Tales from my fructose free life
For the past months, life has been a rollercoaster ride. It feels like someone took all my experiences and thoughts from the past 3 years, put them in a jar, closed the lid and shook it like mad. And so, I’ve been trying to figure out, which of these ideas and values are still valid and which should be thrown overboard again for our new chapter in Berlin.
We are currently trying to make ourselves feel home in our new flat. The bad news, the kitchen still looks like this. …
Some of you have been waiting for this recipe as long as, when it first made an appearance as part of this post. Ever since, I have received loads of messages the likes of: “Tell me Deniz, how do I get my hands on your recipe for those fructose-friendly chocolate buns?”
Request after request I kept putting you on hold saying: “The recipe isn’t ready yet. It’s too hot in Istanbul to bake at the moment. We don’t have an oven in our new flat. I don’t have access to the right ingredients right now.”…
It’s not always easy. People like you and me, are surrounded by endless menus, we run around supermarkets for hours, but in the end we still end up going home hungry and annoyed. “Do we really need to add onions, wheat, tomatoes, sugar, honey and dates to every freaking dish?” According to research, “every third German suffers from fructose malabsorption”, so do I really need to argue with the waiter when all I need to know is exactly what they put in the that dressing? Whoever came up with fructose malabsorption, must have loved complaining. After all, it’s what really comes naturally to us (sarcastic undertone), isn’t it?…
Among German food bloggers there are common word jugglers and downright stars such as today’s guest and main attraction of the “Croation-Swabian State Circus”. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage: The Whitest Cake Alive! Sonja’s exceptionally honest and entertaining posts, her stunning recipes including this strawberry-rose petal-pistachio-cake as well as her being fructose intolerant to top it off, makes it all the more easy to instantly become a huge fan of hers. Good morning Sonja, let’s get this day off to the right start! …
Happiness is when you receive “2 star”-ratings on Amazon, but still have every reason to smile. Who cares about critics, when there are care-bears like you?! Okay, give the critics some credit. It’s true, I didn’t include any tables or hard nutritional facts in my cookbook, but why should I have done so in the first place? I never pretended to be anything I am not. I am not a professional dietician or physician, but simply someone confronted by the daily difficulties of handling fructose malabsorption and trying to do my best to turn the negatives into positives and live a healthy life. …
Sound familiar?
I made a cake and am super excited to treat my family members to a healthy and sugar free dessert for the holidays. Everybody gathers around the table and happily digs into piles of Easter bread, juicy carrot cakes and delicate chocolates. Lightyears seem to have passed since the last holidays. One by one, tense shoulders around the table loosen up and even my guilt-free cake receives some attention.
Right when I’m about to put on a content smile, thinking how nice it is that people finally seem to appreciate healthier alternatives instead of the usual sugar bombs, I get hit by a wave of comments again: “Your cake tastes really good, like, really healthy! A little bit like bread… Really good. I would just add a bit more sugar the next time.”
Duh! I mean that’s the whole point about fructose free cooking, right?
…
The word is out: Last week I gave my final approval for my very own cookbook to go into print, but my small chipmunk heart is still pounding like mad. Between writing posts, testing recipes and the usual chaos here in Istanbul, I somehow forgot that the real excitementis only just about to begin. Writing a cookbook on the quiet is one thing. But waking up everyday to your good wishes, knowing that there are people now actually waiting for my cookbook to bet published, that’s pretty absurd.
So bear with me, while I get a bit emotional: I just wanted to say that I am really grateful for each and every one of you! Thanks a million for your lovely words and support! Thank you for every single like and share! Now come here, let me give you a hug and then I’ll bake you all the fructose free cakes in the world. We’ll have loads of low-fructose wineas well, but don’t tell anyone, okay? …
Last week I was eating myself through several spelt products to test my personal level of tolerance. What can I say? I’ve fallen in love with it. I didn’t experience any side effects no matter what sort of spelt product I was eating. What’s more, spelt or “Dinkel” in German is a very popular grain here in Germany. That is why you can find a gazillion spelt products in almost any supermarket and, even better, freshly baked spelt bread at any bakery that sells quality bread. Wohoo!
Nonetheless, even in Germany it is difficult to come by a spelt dessert that is low in fructose. Time to step up to the oven again. This recipe for blueberry spelt tartlets already landed in my inbox a while ago. I fell in love with this recipe at first sight. It sounded too delicious, too easy, too tolerable for us fructose malabsorptioners. Too good to be true? Without a pack of whole grain spelt flour at hand I was going to have to wait a while before I could have my first go at baking with spelt. As soon as I did, this recipe turned out to be just like I had imagined. Thank you Carole for this wonderful recipe! …
I know, you guys were probably expecting the follow up on my journey of going gluten free. Unfortunately you will have to wait a couple of days more, as I’m not finished writing yet. There is so much to tell you. So, sorry for keeping you in the waiting line. Speaking of waiting lines, you should listen to this beautiful song by Zero 7.
