Dairy Free Easter Treats

So the (now) traditional 'this is where to get your dairy free Easter egg' post has been up on the blog for some while, this post is a bit of a follow-up really - where to get some other bits and pieces that may come in handy!

Easter Egg Hunts:

I'm kicking off with these fab mini eggs from D & D chocolates. They are dairy free, gluten free and nut free. They are only available online at the mo. Being foil-wrapped, they are all good to go. However, you have to get your skates on to get these, as they may sell out fairly quickly. There are other dairy free treats available on their site though. To see their range, click here!

We love these!

Ingredients:
Cocoa Mass, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Emulsifier: Sunflower Lecithin, Vanilla. 

Allergy Advice: May contain traces of soya. Made in a nut free environment.



These Plamil Dairy Free Chocolate Halves, are great slipped into plastic eggs from Poundland:

Great for egg hunts!

They are also gluten free, Vegan and nut free, and made without soya, but 'may contain soya'). You can buy them from Holland and Barrett (currently buy one, get one half price). If your Holland and Barrett don't stock them, you can now order them online and have them delivered to your local store.

Ingredients:
Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Rice Powder, Rice Syrup, Rice Starch, Rice Flour, Cocoa Mass. Emulsifier: Sunflower Lecithin.

Allergy Advice: May contain soya.

Plamil also these chocolate bunnies; both of which you can buy at Holland and Barrett. Why two? Well the one on the right has the same ingredients as the chocolate egg halves, whereas the one on the left is made under their 'Lots of this, None of that' label. Lots of This, None of That is made completely soya free.

Similar but different!

Lots of This, none of That ingredients:
Cocoa butter, Sugar, Rice Powder (rice syrup powder, rice starch, rice flour), Cocoa Mass, Chicory Root Extract. Emulsifier: Sunflower Lecithin.


Choices also make chocolate bunnies that you can find easily in the main supermarkets (Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's). There are two to choose from, one white, one dairy free 'milk chocolate'. 

99p in Asda!

Prices vary from store to store, but generally they are priced around £1 each. Choices chocolate is dairy, gluten and egg free but made with soya lecithin.


Haribo

Such fun!

Haribo make these great sweets in mini packs. They are dairy free, gluen free and nut soya free. You can buy a multipack like this, or even a bucket of them if you wish, in places like Tesco and Waitrose.

Ingredients:
Glucose Syrup; Sugar; Gelatine; Dextrose; Citric Acid; flavouring fruit and plant concentrates: apple, aronia, blackcurrant, elderberry, grape, kiwi, lemon, mango, orange, passion fruit, safflower, spirulina; Glazing Agents: beeswax, caranuba wax; Caramelised Sugar Syrup; Elderberry Extract.




Cake Decoration:

You may have seen Easter nests appearing in cafes, or local schools and play groups may be making them and you may wonder how to make them yourself (in which case click here) or how to replace those eggs on the top. These mini eggs from Waitrose could be your answer!

A little larger than Cadbury mini eggs!

OK, so they're a little larger than your Cadbury mini eggs, that other people use on theirs, but hey, they're better than nothing!

The ones on the left are basically like jelly beans (also an acceptable alternative, although make sure you read ingredients labels carefully, some contain milk etc.). 

Point to note, for Vegans, these eggs are not Vegan.

Ingredients: 
Sugar, *wheat glucose syrup, thickener gum arabic, gelling agent pectin, acidity regulators citric acid and trisodium citrate, flavourings apricot, orange, pear, pineapple and raspberry, glazing agents beeswax, white and yellow and shellac, colours beta-carotene, chorophyllins, cochineal, riboflavin and vegetable carbon. 

Allergy Advice: May contain nuts and peanuts.
*Wheat glucose syrup is technically gluten free, due to way it is manufactured.


The eggs on the left are made with marzipan, so no good for the nut allergic, I'm afraid!

Ingredients:
Sugar, Marzipan (almonds, sugar, water invert sugar syrup), rice starch, wheat glucose syrup, alcohol, thickener gum arabic, colours chorophyllins and plain caramel, pork gelatine, invert sugar syrup, invertase, glazing agent coconut oil

Allergy Advice: Almonds. May also contain other nuts and peanuts.


One other option for those okay with traces are these (follow this link) from Carluccio's. Made without dairy, wheat, nuts etc. They are made with soya lecithin and may contain milk, gluten, and nuts. Thanks Nia (@ChubbaNia on Twitter) for the head's-up!!

Other Easter Treats:

Not to be missed out, we also love these mini chicks by Cocoa Libre. You can buy them from Holland and Barrett.

Cute!

These are dairy and gluten free. 

