Lactosefree Ingredients (English)

Lactose-free milk products contain less than 0.1g laktose per 100g. In Austria I can buy the following products at the stores:

• By „MinusL“ (at Merkur, Billa):
  Milk
  Cream
  Joghurt
  Sour cream
  Buttermilk
  Cream cheese
  Curd cheese
  Mascarpone
• By „free from“ (at Spar):
  Milk
  Cream
  Joghurt
  Curd cheese
  Crème fraiche
  Hazelnut Cocoa Spread

Lactose-free milk products are comparatively easy to find since „lactose-free“ is usually written on the package in bold letters.

With baking ingredients and sweets as e.g. chocolate or cookies things are more difficult. I always have to read the list of ingredients in order to find out if they contain lactose. This is not so easy, as lactose hides behind a lot of terms.

• Laktose is in:
  Buttermilk powder
  Milk sugar
  Low-fat milk / low-fat milk powder
  Milk / milk product / milk powder
  Milk sugar
  Whey / whey product / whey powder
  Sweet whey / sweet whey powder
  Acid whey / Acid whey powder
  Whole milk / whole milk powder
• Lactose is not in:
• Clarified butter.
  That means I can eat e.g. Lindt “Edelbitter Mousse Sauerkirsch-Chili“ chocolate and Lindt “Edelbitter Mousse Chocoladen-Trüffel” chocolate.
• Products which contain „traces of milk“ or „traces of milk constituents“.
  I only have lactose intolerance and not a milk allergy, so I am fine with those products – e.g. Oreo Cookies and “Manner Schnitten”.

If I bear those aspects in mind, I have a great variety of products I can use for lactose-free baking. Here is a list of some ingredients I use – I am sure there are many more, but these are the ones I have tried and use often.

• Really important is lactose-free chocolate:
  Lindt Excellence 70%
  Lindt Excellence 70% Mild
  Lindt Excellence 85%
  Lindt Excellence 85% Mild
  Merci Edelbitter 72%

I almost exclusively use Lindt chocolate. It simply tastes great in cakes, cookies, pies.

Cheaper lactose-free chocolates are:
Bensdorp cooking chocolate (Bensdorp Kochschokolade 42%)
Manner chocolate 70% (Manner Schokolade 70%)

• For uncomplicated and fast treats:
  “Aunt Fanny´s Puff Pastry” (Tante Fanny´s Blätterteig)

• Cookies, e.g. for a crust:
  Karamellgebäck by Lotus (z.B. at Billa)
  Grazer Ringe by Coppenrath (z.B. at MPreis)
  Buttertaler by Burggreve (z.B. at MPreis)
  Butter-Spekulations by Burggreve (z.B. at Billa)
  Oreo Cookies

• Ladyfingers:
  Forno Bonomi (at Billa)

• Unfortunately not okay, as they contain lactose:
• Suchard chocolate
  Nougat
  Shortbread available in stores (contains whole milk powder)
  Ladyfingers by Manner („Manner Biskotten“)
  Evaporated milk (contains about 10% lactose!)
  M&Ms. Okay, I do not need them for baking, but I just love them.

Comment:
I still bake with nougat every now and then, especially around Christmas. “Baking” does not mean “eating,” right? If I am tempted to try some of the cookies or cakes made with nougat, I will take some lactase capsules. They allow me to eat lactase without any problems.

In addition to lactose intolerance I also have fructose intolerance. That means that I have to watch my fructose intake. With baking, though, I hardly notice the fructose intolerance since I fortunately tolerate sugar and do not have to substitute it.

If I use ingredients which contain a high amount of fructose, I will mention it with the respective recipe.

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Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate

This cake might look plain, but tastes spectacular. Soft, buttery, chocolaty. I like it best with a cup of coffee.

When preparing the batter, it is really important that the eggs, the butter and the buttermilk have room temperature. These ingredients should be taken out of the fridge at least 2 hours before you start baking.

Unfortunately, I often decide to bake on the spur of the moment. Then of course then the ingredients will not have room temperature, but fridge temperature. Since the batter for this cake will not work out if I make it with cold ingredients, I use the following tricks to warm the ingredients at least a little bit.

• I put the eggs into a small bowl, put it into the sink and let hot tap water run over the eggs until they feel lukewarm.
• I cut the butter into small bits and put them into a baking bowl. Then I place the bowl over a pot of boiling water for a short time (or over the pot with the boiling noodles). In winter I sometimes place the bowl on our wood-burning stove for some minutes.

It is not the same as working with ingredients which have room temperature, but it helps.

This time I took the ingredients out of the fridge in time, and the batter still curdled a little. It did not really matter, though. The cake was as delicious as always – and eaten the same day.

I like the buttermilk cake best with dark chocolate. I could imagine that it is also great with chopped nuts or fresh raspberries (mmh, sounds yummy).

Ingredients:
½ cup (120 g) butter
1½ cup (300 g) fine sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla sugar (no vanillin)
3 eggs
2 cups (200 g) flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ cup (120 ml) buttermilk, lactosefree
½-⅔ cup (80g – 100 g) dark chocolate, lactosefree, coarsely chopped (e.g. Lindt 70%, Merci 72%)

Preheat the oven to 350° F (175°C).