To make waiting a little more enjoyable, I want to share this delicious, cream cheesy recipe with you. As mentioned before, I turned 30 in the middle of my gluten-free experiment. And I consider myself a really lucky girl that my boyfriend spent a full afternoon in the kitchen to create this fructose friendly, gluten free, creamy beauty for me. I took me a few days to finish it as nobody dared to eat up my special birthday treat. To be honest, I wasn’t too sad about having it all for myself. …
It took me a while to realize that Spring in Turkey doesn’t last as long as it does in Germany. The fresh, locally grown strawberries at the fresh food markets disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared a few weeks earlier, leaving me little to no time to come up with all the nice strawberry-containing recipes I wanted to try and share with you. Which makes me a bit sad, as strawberries are one of the few fruits I can handle pretty well. But the good thing is, they will be back next year and meanwhile I will be concentrating on other seasonal fruits low in fructose. Enter, Apricots. Naturally low in fructose, an essential part in Turkish (dessert) cuisine and the perfect cast for the grand finale of my oatmeal cookie trilogy. Today, sun kissed apricots, crunchy, salty pistachios and a full-bodied cereal mix will be turned into aromatic Oatmeal-Muesli-Cookies. You could almost call it a tribute to my German-Turkish roots. ;)…
As I’m sitting here writing this post there is a plate of freshly baked oatmeal coconut cookies resting next to my laptop, begging to be devoured. Today it felt hard motivating myself to write. Before I sat down I quickly threw together those seven ingredients listed below, turning them into yet another batch of oatmeal coconut cookies, just to eat one of the freshly baked cookies straight out of the oven. I can‘t think of a better way to get into cookie mode. Also, when I tested this recipe a week ago I myself was a little surprised how delicious these cookies actually turned out to be. Therefore I needed some kind of reassurance that these cookies weren‘t too good to be true or rather just a stroke of luck. ;)
I found this recipe on Crash Test Mummy. It was the only recipe I found for oatmeal cookies low in fructose that looked worth giving it a try. Crash Test Mummy calls them ANZAC Cookies. Most of you native English speaking readers have probably heard this term before, but for me ANZAC didn’t ring a bell. It was only after a short search via Wikipedia that I found out what the abbreviation stands for “Australian and New Zealand Army Corps” and that this type of cookies are usually baked around the end of April to celebrate ANZAC Day and remember the fallen troops during World War I. I made those cookies because the recipe sounded delicious. Only now, when re-reading the same Wikipedia article did I notice that the same troops fought in a city called Gallipoli, which is called Çanakkale today and lies, guess what, in Turkey. I love coincidences. …
To be honest, I am not the only one reconsidering our initial, resistance-free plunge into the Turkish eating culture, after having arrived in the land of milk and honey (see also “Unlearning Snacking“). More recently my boyfriend has also been doubting his reacquired snacking habits. A long time ago he drastically cut down his own sugar consumption out of consideration for me suffering from fructose malabsorption and surely as a result of my never ending lectures on the negative aspects of fructose consumption. But our numerous sugar slips during the past weeks are finally coming into effect. As soon as we get close to a supermarket there is this faint voice to my left asking “Uhm, I wonder if they have those amazing Coco-Star chocolate bars. I didn’t have any sweet treat today. One surely couldn’t do much harm”. A classical case of back-on-the-addiction-sugar-cravings I’d say. Even his attempt to do better by going for the organic, soaked in honey, oatmeal cookie instead of the chocolate bar cannot negate my previously made diagnosis. The only positive outcome of this recent sugar-slip is, that somehow I wasn’t able to get those ‘forbidden’, crunchy and chewy oatmeal cookies out of my head. I was craving to have one of those cookies, but of course one being low in fructose. After browsing millions of oatmeal-cookie recipes on Pinterest I was left with no alternative. Because of that and well aware of my intent to strictly follow a fructose-free diet once again, without compromising on taste or variety, I resulted to not one, but three different recipes for oatmeal-cookies that are low in fructose. Call me nerd. …
Today is our 12th day here in Istanbul. Because our language course did not start yet, it still feels like being on vacation. We get up late, stroll from cafe to cafe, sit in the sun, do some sightseeing here and there while try to immerse ourselves in this fascinating culture. Since arriving in Istanbul, the only thing I actually “cooked” for myself was a salad. The rest of the time we have been going out for breakfasts, lunches and dinners (usually skipping one or the other). The food you get at restaurants (called “restoran” or “lokanta”) here is just too good and we love to discover and taste all the new dishes and flavors. And, so far I’m doing pretty well with the Turkish food. It looks like the Turkish cuisine is much easier to handle when suffering from fructose malabsorption compared to the German cuisine. I haven’t experienced extreme stomach pain or other symptoms here yet. Knock on wood.
However, after eleven days I’m starting to miss cooking and baking at home. Not because I miss pasta dishes or other foods I used to cook in Berlin, but simply for the sake of cooking. As we have yet to find a flat of our own and are still staying with good friends, who are being the best hosts ever, it probably will take a few more weeks until I pick up cooking regularly at home again.
That’s why today I’m sharing a recipe for a really nice tea cake with you, which I made two days before leaving for Istanbul. Yes, call me crazy. Don’t ask me why I made the effort to bake a cake instead of packing my bags and tidying up the flat. I guess I needed an outlet for the pre-moving stress or wanted to empty out the pantry. Who knows.
However, I’m happy I gave this fructose friendly cake with orange and ricotta a shot. It turned out to be really tasty. It was very moist and full of flavor….
Last week was my last day at work here in Berlin. I gave up the comfort of being permanently employed to dive into a new adventure. In no less than 18 days we will move to Istanbul! “Yeah, woohoo or yippieh” doesn’t nearly describe how excited I am about this move. But that’s not what this post is about. In any case, I am sure this new adventure will find more than one mention in future posts as I will be sure to let you know about our plans and non-plans for our new life in Istanbul. …
It’s time for the first fructose free recipe!
Baking never aroused much enthusiasm in me. I do like cakes and cookies, but I could never get much out of the process itself. I always felt that a cake took ages to bake and that the funny smell of baking would spread through the entire flat, clinging to my clothes and hair for days. Yuck. And cleaning up the whole mess, the butter, the flour, the eggslime that seems to be in every single corner. No thank you. Cooking on the other hand, oh yeah! I love standing in front of numerous pots and pans and can’t wait for flavors and smells to unfold. So it wasn’t much of a tragedy for me when I found out about my fructose malabsorption. In terms of baking my diagnosis just served as another good reason not to bake. …
