8 Gluten Free Old Fashioned Treats

If you or your child suffer from celiac disease, you may know first hand how difficult it can be to see everyone around your child eating something that looks delicious. Many times, the tasty treat may be off limits due to it containing gluten. In the past few years, however, more companies have worked to bring a larger selection of gluten free ingredients and treats to the market for those on a special diet to enjoy. Here are some top tasty treats that anyone on a gluten free diet can enjoy.  
1. Chocolate Fudge
One of the main things to keep in mind with gluten free meals is that they typically don’t include flour products. An easy and tasty treat that has never needed flour in its preparation is homemade fudge. You can make your own version of fudge at home and include your favorite ingredients, such as chocolate, peppermint, or even peanut butter. Once you’ve prepared your ingredients and boiled them to the right temperature, you can let everything cool for a few hours in the fridge. The end result is a refreshing, rich dessert that is sure to tickle your taste buds.
2. Rice Pudding
Another popular crowd-pleasing dessert that doesn’t need flour is rice pudding. Like its name suggests, the primary ingredient is rice. The basic component of this type of dessert is baking rice with milk for several hours. While it cooks, the rice begins to soak up the milk into its grain, which gives it a spongy and soft consistency. Once it’s finished, you can begin to customize the flavor with additions like cinnamon, raisins, nutmeg, and vanilla. Then, chill in the refrigerator to get an extra cool refreshment.
3. Meringue Cookies
Finding a healthy cookie variety that doesn’t need flour is a challenge, but there is one type that is not only free from flour, it’s low fat. The basic meringue cookie is created by beating egg whites into soft peaks. Once you’ve gotten the perfect consistency with your egg whites, you can begin to flavor your cookie recipe with various ingredients, such as lemon zest, chocolate, strawberry, or mint. After baking, the cookies have a light and crispy texture and nearly melt in your mouth when eaten.
4. Cheesecake Bites
You can tweak your favorite cheesecake recipe to be friendlier to the gluten-free crowd by taking out the crust. Forming your cheesecake into small bite-sized pieces makes it easy to go crustless. What you’ll need instead of a crust is a muffin or cupcake pan, set up with cupcake liners. This gives the rich ingredients a place to settle, since you cannot put a crust on the bottom.
5. Buckeye Cookies
The buckeye cookie is a popular treat for everyone, even beyond its traditional origin state of Ohio. Similar to a piece of candy, you can make these by combining the tastes of peanut butter with rich milk chocolate. There’s no need to bake anything with this treat, so even the kids can get involved in mixing everything together, shaping into balls, and letting them chill in the refrigerator.
6. Flourless Brownies
If you’re dying to taste a brownie again, there are a few ways to make them more suited to a gluten free lifestyle. While some substitute almond flour instead of wheat, you can create a more decadent brownie without the flour. Some clever bakers follow the process to make a fudge for their brownies, which results in a rich, gooey treat.
7. Chocolate Chip Cookies
Biting into a warm chocolate chip cookie may have only been a fantasy in the past for those who can’t digest gluten. 
8. Pumpkin Pie
When coming home for Thanksgiving isn’t possible, the comfort of a cool slice of pumpkin pie is always welcome. You can continue to enjoy this fall favorite without gluten. You can either swap out the crust recipe with an almond or rice flour version, or prepare just the filling in a dish and savor the best part.
Following a gluten free diet doesn’t mean you have to miss out on all of the best foods. Changing your favorite recipes around in small ways can have a big impact on your flavor experience.