"Shabtai Gourmet is committed to servicing individuals with multiple allergens by baking our cakes & cookies in an allergen free dedicated bakery. All of the ingredients that pass through our doors are Gluten Free, Casein Free, Lactose Free, Soy Free, and Dairy Free. We are certified Kosher for Passover and Kosher Parve � otherwise known as Dairy Free- by the OK Kosher Supervision."
Besides the wonderful looking bakery goods at the site they offer free shipping on all orders in the US. I am ready to place my second order with them. I was pleased with the entire process and highly recommend Shabtai Gourmet to anyone, whether following a gluten casein diet or not. Their products are that good. My family is not following any particular lifestyle diet. My teenage son loved the Marble Loaf Cake and I devoured the cake roll and gourmet chocolate chip cookies in record time.
The Marble Loaf has the following ingredients:
whole eggs, sugar, potato starch, cottonseed oil, tapioca starch, cocoa natural flavor emulsion, salt
The allergen in the Marble Loaf Cake is eggs. It is also made in a facility which processes nut products. There are 120 calories per serving with six servings total. The plastic containers are easy to open and close.
The cookies tasted so good with all those chips on every single cookie. The ingredients consist of:
potato starch, sugar, whole eggs, cottonseed oil, tapioca, apricot kernel, almond, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, cinnamon, natural flavor, salt
They do contain nuts and eggs. The package is ten ounces, 6 grams of sugar, zero trans fat, 1 gram of fiber and 2 grams protein. A serving is considered one ounce with ten servings total in the package. 120 calories per serving. It is recommended to sell by 6-15-09.
I could detect the cinnamon, which is good as this is my favorite spice and I regularly have cinnamon bread. I liked how the chips stayed on the cookie and they were not very crumby, meaning more in my mouth than on the plate.
I really like chocolate cake rolls and was delighted to know that Shabtai Gourmet makes a Swiss Chocolate Cake Roll. The roll and loaf were packaged in a plastic wrap seal that was reusable. Both stayed firm on their trays and were easy to slice with a knife. I kept both in the refrigerator.
The Swiss Chocolate Cake Roll contains - Potato starch, whole eggs, sugar, partially hydrogenated palm oil, cocoa, cottonseed oil, tapioca starch, natural and artificial flavor (vanillin), salt
There are 290 calories with 6 servings. I added some ice cream and chocolate syrup to the last piece for a decadent dessert. The prices for the three items I ordered were very reasonable. With the free shipping I did consider ordering more than one item, but opted to try them out to make sure the taste was satisfactory. The taste surpassed my expectations - they have a new customer with me. Gourmet Chocolate Chip Cookies are $7.80, Marble Cake Roll is $6.45 with the Swiss Chocolate Cake Roll costing just $6.99.
Also available at www.shabtai-gourmet.com is the following goodies:
Gluten Free Apricot Roll
Glutren Free Brownie Bites
Gluten Free Sponge Cake Loaf
Gluten Free Fudge Brownie
Gluten Free Lady Fingers
Gluten Free Ring Ting Cupcakes
Gluten Free Meltaway Crumb Cookie
Gluten Free Rainbow Cookie Squares
Pread Crumbs - Gluten Free Bread Crumb Substitute
I also purchased some treats from gfmeals. I chose the Chocolate Mini-Bundt Cake. This was very tasty. I ate the cake before I had to refrigerate it upon arrival. My son Nicholas had a sliver and thought it was good as well. " A rich chocolaty mini cake slathered with creamy frosting." The price of $7.97 for a mini cake that serves two people is a bit steep for my household for any future purchases.
Ingredients for the Mini-Bundt Cake - Cake: Sugar, GF-flour blend (brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, corn starch, xanthan gum), non-hydrogenated expeller-pressed natural oil blend (from soy, palm, canola and olive oils, natural flavors and colors), soy milk, eggs, egg whites, cocoa powder, lemon juice, GF pure vanilla extract, aluminum-free baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum.
Glaze: Chocolate (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, anhydrous dextrose, soy lecithin, GF vanilla extract), soy milk, corn syrup. Contains: Egg, Soy
I also ordered Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough that comes in a tin (1.25 pounds) frozen, needing to thaw before you can spoon out drops onto a cookie sheet. I placed it immediately in the refrigerator. I made a batch a few days later and finished another day with a total of three cookie sheets made up of 36 cookies total.
I love eating cookie dough so I tried a small spoonful of this Gluten-Free, Casein-Free, Dairy-Free, Nut-Free, Wheat-Free, Yeast-Free Chocolate-Chip Cookie Dough. It tasted very good. The heating directions state 10-12 minutes. They turn dark rather quickly so the first batch I took out were quite chewy. My son said they were too mushy and only ate one.
The next batch I left them in a bit longer, but again was worried with the darkness of the cookies. These were the same so my son only ate one. I liked them and ate the rest. I like the option of having the container ready to drop spoonfuls on the cookie sheet, but if I am the only one consuming them in the household it is not worth the high price of $15.97.
Other baked goods at gfmeals include:
Crusty French Rolls
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
Focaccia Bread
Lemon Mini-Bundt Cake
Plain Bagels
White Frosted Vanilla Cupcakes
Brioche
Chocolate Frosted Chocolate Cupcakes
Faux Buttermilk Sliced Bread
I ordered two other meal items that I will review separately from the desserts.
gfmeals is located in Southern California. They are not in close proximity for me to make the drive, plus I avoid freeways. Another option is they deliver to an Irvine, CA location twice a month. That is a longer distance for me so I choose the shipping route. You can place an order up to $75 for the same shipping price of $20.95.
"Due to increases in our shipping costs from UPS and FedEx, we have been forced to increase our rates as well, effective January 1, 2009" I am not sure what their rates were in 2008 as I just found their website in 2009.
"gfMeals ships all of its orders in special insulated containers with dry ice using a trusted national carrier, such as UPS or FedEx."
I did not pay specific attention to their shipping page and was surprised that my order took so long to arrive. I placed my order on a Wednesday afternoon, received an email the following Monday informing me it had just shipped. My order of four items arrived that Thursday, taking longer than a one-week period.
I was informed of the specific date information at the website after relating my frustration with length of time to shio my order. This is why I stress this for readers to note. They deliver only to the US and have very high shipping rates for express delivery ($55) and Saturday ($85) delivery. I would plan accordingly before placing an order.
I was very uncomfortable with the dry ice, having never dealt with it before. I held one in my hand taking it to my sink and then did a google search to find out the correct way to handle it. I put them all in the garbage and disposed of it outside in the dumpster. The following morning there was a white frozen mark on the black dumpster, reminding me of freezer burn. My fingers were sore and felt numb with a bluish tint to them for a few days. I also suffer with eczema so my fingers are always having cuts and bandaids on them.
The baked goods from Shabtai Gourmet arrived with large zipped bags that contained Therma-Frost ice packs, that are still in my freezer for future use. I had a better overall shopping experience with them than with gfmeals from the price, shipping cost, time to arrive and family friendly packaging.
Both sites have tracking available at their websites.
Gluten Casein Free Dining at Disney World
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