Grease a loaf cake pan (~12 x 4 inches; ~ 30cm x 11cm) with butter and slightly coat it with flour. Do not try to skip the coating, as I sometimes did when I thought greasing would be enough. I learned the hard way that it is a good idea to follow the instructions and make the effort of greasing and coating carefully.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla sugar until fluffy. With a kitchen machine, this takes at least 5 minutes, rather longer – especially if the ingredients do not have room temperature.

Add the eggs one after the other. Beat each egg into the mixture for at least one minute before you add the next egg.

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.

Add one third of the flour mixture and half of the buttermilk to the egg-sugar mixture. Beat in well. Add the second third of the flour mixture and the rest of the buttermilk and beat in well. Add the last of the flour mixture and again beat until the ingredients have combined well. Do not beat for too long!

Fold in the chopped chocolate, using a wooden spoon.

Pour the batter into the loaf cake pan and spread it evenly.

Bake for 50-55 minutes until golden brown. My stove is a rather slow stove. It took about 55 minutes until the cake was done, i.e. when a toothpick inserted in the center came out clean.

Let the cake cool down in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn it onto a platter.

If you want, you can sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar when it has completely cooled down.

Comment:
I prefer the version with less chocolate, ½ cup (80 g). In this version, the chocolate flavor will not dominate the cake and you will still be able to enjoy the delicate flavor of the sponge. Family and friends, apparently chocoholics, will go for the more chocolaty version ⅔ cup (100g) any time.

Recipe adapted from: Buttermilch Kuchen, Tarek Malouf (2013), Kuchenglück: Ostfildern, Jan Thorbecke Verlag.

Websites I like

 

dessert.food.com
klitzeklein.wordpress.com
southernfood.about.com
www.backbube.com
www.bruceandmark.com
www.cupcakes-wien.com
www.deliciousdays.com
www.kochtrotz.de
www.libase.de
www.usa-kulinarisch.de
www.whatkatieate.com

 

Hot Fudge Sauce

I love this Hot Fudge Sauce. It is smooth and dark and is great with vanilla ice-cream. It also goes well with all kinds of chocolaty, nutty ice-creams. And probably also fruity ones like strawberry ice-cream or banana ice-cream, although I´ve never tried that.

The Fudge Sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week, maybe longer. I do not know how long because it never lasted any longer. If you want to warm it up, just put the amount needed into a double boiler and melt it until it is smooth again.

The picture shows the Hot Fudge Sauce with homemade lactosefree Peanut Butter Ice Cream (see “The English Version: Recipes”):

Ingredients:

4 oz. (110 g) lactose-free dark chocolate, e.g. Lindt 70% Mild or Lindt 85% Mild
½ cup (120 g) butter
¾ cup (85 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups (400 g) sugar
½ cup (120 ml) milk
½ cup (120 ml) whipping cream

Chop or break the chocolate into small pieces. Cut the butter into cubes of about ½ inch (1-2 cm). Put the chocolate and butter into a pot or mixing bowl and melt them in a double boiler: place the pot or mixing bowl over a smaller pot filled with about one inch (2-3 cm) of simmering water.

When the chocolate and butter are completely melted, add the cocoa and whisk until dissolved.

Next, gradually stir in the sugar. The mixture will now look and feel like wet sand, very crunchy. Let it cook over simmering water for about 20 minutes, stirring every now and then. Make sure there is always water in the double boiler.

Stir in the milk and cream until completely blended. Continue cooking 1 hour, stirring every now and then.

The fudge sauce is ready when it is completely smooth (and yummy).

Here you see the Hot Fudge Sauce over vanilla ice cream (not lactosefree) from the store:

Note:
The last time I made a batch of this sauce I discovered that I had nearly run out of cocoa. I had already melted the butter and chocolate, so I decided to still give it a try. The recipe worked well with just ½ cup (40 g) of cocoa. Nobody noticed the difference.

Adapted from the recipe for Hot Fudge Sauce in „Ben and Jerry´s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book.“

Peanut Butter Ice Cream

I love ice cream. Unfortunately in Austria it is difficult to get a variety of lactose-free ice cream in the store. So if I want to enjoy flavors different from vanilla and strawberry. I am more or less forced to make my ice cream myself. It is definitely worth the effort and much better than the lactose-free ice cream I get at the stores.

Lots of ice cream recipes use eggs for the ice cream base. I am not a fan of such recipes since I can never be sure if the eggs are okay and do not contain salmonella bacteria.

I was therefore really happy when I found an ice cream base which is made without sugar in „Ben and Jerry´s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book“. It can be combined with different ingredients, as in this case peanut butter.

Ingredients:
For the ice cream base:
2 cups (480 ml) whipping cream, lactose-free
¾ cup (160 g) sugar
1/3 cup (80 ml) whipping cream, lactose-free
1/3 cup (80 ml) milk, lactose-free

Additionally:
1/3 cup (120 g) smooth peanut butter

Put 2 cups of whipping cream into a mixing bowl. I prefer to use a bowl which comes with a tight a lid. This allows me to chill the mixture in the same bowl I used for preparing it. I simply cover the bowl and put it in the refrigerator.

