Udi's Gluten Free Foods | 7010 Broadway Suite #430 | Denver CO, 80221 | Phone: (303) 657-6366 | Fax: (303) 657-5373



12/3/2010 - Edited to add Ripon's Pick n Save as a location to buy Udi's bread.

Wisconsin Gluten Free Expo 2010

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Saturday, September 18th, 2010
Lakeland Union High School
9573 State Highway 70
Minocqua, WI 54548

11:00am - 3:00pm


We attended this event last year when it was in Wausau. Great event - well attended by visitors and vendors alike! Looks like this year will be no exception - over 60 vendors.

Take advantage of the pre-register option. It will cut down the wait time to get in.

Good luck Julianne & crew!



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Gluten-Free Oats® from Powell, WY

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This post is long overdue and I apologize for not doing it sooner. My personal life has been in a bit of an uproar with the passing of my mother in February.

The acceptability of oats in a celiacs diet has been debated for years.

Currently the general consensus is that pure, uncontaminated GF oats are acceptable for most celiacs with medical supervision.

Some celiac have reported reacting to the protein found with oats.

Mainstream oats have been shown to contain unacceptable levels of cross contamination due to growing, harvesting & processing.

To find out where many medical and support organizations stand on oats - click here.


The Beginning

In October 2009, we attended Wisconsin's Largest GF Expo in Rothschild, WI.

As we were browsing through the products Gluten-free Trading Company had on hand we purchased a box of Gluten Free Oats® from Powell, WY.

The brand of gluten-free oats we previously used had a much coarser texture and had a "feed mill" smell and taste. Anyone raised in a rural area knows the smell I'm talking about. It's a very earthy-grainy-cerealy smell. When used in a baked good, the chew factor was almost overwhelming. Non-GF Peg noticed the same differences between said previous brand of GF oats and non-gf oats.

I opened the box when I got home and took a big whiff.

Hmmm, no feed mill smell!

Since I prefer my oats in bar or cookie form, I asked [begged] Peg to make some oatmeal cookies for me.

Hmmm, no feed mill taste with a great chew factor!

Peg made some gluten-free oatmeal for breakfast one day. It cooked up just like the oatmeal she loved as a kid. Peg confessed that she likes Gluten Free Oats® better than her non-gluten-free Quaker oats! "Hey go eat your own oats!"

I have since learned that the "feed mill" smell & taste usually comes from rancidity.


Gluten Free Oats® meet the group. Group, meet Gluten Free Oats®

We were so impressed with Gluten Free Oats® that we wanted to share them with support group members. I sent off an email to see if I could get some samples and before I knew it, there was a big box of flakey gold sitting on my front step.

Peg and I decided to have a build your own oatmeal bar for our March meeting. Toppings included brown sugar, raisins, dried cherries, Crasins and milk. We cooked the oatmeal and placed it in a crock pot before we left for the meeting.

Two of our members were quite excited about the prospect of having oats again. They grew up eating it for breakfast. In fact, both of them went back for seconds! The entire group liked the oats immensely! Smiles were on everyone's face.

Just the other day, I received a bulk order of Gluten Free Oats® for the group. Sounds like satisfied customers to me!

I want to publicly thank Seaton and his entire family for their ingenuity & generosity!


Gluten Intolerance Group Annual Conference - June 2010

We were lucky enough to meet face-to-face the family that produces these oats. The more I talked to them and got to know them, the more impressed I got. If you are not familiar with the history of Gluten Free Oats®, it's a great story.

Over breakfast, I found out they are in the process of building a larger processing facility. This will allow them to produce quick cooking oats and steel cut oats.

If you look closely in the picture below, you'll see a blue plate. They were handing out oat pancakes and oatmeal cookies. Yes, they were delicious! Yes they do have the recipes on their website.


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Katz Gluten-Free Bakery

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KatzLogo
For this month's meeting we had a bread tasting event. Katz's Gluten-Free Bakery in Monroe, NY, was kind enough to send us some of their products to sample.

I chose the popular Challa Bread and their Whole Grain Bread. As a bonus [I didn't request it, didn't want to appear piggish after all], they sent us some Chocolate Rugelech! Cool!

I must apologize, I did not get a chance to take any pictures of our event. I know, I know - very uncharacteristic me.

The Challa Bread was popular. I had fun finding out the history of Challa bread. Several members particularly commented on the crust and how well they liked it. It's a great tasting bread with great texture. A good all around sandwich bread.

The Whole Grain Bread was liked, but not as much as the Challa. Everyone loved the taste, but texture was a bit chewy [at least for my tastes]. To be fair, the bread was not completely thawed, so we put it microwave a few seconds right before the tasting. I also noticed that Katz's website states...

We recommend toasting this bread to achieve a maximum level of taste and crispiness.



