Biscotti are twice-baked Italian biscuits, typically flavoured with aniseed, chocolate or almonds. You can find them often in coffee shops. Their consistency is usually hard and crunchy. They are great if you like to dip them in your coffee, ice cream or pudding for that matter.

Experience:
Pamela’s biscotti come in three flavors, Almond Anise Biscotti, Chocolate Walnut Biscotti and the reviewed Lemon Almond Biscotti.

There are 6 biscotti in a package and they are individually packed. Good to keep the food fresh, not so good for the environment.

The texture is very biscotti like, hard and crunchy. They have a sweet lemony taste and almond chunks. I’m not a huge almond fan, but here the taste complements the lemon very well. These cookies are wheat and gluten free, like all of Pamela’s products. If you have special dietary needs besides gluten and wheat Pamela’s has a table with their products and ingredients.

Ingredients:
Brown Rice Base (Brown Rice Flour, White Rice Flour, Tapioca Starch, Sweet Rice Flour, Xanthan Gum); Molasses & Honey; Butter; Egg Whites; Almonds; White Rice Flour; Gluten-free Natural Lemon Flavor; Grainless & Aluminum Free Baking Powder (Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Potato Starch); Baking Soda; Sea Salt.

Where to Buy:
I bought these delicious gluten free biscotti at my local Whole Foods store. According to Pamela’s website you can find them also at Sprouts, Wegman’s, as well as many grocery stores such as Fred Meyer, Kroger, Publix, Safeway and Winn Dixie. You can also order them online at Amazon.com: Pamela’s Products Lemon Almond Biscotti, 6-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 8)

Website: www.pamelasproducts.com

Rating: 4/5

These wonderful cookies are sold in bags reminiscent of the past. Retro look is still kind of “in” and the package looks attractive. Of course what’s inside the bag is more important, but if you don’t know the product the package needs to grab your attention.

Now off to the contents of the bag.

Experience:
These cookies have, to me at least, the perfect size. They are about the size of an Oreo cookie. Five of them make a serving, which is very satisfying.

MI-DEL All Natural Pecan Cookies

These wheat free pecan cookies feel very much like regular ones. They have the right cookie feel in your mouth. Something between crunchy and soft. The sweetness is just right. Very tasty. Indeed a wonderful treat to satisfy your sweet tooth. I really like this cookie – yum!

At the time of this writing there are six more flavors which I am looking forward to try.

Ingredients:
Gluten-free flour (corn flour, soy flour, potato flour, rice flour, corn starch,potato starch, xantham gum), organic dehydrated cane juice, canola oil, pecans, butter (may contain annatto), unsulphured molasses, corn starch, baking soda, natural flavors, eggs, sea salt, soy lecithin (used as an emulsifier). Also contains egg, soy, milk, pecans.

These cookies are made in a facility that also processes wheat, peanuts and tree nuts. The company states that they test regularly, as determined by the World Health Organization, that their products are indeed gluten free.

Where to Buy:
I bought them at my local Whole Foods store, but according to MI-DEL’s website they are sold in many other grocery chains as well. I’ll have to look out for them at my local Ralph’s store.

Website: www.midelcookies.com
Store Locator: www.midelcookies.com/locator.shtml

Rating: 4.75/5

This cookie is sold in individual packages. It is about the size of my hand and weighs around 100g. A rather large size for a cookie. It says on the package that this single cookie is two servings. Please, one cookie is two servings? Make the cookie smaller. One cookie being two servings is just not practical. Anyway…

Experience
On the package it reads: “A mouth watering combination of tangy lemon and crunchy sweetness will make this a refreshment favorite.”

The cookie is rather soft, not crunchy by any means. The texture feels more like a coffee cake than a cookie, which is not a bad thing. The sweetness is fine, not too sweet. The “tangy lemon” taste on the other hand could have been a little less. It’s a bit too intense and leaves some lemony aftertaste I could do without.

Nana's No Gluten Lemon Cookie

The cookie as a whole has a rich taste  and is quite filling. So maybe the 2 portion part is not wrong after all.  The taste reminds me of a cake I liked to eat as a child – sweet memories.

There is a lot to be liked about this wheat and gluten free lemon cookie. The one thing I would change is the intensity of the lemon taste. Less would definitively be more in this case. The company has more flavors and products and I’m looking forward to taste more of their baked goods.

