New Categories Make Shopping Even Easier!
We just past the second anniversary of the launch of our gorgeous new website. Although, at two years old, it’s not really “new” anymore, 
we’re always updating and improving our look as well as our premium selection of products, so there’s usually something new to see and drool over. Recently, we’ve added a few new categories including Gluten-Free, Business Gifts, Gifts By Price and Seasonal Gifts (including Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Halloween and Holiday gifts). We hope that the added categories will make our website easier to navigate and make finding and ordering your favorite treats simple and quick.
Halloween is just around the corner, so there’s not time to loose if you want a taste of the four limited edition flavors of our new Hard Caramels Halloween Candy including Mocha made with our own premium, fair-trade coffee. Order before this Monday the 24th to ensure delivery in time for all those trick-or-treaters on the 31st. 
Other warming Autumnal favorites to match the change in the season include our Spice Lover’s Gift Set and Mexican Chocolate Brownies.
I know it seems early, but malls are already starting to play “Jingle Bells” and we’re already gearing up for the winter holidays. If you want to plan ahead and make shopping easy and stress-free this year, let us take care of all your holiday gifts online. 
We offer a delectable selection of classic and unique confections and baked goods as well as fair-trade tea, coffee, and chocolate gifts. Our elegant gourmet coffee gift baskets make excellent corporate holiday gifts that will create smiles all around at any office party and are sure to impress your co-workers. Shop around now so you know what you want to order later, or, if you really want to be ahead of the game, order your fair-trade gifts now using our delayed delivery date option to choose exactly when you want them delivered.
Friday with Friends: Allyson Kramer of Manifest Vegan
Welcome to another installment of Friday with Friends. In this installment we’re super excited to introduce to you Allyson Kramer of the fabulous vegan and gluten-free blog Manifest Vegan. Hi Allyson!
Allison’s Gourmet: How did going gluten-free in 2009 change your vegan diet?
Allyson Kramer: It revolutionized my vegan diet! Before going gluten free my crutches were all-purpose flour and seitan. Obviously those foods are toxic to folks like me with celiac disease, so I had to find alternatives to make my favorite meals and desserts just as tasty as I always knew them to be. I was pretty sad about it at first since I loved baking and was only familiar with glutinous flour. But now that I understand how other types of flours work–and how healthy they are for you–I really love being gluten free. Sometimes I wonder if there were a miracle cure for gluten intolerance, how much I would even rely on wheat flour (or [gasp] even use it) anymore. 
The flavors and combinations of the types of other flours available, like sorghum, buckwheat, chickpea, teff and masa–to name a few–have really broadened my culinary horizons!
AG: Share some of your favorite wheat-free finds.
AK: Besan, sorghum flour, Soy Curls and Tinkyada pasta are my favorite finds since I first went gluten free. I use besan and sorghum on a regular basis, and Soy Curls and Tinkyada are fun little splurges.
AG: Mother’s Day is coming up – what cooking secrets or tips did you learn from your mother?
AK: I have to credit my mother’s massive recipe box for helping to teach me everything I know about cooking. She was in school full-time when I was growing up, but she left me with the recipes that spelled out years of her cooking expertise. I began tapping into these recipes when I was just eight years old. It’s hard to believe that my tiny little self was climbing up on the counters to reach the spices and flours in the cabinets, but it’s true. She was also home most weekends and would cook all day long as I stood on the sidelines, absolutely engrossed with each ingredient she prepared, the herbs and spices she tossed in, and every technique she used. Her shared information, along with my obsession with collecting cookbooks, added up and I too became a pretty darn good cook. Today we make the exact same dishes very differently, but her enthusiasm for simple and delicious food will always shine through in my recipe developing.
AG: For Spring, which foods, meals, scents, and spices epitomize the season and inspire you in the kitchen?
AK: The first foods that come to mind for me are kale, morels, fiddleheads, asparagus and ramps. An ultimate spring meal for me would include all of these foods in one delicious dish.
Also this season I have been really into using lavender, vanilla, and sage.
And, I am anxiously awaiting all my tiny basil sprouts to grow into colossal plants–so pesto is also on my mind.
AG: What’s been your favorite part of blogging, thus far? What are your future goals with your blog?
AK: My favorite part of blogging has been the connections I’ve made with people from all over the world. I’ve been inspired, humbled, delighted, and amazed at the incredible amount of energy and passion people commit to blogging. I have met some of my dearest friends over the past two years and I couldn’t imagine not having had these experiences; I plan to keep blogging as long as I can. It’s the highlight of my week and it’s become a huge part of my life!
AG: In addition to blogging, how else do you spend your time?
AK: I love to run. I try to run every day. I also love to read; non-fiction of any kind can captivate me for hours. I have a husband and two kids and we enjoy hiking and grocery shopping (okay, it’s just me enjoying the food shopping, but I drag them along and they never complain). I also love to make art—my preferred mediums being drawing and painting. I’m currently finishing up my first cookbook, which is really an extension of my blogging since it involves recipe development, food styling and photography. And just recently, my pals Jessy and Kittee and I launched an entirely vegan and gluten free info hub for GF vegans who need help deciding what’s good to eat: http://xgfx.org/
AG: Which Allison’s Gourmet product would you most like to be eating right now?
