Warburtons Wheat and Gluten Free Range... and why Pippa is never going to wash her hands again!

When Warburtons asked me to come to London for Breakfast I was excited. I love Warburtons bread, but we don’t eat a lot of it at home because Daddy is a Celiac and I always feel really bad eating some tasty bread products when he has something... well not tasty. To put it bluntly most wheat free bread products taste as if someone has grated cardboard up. Then Warburtons told me the breakfast they were inviting me to was to launch a Gluten Free range and I got even more excited as not only would I be able to buy Warburtons Bread again but Daddy would be able to eat it too! Talking to the Walburtons Team (in particular Darren Littler who was very kind in talking with me, Amy From Cooking, Cake and Children and Sally from Who’s the Mummy for a very long time) it was apparent that the new products (Brown Bread, White Bread, Crumpets, Tea Cakes and Sub rolls) are intended very much to be like “normal” bread products with even the packaging not being dissimilar from the wheat ranges.

Some of Warburtons tasty Wheat Free Range being used as Breakfast Goodies

It isn't that there is a stigma attached to buying Wheat Free products, it's just that sometimes when you are buying these food products which to you and your family and very much "normal" that you do wonder what others eyeing up your basket are thinking. Do they look at me and think that we buy them because I heard it was good for losing weight, or do they think that we are making Top Ender and Baby Boy eat a restricted diet or do they think that one of us might have a medical condition? Having them in normal packaging is just a nice change!

Warburtons Wheat and Gluten Free Fruity Teacakes

So back to the event itself. In the name of research I was a little bit of a pig and I had not only a white bread sausage sandwich, a brown bread bacon sandwich and a toasted teacake but also a smoked Salmon open finger sandwich too! I am a bit of a connoisseur of Wheat Free products now because Daddy and I are trying to find the best wheat free products out there for Daddy to feast upon! The white bread tasted nicer to me than the brown bread and the tea cakes were lovely, but I forgot to try the crumpets (which is one thing I am really missing eating whilst trying to give Daddy the solidarity of not eating wheat products!) so will have to wait until I buy some to see how nice they are!

Warburtons have worked with Coeliac UK (a charity group for People with Coeliac disease that gives support) and Celebrity chef Phil Vickery to make sure that the new products are suitable and as good as can be. In fact Warburtons have opened a bakery in Newcastle which is just making gluten free and wheat free products! This is a huge deal and I must admit that I kept saying to the Warburtons team how impressed I was that a mainstream brand was taking Gluten and Wheat free Diets more seriously by opening a bakery just for the Gluten and Wheat free products. Having a separate bakery means that there won't be any cross contamination as any Coeliac will tell you even consuming a small amount of wheat will lead to some nasty side effects.

Phil Vickery was lovely and didn't mind that I gave him several hugs (I am going to keep our good names good by maintaining that one us kept the hands above the waist rule but not saying who it was that didn't) whilst having some photos taken with him and even signed his new book Seriously Good Gluten Free Baking for me (I already have Seriously Good Gluten Free Cooking and have added the Seriously Good Gluten-free Living app to my ipod touch) and told me all about his sausages!

Phil Vickery with a slight look of terror over where Pippa has just placed her hand

So what did Daddy think of the products that I brought home for him to try? Well, there is the slight doughy taste that wheat free products tend to have, some of the slices of bread were sliced very thinly (as is sometimes the case with "normal" bread) and some of the slices of bread fell apart when looked at (made bread pudding with those pieces!). All in all the loaves are good for what they are and much better than anything I have made at home, but they still aren't as close to that "real" bread texture and taste that Daddy remembers.