Ingredients:
I will list what is not included first. No refined sugards, no dairy, no hydrogenated oils, no cholesterol, no eggs, no trans fat, no cane oe beet products, no wheat and no gluten. And it is also vegan.

Included: Rice flour (brown & white), fruit juice (pear, apple & grape), rice dextrins (a natural & unmodified starch) , non-GMO expeller pressed canola oil, white rice crisp, tapioca flour, lemon, baking soda, non aluminum baking powder (leavening), natural flavoring, natural vanilla extract, xanthan gum, salt.

The product is made in a facility that also manufactures wheat containing products.

Where to Buy:
I bought this cookie the other day at my local Whole Foods store. Other health food stores might also carry it. It can also be purchased at the company’s website.

Website: www.healthycrowd.com
Online Store: www.healthycrowd.com/catalog.asp

Rating: 3.75/5

Experience:
These cookies come in five flavors, as mentioned above so far I only tried one. The cookie has a nice texture, a bit on the softer side, with good sized chocolate chunks. The taste is good, they are not too sweet, just about right. I would like to have them a little bit more on the crunchy side, but this is a personal preference. I reviewed the Andean Quinoa Dream cookie before, and both are comparable. I might like the Andean one a tiny bit better. Hard to say – I’d have to try them side by side. I would definitively buy them again. My next goal is to try the other flavors.

Ingredients:
Flour base (organic brown rice whole grain flour, rice starch, rice protein, baking soda), organic dark chocolate (organic cane sugar, organic cocoa paste, organic cocoa butter, non GMO soy lecithin, organic vanilla. Chunks may contain traces of milk protein due to manufacturing equipment), organic cage free eggs, organic cane sugar, chicory extract, organic agave nectar, organic palm oil, organic sunflower/safflower oil, calcium carbonate, natural flavor, sea salt. Contains eggs, soy and may contain traces of milk protein.

Arico products are free of gluten, wheat, casein, dairy, trans fat, refined sugars, preservatives and colorings.

Where to Buy:
I bought my bag of cookies at Whole Foods. Other health food stores might carry them also. Arico does offer an online store where you can purchase their products.

Website: www.aricofoods.com

Rating: 4.25/5

These cookies are made with organic Royal Quinoa, grown only in the Bolivian Andes.

The cookies are manufactured in Bolivia for Andean Dream, LLC. The bakery, La Francesa, S.A, established in 1952, is one of Bolivia’s premiere bakeries with three generations of experience. More about the company can be read here. Unfortunately there is no information if the bakery is dedicated gluten free.

Experience:
These wheat and gluten free cookies come in five flavors: Orange Essence, Chocolate Chip, Cocoa-Orange, Raisins & Spice and Coconut. I tried all but Raisins & Spice; I’m not so much into raisins. My clear favorite is Chocolate Chip, followed by Cocoa-Orange.

The cookies are individually wrapped so it is easy to bring them along. Just toss them in your bag and off you go. The other advantage is that the cookies won’t go stale after you opened the package.

Taste and texture of these cookies is very good. Like regular cookies, which is nice and cannot be said about every gluten free product. The flavors are great – not too sweet, not too flat. I highly recommend these cookies, but they are not cheap.

Where to Buy:
You should be able to find Andean Dream products at your local health food store. I buy them at Whole Foods. You can also order them online but I found the price to be better at my local store. Your experience could be different though.

Website: www.andeandream.com
Online Shop: www.adreamshopping.com

Rating: 4.5/5

Pandea’s gluten-free products are certified by SGS, an independent certification body. Their products are also certified gluten-free via the use of the AIC’s (Italian Coeliac Association) crossed ear of corn logo.

Experience:
Their taste is just heavenly. The right amount of sweetness, not too much, not too little. The texture of these cookies feels just like “regular” ones. If you wouldn’t know they are gluten-free you would not notice the difference. Truly wonderful.

Where to Buy:
If you live n Germany or Austria you will be able to buy Pandea products in the Reformhaus and probably online. If you travel there, try to buy some. It is worth it.

If you live in the US you might not be able to get them. There is however a company importing Pandea products: Liberty Richter.

Website: http://www.freetoeat.de/en/default.do
Blog: http://www.celiachiablog.it (Italian only)

Rating: 5/5