AK: I could polish off an entire gift box of the chocolate covered caramels right now, no problem!
AG: If you could collaborate on a recipe with Allison, what would it be?
AK: I would love to collaborate with Allison to recreate the Nestlé Alpine White Bar. I don’t know how many folks remember this candy bar, but it was one of my very favorites back in the day. It was discontinued years ago, but essentially it was a thin bar of white chocolate with teeny tiny almond bits strewn throughout. Surely, if anyone, Allison can make that happen, right? Pretty please…?
We’ll see what we can do about that, Allyson. 
Thanks for your wonderful inspiration and insights!
Brownie O’Clock
Like so many other people these days, I realized a few years ago that I’m sensitive to wheat gluten. My sensitivity is partly what has prompted my move to make more of our products wheat-free and gluten-free. I was so tired of not being able to eat my own products!
Ever since we transitioned our organic brownies to be made with organic oat flour, I’ve had our baker make a few mini brownies in each batch, so that I can have some to taste test for “quality control.” Taste testing all of our products is one of my favorite parts of my job, but when our products were made with wheat, my taste tests of each organic brownie batch could only be one little bite. Now, I get to eat a whole mini brownie by myself if I want to! In fact, I’ve become so addicted that Tessa, my assistant, began calling my almost-daily brownie habit, “brownie o’clock”. The term has now expanded to include “chocolate o’clock” for Tessa, and “cookie o’clock” for my husband, David, who loves our new (Wheat-Free) Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies.
Do you have a daily ritual or special self-loving indulgence? What’s your “pleasure o’clock”?
Announcing: Our New Wheat-Free Brownies Now Available!
We did it! Today we shipped the first order of our new Half Original/Half Pecan Wheat-Free Brownies! It’s a big day for us because this is something that I’ve been dreaming about and working towards for a long time. As a fan of Allison’s Gourmet, you probably know that I insist that all our gourmet vegan goodies taste at least as good, if not better, than their non-vegan counterparts. So it may go without saying that we’d only offer gluten-free baked goods if they, too, met my high standards for quality and taste.
For years, I have played with a variety of gluten-free flours, but none ever measured up to my requirements. Then, about a month ago, we started playing in the test kitchen, substituting organic oat flour for the organic whole-wheat pastry flour we had been using. And Eureka! Just last week, we got the perfect results I’d been hoping for. Trust me, our new wheat-free brownies are awesome and no one would ever guess they were missing a thing!
Now you may notice that I’m saying “wheat-free” instead of “gluten-free.” That’s because, while oats themselves do not contain gluten, they are often processed with glutinous grains like wheat, and therefore have the possibility of containing traces of gluten. We are working to find a supplier of oat flour that is both gluten-free and organic. In the meantime, we’re using organic oat flour (which may contain traces of gluten) in our Half Original/Half Pecan Brownies. So, depending upon sensitivity level, those who are reactive to wheat, may, at long last, be able to enjoy our brownies! Stay tuned for more wheat-free flavors coming soon.
We’d like to know: Are you as excited about wheat-free baked goods as we are?!
In the Works: Gluten-Free and Sugar-Free Baked Goods
One of our goals here at Allison’s Gourmet is to offer the very best, most delicious, premium sweets available. We strive to create elegant, delicious vegan desserts that everyone can enjoy. In that direction we’ve been doing all kinds of baking tests lately working on making gluten- and sugar-free versions of our organic brownies and cookies that are just as good as our originals. Today we tested a gluten-free version of our classic chocolate chip cookies with organic coconut sugar and they turned out really good! We’re still perfecting the gluten- and sugar-free organic brownies, but are confident that we’ll get there!!
We want to know: is gluten-free important to you? How about sugar-free?
Monthly Club Orders Are on Their Way!
We’ve been busy at Allison’s Gourmet vegan bakery this week. As well as doing several gluten free cookie and brownie tests, 
we also shipped all the monthly club orders on Monday. Our monthly clubs offer a scrumptious variety of baked goods delivered fresh from our vegan bakery to your doorstep every month. So, if you belong to one of our clubs, your order will be arriving soon! This month’s club flavors include amazing Butterscotch Pecan Cookies, heavenly Original Brownies, and awesome Vanilla Chai Fudge. These flavors will also be available individually on our website while supplies last. Enjoy!
Update from Allison’s Test Kitchen
In the Allison’s Gourmet Test Kitchen today we had fun testing a gluten free version of our vegan brownies. 
The best part about doing recipe tests is that we get to eat whatever we make and then figure out how it could be better. We’re always trying to improve our products. The brownies today didn’t turn out quite perfectly, but pretty close; we’ll keep trying. Stay tuned… if we’re able to get these tests to come out right we might be offering really awesome gluten free vegan brownies on our website at some point in the future! Let us know here, on our blog, if gluten free baked goods are something that would interest you.
