Treat Guiltfree Essentials are a little known craft producer of gluten free bake mixes. After celebrating the Ocado Free From own brand launch I feel the need to sing the virtues of this tiny enterprise and personally recommend their products. Products I will very happily incorporate into my regular gluten free, low carb healthy diet rather than treat as exceptional indulgences. 

Treat Guiltfree Essentials Profile

Treat Guiltfree Essentials are an East London based partnership between two ladies, Farzana and Smita. Leveraging experience of selling fresh gluten free bakes at Wanstead Market they launched two quick and simple bake mixes in 2017. They have since been appearing at shows like Cake & Bake, Food Matters Live and will be at the Free From Festival in London May 2018 to promote them.

Founder Farzana has her own gluten intolerance to manage and a big part of her motivation is to make available healthy food which she can eat and actually wants to eat herself. Good plan! It is very clear from her products and Farzana’s story that she recognises that much of what fills our supermarket free from aisles is anything but a good basis for a diet. Think refined starches with extra sugars, gums and emulsifiers.

So what are the virtues of the Treat Guiltfree Essentials bake mixes? Roll call . . .

Everything gluten free? Certainly

Vegan? One of out two mixes so far with more planned!

Fully organic ingredients? Extra points for the yes

Low Carb High Fat and Ketogenic diet friendly? Yes, ideal fit!

No added sugar? Nothing to see here

Quick & Easy to make? Absolutely

Suitable for freezing? Quite incredibly so

Tasty & nutritious? In my humble opinion!

If you would like to read more about Treat Guiltfree Essentials, jump to the interview below or visit the About Us section on the Gluten Free Treat site. There are some pretty great recipes over there too. I declare intent to make her gluten free, sugar free Pumpkin Pie! In the meantime, read on for review of the bake mixes.

Low Carb Vegan Flatbread Mix

The Making! Instructions on the packet are clear, concise and worked perfectly for producing six flatbreads big enough to make sandwich wraps from. Preparation instructions for these worked perfectly and there is also a short, simple video online to follow. This is a lovely touch to help those a little less confident with their baking skills.

I deviated just slightly in order to add paprika and mixed herbs to pairs of flatbreads for flavour. To compensate for the added dry ingredients I added about a tablespoon of extra hot water.

The Eating! The flatbreads have a light, fluffy texture and handle easily without tearing or splitting. They are moist & chewy. Without added flavouring they are plain tasting and therefore ready for whatever you prefer to add.

The Freezing! Same as for the rolls, I froze several of these and then used them a week later. I was skeptical that they would retain sufficient pliability to form up into wraps. I was wrong, they absolutely did. There did not appear to be any difference in performance between fresh baked and frozen.

The Comparing! The big differences between these flatbread wraps and any you can buy in a supermarket are the ingredients and macro nutrients. The main ingredients for the Gluten Free Treat wraps are Coconut Flour & Psyllium Husk powder rather than grains or refined starches. The result is a high fibre wrap suitable for inclusion into a low carb high fat or ketogenic diet.

Low Carb Bread Roll Mix

The Making! Initially the mixture appeared very wet and unlikely to form up into balls of dough but leaving to stand for 10 minutes resulted in dough just firm enough to handle easily. After allowing the dough to cool completely, and chilling in a fridge, the rolls  very cleanly.

The Eating! Their texture is surprisingly light for an almond and coconut flour. Flexible and even springy. These rolls performed superbly at sandwich duty, hummus holding and mopping up delicious sauces.

Their stand alone flavor is subtle. They could be transformed into something delicious. For example, add sliced olives, garlic, onion & sundried tomatoes for scrumptious mediterranean style rolls. Add some nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger & cloves for a pumpkin spice bread.

The Freezing! I am a bachelor that likes to bake in batches. Less effort, less time, more food ready to eat during the busy working week. Suitability for freezing is therefore very important and this is claimed for these rolls. I duly froze several rolls inside a Ziplock bag and defrosted them for eating a week later. If anything their texture had improved and they were fluffier and more moist than those I ate from fresh within days of baking. Great.

The Comparing! As for the wraps, the rolls have considerably different ingredients and macro nutrients relative to popular conventional brands. The Treat – Guiltfree Essentials rolls offer higher protein, fibre and fats and very low carbohydrate, starch free.

Interview with Treat Guiltfree Essentials founder Farzana

I love getting to know the person behind products I love myself and am keen to recommend. So I am delighted to share a Q&A with Farzana herself.

Benjamin. Your existing bread roll and flatbread mixes could be considered daily staples. Why is treat the first part of the Company name? 

Farzana. When we first started on this venture our intention was to create healthy gluten free and dairy free products made without refined sugars, starches and xantham gum. That is how the brand name originated. It was a “treat” to be able to eat healthy food that is also gluten free.

As we developed,our products evolved. We discovered that many people other than coeliacs and the gluten intolerant look for healthy gluten free products. People such as diabetics, low carb, paleo and keto dieters and the health and fitness community. We found that suitable products for these communities are scarce so we decided to step in.  We were personally already following low carb diets and offering mixes for food we would actually want to eat ourselves seemed like the most natural thing to do.

Benjamin. Glutenfreetreat.co.uk currently has pretty pictures for many mixes that are ‘coming soon’ including several vegan mixes. What is the story? Are they intentions, ambitions, successful experiments?

Farzana. Yes! We have lots of sweet and savoury mixes waiting to be released. They are ready to launch and our limiting factor is funding. We are a small company and launching new products is a very costly affair. We a hoping that 2018 will see several different mixes coming out!

Benjamin The mixes work brilliantly well. Their taste is simple and subtle like a blank canvass ready to be changed according to preference. Is this intentional? What are your favourite ways to flavour the mixes?

Farzana. Yes, our first products are intentionally simple so they can be used as a sweet or savoury accompaniment. We would like to bring out more flavoured breads and flat breads in future.

Benjamin. It would be great if there was also a vegan version of the bread roll mix. Have you tried to make it so, for example by using or replicating an egg substitute such as Organ No Egg? I do note the intention to introduce several vegan mixes within the ‘coming soon’ range :-)

Farzana.  The problem with egg replacers is that they are high in carbs, contain starches or gums or all three and we are avoiding these things within our mixes. However in addition to our existing vegan flatbread wraps we do have two vegan artisan bread mixes within our intended product pipeline. Both are also gluten free and gum free.

Benjamin. Are there any ways to buy the mixes in addition to direct from glutenfreetreat.co.uk?

Farzana. Sure! You can buy direct from us, or via Amazon, Pruv and several local shops in East London such as Grains and Greens in Woodford, Second Nature in Walthamstow and More Italy in Wanstead. We are also in talks with several distributors who will be able to place our products in local shops all over the UK

Benjamin. Good luck Farzana, and see you at the Free From Festival 2018!