Grilled Katz's bread
Sadly, we didn't have access to a toaster in the meeting room. While I was grilling some burgers for dinner, I decided to grill up a few slices of bread. This worked wonders.

I think everyone commented on the fact that either bread did not fall apart when applying the butter or jelly. So many GF breads tend to crumble in your hand while doing that - not Katz's!

The Chocolate Rugelech was a new experience for me and I think for the rest of the group. I admit, I had never even heard of Rugelech before, let alone taste it. Rural Wisconsin does not have a large Jewish population, so we tend to miss some of the world's cultural foods. German, Polish & Scandinavian cultures, we got covered. Yah, you betcha! . :-) Now that I think of it, a good GF beer would pair nicely with the Chocolate Rugelech.

I think the most common comment I heard was..."Interesting". I will say, they do have a taste that is not usually found are this part of WI. They are not overly sweet [which is what you usually find around here], there's a slight bitterness that takes you by surprise. These look like a mini-cinnimon rolls, so perhaps my brain was expecting something more along those lines. After my third or forth one, I found that I was sad because they were gone.

After I contacted Katz's, I happened to find their bread at Woodman's Grocery in Appleton - it's in the freezer section by the GF foods. I'm not sure if they are carried at all Woodman's locations or not.

A special thanks to David at Katz's for being so generous with their products. I tip my hat to any and all companies like Katz's that provide us foods to make us happy and feel "normal".

Until next time...

Al

General Mills Gluten-Free List

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GMLiveglutenfreely











General Mills now has a website listing all their gluten-free products. You'll also find a growing list of recipes.

Campbell's Gluten-Free List Online

I received this email today from Susan Baranowsky. She asked me to help spread the news. Campbell's now has their gluten-free list online! It's been recently updated too - 07/2009.

For you Pace fans - hang in there a bit longer. It hasn't made the list yet because it's still going thru it's testing process.

Hi. My name is Susan Baranowsky. I am the Director of Consumer Affairs at Campbell Soup Company. We understand your interest and are pleased to share with you an easy way to access our most up-to-date list of Campbell’s gluten-free products.

Please visit us at www.campbellswithoutgluten.com where you will find our gluten-free product list as well as answers to some frequently asked questions.

Campbell offers a wide variety of gluten-free products. Our list is always growing, so visit us often.



Cookie Daze 2009 here we come!

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Well, it's offical - Peg signed us up for the Cookie Daze Bake and Taste Contest.

Nothin' like waiting till the last possible minute. Today was the last day we could register. After all, the event is on Saturday...yeah...this coming Saturday...as in...August 1st.

It's a good thing we've done this a few times before (
2007, 2005, 2004), at least we know what to expect . We missed competing last year, however we did get to take part in something Cookie Daze related. We got to appear on WLUK-TV 11 to promote it! It was fun and quite the learning experience. Click here to see the pictures.

We started doing Cookie Daze in 2004. I started my GF Journey in 2003. We wanted to bring awareness to the community about Celiac Disease and gluten-free food. We wanted to show that gluten-free food does not have to crappy; it can be every bit as good as glutenous food - and often times better!

We didn't enter the contest win to anything, it was all about education and awareness. There was a small write up in an area newspaper about our story. This brought out a lot people to see what it was all about. They came out strictly to see US. Celiacs going to a cookie baking contest - who woulda figured...

We were award winners every year, we'll see if this year is any different. Peg is really fired up about this recipe. She thinks she'll do well.

If you like to see pictures from past years contests, be my guest:
Cookie Daze 2007 Pictures & Cookie Daze 2005 Pictures

Ripon's Pick n Save Has Betty Crocker Mixes

Yup they're there! Thanks Donna for the heads up!!

They are 3.69 per mix.

Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Baking Mixes

I talked earlier about the Betty Crocker gluten-free mixes that would be widely available in June. We have found them at Festival Foods in Fond du Lac & Oshkosh. Woodman's in Appleton also have them. The local Pick n Save did not have them as of a last week.

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So far we've tried the Chocolate Chip Cookie mix and the Yellow Cake Mix.

As you can see the cookies turned about quite well. Yes, they do taste as good as they look! Be aware, they do contain an entire stick of butter. The good thing is that these cookies freeze quite well, as to most GF baked goodies.





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Peg made the cupcakes for a family gathering we had recently.

The frosting she made is from an old family recipe. It's from her Aunt Elsie's "Funeral Cake" recipe. It's called funeral cake because Elsie would always make it to take for funeral gatherings.

Even the "gluten-eaters" approved of them. They're a bit denser than wheat cupcakes, but tasty none the less!

One thing I've noticed in these two products is the lack of grittiness. Often times rice flour that is not ground fine enough feels gritty in the mouth as you chew it. You'll find that the asian rice flours will have this very fine [almost powdery] grind. It appears that General Mills is using such a fine grind in these products.