While I’ve been deprived of anything sweet and delicious, I have been scouting out the Free From aisles and seeing which gluten free items I’ll be picking up for Christmas!

Halloween came and went in a rapid pumpkin-spiced explosion, and with the John Lewis Christmas ad coming out yesterday, it now seems appropriate to finally start thinking about the festive season, hurrah!

I headed down to the Free From aisles in Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda to see what they have on offer for Christmas so far…

Asda

Out of all of the supermarkets, Asda’s free from offerings impressed me the most. I was really surprised at the different and inventive options they had in the Bideford store. Not just the usual mince pies and Christmas cake, there were all sorts of goodies.

Some of the most interesting looking were:

• Shortbread gift selection (gluten and wheat free) a selection of orange, ginger and buttery shortbreads in a lovely gold box – the perfect gift for a coeliac!
• Belgian chocolate, cranberry & orange tiffin (gluten, wheat and egg free) 
• Cranberry and orange cookies (gluten and wheat free)
• Christmas cake cookies (gluten and wheat free) I think I am most excited about these, they sound amazing!
• Christmas yule log (gluten and wheat free) apparently serves 10, but I reckon I could demolish the lot in one sitting!
• Iced Christmas cake
• Mince pies

Tesco

Tesco confused me because I headed to their (well stocked, I might add) Free From aisle to find not a hint of Christmas. So I went searching through the seasonal aisle, trying to find those tell-tale Free From colours.

Eventually I did find some! Interestingly, when I asked on Twitter the response was the same as my feelings – I’d much rather have these in the Free From aisle. Yes, it is exciting when you find something gluten free in a ‘normal’ aisle. But trawling through the shelves is a pain, and if you can’t find anything, it’s disappointing.

The deep filled mince pies looked delicious, as did the Christmas pudding. I loved the little top iced rich fruit cake – it looked really pretty and was the perfect size to give to someone as a gift!

I also found THESE – GLUTEN FREE PROFITEROLES! I have never had profiteroles before so this was a very exciting discovery! They looked great so I cannot wait to try them!

Sainsbury’s

Finally on my weekly shop I swung by the Free From aisle in Sainsbury’s. I didn’t find much of a selection there really, but a few contenders from last year which are worth rebuying.

The Christmas puddings looked lovely, I liked the different coloured wrappings on them, and the fact they didn’t look like a ‘free from’ product. The iced fruit cake looked good and I was excited to see their gluten free iced mince pies back in stock – these are super sweet and delicious!

I’m hoping to check out the supermarkets again when I get back from my holiday, but this is a good start and its’s great to see so much yummy gluten free food out already!