Ingredients:
Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Rice Powder (rice syrup, rice flour) Dietary Fibre (inulin), Emulsifier: Soya Lecithin, Natural Vanilla Flavouring, Natural Cocoa Flavouring.


Bassett's Jelly Bunnies

These cute bunnies, by the makers of Jelly Babies are hard to resist. Available in most supermarkets, they're dairy and soya free, but watch out if gluten free or allergic to wheat - they may contain wheat! Also not suitable for Vegans and Vegetarians.

Another alternative!

Ingredients:
Sugar, Glucose Syrup(contains sulphites), Water, Bovine Gelatine, Concentrated Fruit Juices (apple, lime, orange, strawberry, blackcurrant, lemon, raspberry), citric acid flavourings, Colours (anthocyanins, vegetable carbon, paprika extract, lutein), concentrated vegetable extract (spinach, stinging nettle, tumeric).

Allergy Advice: 
Contians Sulphites. May contain wheat.


This list is not exhaustive, there are online sites that may be able to provide other treats, but many have a last date for ordering. For a list of these, check out this post (the list is near the bottom).


Please note: 
This post is not an advert. I have not been paid to write this post. I am not sponsored in any way, even by advertising. I do not receive products free to review, although I have often been offered them. This is to try and maintain an unbiased approach. All views expressed are my own (unless I've asked for The Hub's or Kiddo's).


Links to Related Posts:

The Great Big Dairy Free Easter Egg Hunt 2016

Have yourself a dairy free Easter Egg hunt!

Howzat? On turning a 'normal' Easter Egg into one which is dairy free!

Free From Frozen Egg-spiration for Easter

Kinnerton Dairy Free Advent Calendars

Don't know if you're new to being dairy free. I well remember the first Christmas I was dairy free. I was SO relieved when The Hub found that I could still eat chocolate! The first dairy free chocolate I ever ate was a bar of dairy free Kinnerton. Unused as I was to dark chocolate (I usually prefer milk chocolate). I soon adapted and grew to love it!! 

If like me, you love your chocolate and you're looking for a dairy free Advent calendar, well there will be more options hitting the shops before too long, so don't panic, but if you're particularly interested in Kinnerton (not the normal Kinnerton ones, you'll see them everywhere, but they're NOT dairy free), you can only get the dairy free ones via mail order direct from Kinnerton and they only make 500. 

These are the ONLY dairy free chocolate Advent calendars to feature well loved children's characters (see below for the range) and this year, they are prepared to personalise them with YOUR chosen name!

The other thing you need to know is that you need to get your order in by 19th October (2015) which is why I'm publicizing them ahead of my usual dairy free Advent calendar round-up (see here for last year's post). They're £6.50 each and £5 of the money is donated to the Anaphylaxis Campaign (what a great cause).

If you'd like to get your hands on one of these, make you sure you visit their site and use the 'Contact Us' form to get yourself on their mailing list (probably the sooner the better). Alternatively, keep watching this space for further details!

Please note: 

This post is not an advert. I have not been paid to write this post. I am not sponsored in any way, even by advertising. I do not receive products free to review, although I have often been offered them. This is to try and maintain an unbiased approach. All views expressed are my own (unless I've asked for The Hub's or Kiddo's).


Related Posts:


Oo! Ah! Christmas Chocolat 2014



Dairy free ways to decorate your tree



Tasty Treats

Dairy Free Chocolate bars or... the blog post that isn't!

This is the blog post that isn't!

'How so?' you may well ask. 

Well, read on, and you will see!

This post was going to be about a range of choccy bars, by Go Max. 

When I spotted them in my local health food shop, I thought that all my chocolatey dreams had come true! Only the other day I was agonizing on Twitter about my need for the chocolate bars I had enjoyed in my previous life (you know - the one where I could consume gluten and dairy freely... and to my heart's content).

The chocolate bars I spotted were dairy free (Vegan, in fact) and gluten free as well. 

Joy! Joy! Joy!

I wasted no time in filling my sticky little mitts and making my way to the counter - despite noting that each one cost £1.99!! (Well, you'd never dream of paying that for a Snickers or Mars Bar, would you?? Well... not this year anyway - although, one day, no doubt they WILL cost that much, as my Dad can remember when Mars Bars were just 3p each!!)

I was so excited, when I realised that one was like a Snickers, one like a Milky Way etc. etc. that I completely forgot to read the rest of the label... until I was about to get my money out. Then it hit me - I hadn't checked for soya! 

All I was expecting/hoping to see was 'soya lecithin' - I can cope with that. However, what I actually saw was 'soya protein' on each and every packet. NO!! NO!! NO!!

If I could have lain on the floor and threshed and wailed like a two year old, I would have. 

I was going to abandon this post, until I thought, 'Hang on! I can't have these, but others might benefit.'

So here we are and here is a selection of dairy free choccy bars that you might like to try, if you've got that craving...

Now, if the Go Max bars are a little bit pricey for you, there is a somewhat cheaper range of chocolate bars, by Organica. You can find these by going online to the Vegan Store, Alternative Stores or similar. Organica's range is more limited, but if you can cope with dark chocolate, you can get a 'Bounty' style bar, a nougat bar (my personal fave) and a marzipan bar. At £1 each, they're half the price of the other bars, by Go Max.

Here's one of the Organica bars: 

Mmm! Organica's Nougat

I used to really like these... until I realised I was reacting to them. 

Once I'd looked at the ingredients, realisation hit - they contain soya powder (*sighs* *sobs quietly inside*). I hadn't read the ingredients' label properly! I look for 'gluten free', I look for 'dairy free,' but often neglect to look for soya!

The other thing I always neglect to look out for (strange as it may seem) is milk - on Vegan products anyway. Despite having been caught out several times before, I always think Vegan products should be completely milk free. However, Vego, caught me out yet again!

It's a hazelnut chocolate bar that I came across at Alternative Stores. It states that it's Vegan and gluten free! 'BONUS!' I thought, when it caught my eye. I bought one 'cos I really fancied eating some nutty chocolate. It was quite pricey (£3.50), but HUGE (150g) and tasted yummy (more 'milky' than some dairy free chocolates)! 

Just as I was in the middle of munching some, I idly examined the packet and suddenly spotted 'may contain milk'! *sighs yet again*. 'From now on,' I thought, 'I'll have to stick to Moo Free Honeycomb bars - at least I know where I am with them!'

Oh, and if you want those other Go Max bars, you can get those at Vegan Stores too :)

Posts with a similar theme:

Sweets for my Sweet
Oo! Ah! Chocolat!
The Great Big Dairy Free Easter Egg Hunt 2014

Zero Zebra Dairy Free Chocolate

'Baby' is just beginning to realise that money is not just fun to play with (The Hub has been known to give her the odd coin to play with) but has POWER. She was rather pleased, the other day, when I gave her the money to pay for something and prompted her to accept the proffered change. The change soon made its way into her pocket! Hmm! Not the outcome I was expecting!!

She was also pleased, although a little confused, when Grandma gave her a ten pound not the other day - in lieu of an Easter egg. She caught the excitement of her slightly older cousin, who was patently delighted with her ten pound note. Her cousin was obviously already spending it - in her head!

Baby sometimes gets gifts of money from relatives, which I am beginning to encourage her to spend on concrete things. Money that came her way at Christmas was spent on her ballet dress and shoes etc. when she began baby ballet lessons.  It was money well spent, as she took to wearing her ballet shes around the house and would have done the same with her ballet dress, if I'd let her!

The Easter money seemed to arrive at just the right time, as Baby, suddenly remembering the chocolate she'd been given at Christmas, had started asking for what she calls 'Zebra Zoo'. And here they are: 

Cute, cheeky chocolate characters

I came across these chocolates some months ago and mentioned them in another post (Sweets for my Sweet), but I decided to give them a mention all of their own, as although expensive, they taste sooo good. There's not much chance of me getting in on the act, though, as, having cottoned on to the fact that Mummy also likes these chocolates, Baby has given me strict instructions not to eat any!

They cost £3.99 from Ocado or online at sites like Free From for Kids and Shop Vegan. For your money you get a box of ten chocolate animals. As The Hub pointed out to me - that means that each animal costs nearly 40p. GULP! It seems that Baby and I have some expensive tastes. But we're not the only ones, as it has recently been much harder to get hold of from our normal source - Ocado!

So, as far as we're concerned, these really are just treats. We have bought a few boxes - one to try initially, one for Baby's birthday and one for Christmas and now this one. The chocolate, however, is amazing and not just because the chocolate characters cute. To me, it tastes just like the 'normal' milk chocolate, which, I have to admit, I've really missed. 

One of the amazing things about this chocolate, is that it declares that it is free of a number of major allergens, including the following: dairy, gluten, soya, nuts and eggs. Wow! It's also fair trade and organic, both of which to me, are a definite plus!

The ingredients are as follows:

Raw cane sugar 

Cocoa butter

Rice syrup

Cocoa mass

Vanilla

Please note: the package states that this chocolate is made in a factory that handles milk, but also that each batch is tested for allergens. See here!

If these are a bit pricey for you, there is plenty more dairy free choice out there - just check out the posts listed below :)  However, they're definitely worth a try!

Similar Posts:

Sweets for my Sweet

Oo! Ah! Chocolat!