Gradually whisk in the sugar until it is completely blended. This takes about 2-3 minutes. Make sure you do not whisk too much! The mixture should have the consistency of whipping cream, not whipped cream.

Pour in the 1/3 cup whipping cream and the milk. Whisk until blended.

Pour one cup of the mixture into a small mixing bowl. Whisk in the peanut butter, a little at a time.

Pour the peanut butter mixture into the cream mixture and whisk until blended.

Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for about 2 hours. Whisk it once more, then freeze it in your ice cream maker, following the instructions.

Optional:
If you want, you can add about ½ cup of chopped roasted peanuts about 5 minutes before the ice cream is done.

Granola

I do not eat granola from the store since they often contain ingredients I have problems with, such as lactose, oligofructose, dried fruit. Instead I make my granola myself. That way I can put in ingredients I tolerate well.

This granola recipe is originally not made with rice syrup, but with honey and maple syrup. Both are are difficult with fructose intolerance. I therefore usually substitute the honey and the maple syrup with rice syrup.

The last time I made this granola was for a brunch with friends. As I wanted to make sure they would enjoy the granola, I prepared the honey-maple syrup version. To my surprise I found out that I am okay with this recipe and can eat it without any problems. I suppose that is because I do not eat huge amounts of it in one setting, but just a couple of tablespoons.

So for those of you who are not that sensitive to fructose, I will also explain how to prepare the honey – maple syrup version.

In my opinion, this granola tastes much better than granola from the store. It´s crunchy and nutty and goes well with plain yoghurt. It also fills you up nicely.

The picture shows the honey – maple syrup version I made for the brunch.

Ingredients:
6 ½ cups (~500 g) rolled oats
⅔ cup (50 g) shredded coconut
⅔ cup (100 g) sunflower seeds
⅔ cup (110 g) pumpkin seeds
1 cup (120 g) almond kernels
1 cup (110 g) pecans or walnuts
¼ cup oil (60 g), e.g. sunflower oil

For a fructose-free version:
½ cup rice syrup

For a version containing fructose:
¼ cup (75 g) honey
¼ cup (75 g) maple syrup

Coarsely chop the pumpkin seeds, almond kernels and pecans or walnuts.

Mix oats, coconut, sunflower seeds and chopped nuts in a big bowl. I really mean a big bowl! I always use my kitchen machine bowl. My other bowls are simply too small for this amount of ingredients.

Put half of the mixture into another bowl.

In a small pot, heat the oil and the rice syrup (or the oil, the honey and the maple syrup) until thin and runny. Pour over one half of the oat mixture. Use a spoon to stir it in really well. If the mixture is too wet and clumps together, add more dry oats. This has actually never happened when I made this granola. The amounts given in the list of ingredients above work just fine.

Cover a baking tray with baking paper. Spread the oil-syrup-oats combination onto the paper and bake at 170° F (~130° C, convection oven) for about 60 minutes. Stir occasionally. The mixture should be light brown.

Let the baked combination cool, then pour it into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Store the granola in an airtight container.

Variation 1, Chocolate Granola:
Add 2 tablespoons cocoa powder to the dry ingredients while the syrup-oats combination is in the oven. Mix well. Let the baked combination cool, then pour it into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Variation 2, Granola with dried fruit:
The original recipe contains ⅔ cup (230 g) raisins, currants or sultanas and 110 g dried dates or figs. If you have no problems with fructose, you can add the dried fruit to the dry ingredients together with the syrup-oats combination.

Recipe adapted from: whatkatieate.blogspot.com

About me

Baking is my favorite pastime. If for some reason I do not get round to baking for a while, I get restless and feel like I really have to bake. Baking is fun, relaxing, rewarding, my favorite stress reliever.

A good six years ago it turned out that I have lactose intolerance and fructose intolerance. Since most sweets, cakes and pies you can buy in stores contain lactose, baking has become even more important for me. I adapt the recipes in such a way that I can eat the results without any problems. They taste just like “normal” goodies – you would never notice that they are lactose-free and contain very little fructose!

In this blog I want to present recipes which work for  me, with my lactose intolerance and fructose intolerance.

The point I have to stress is that food intolerances are a very individual thing.The fact that I can eat the goodies presented in this blog without problems does not mean that everyone who has lactose intolerance and fructose intolerance can tolerate them. This will always depend on your individual tolerance!

I am okay with sugar and do not have to substitute it. Butter is not a problem for me, as it contains only little lactose (up to about 0.6 g lactose per 100 g butter). I can also eat lactose-free products, which are not really lactose-free, but contain up to 0.1 g lactose per 100 g.

In my recipes I therefore use sugar, butter, and lactose-free milk products.

For those of you who do not have those intolerances: The recipes of course also taste great when made with “normal” ingredients!

I live in Austria, and I am not a native English speaker. I hope you will forgive the grammar/language mistakes I will undoubtedly make!

Peach Cobbler

I do not eat a lot of fruit, but since I tolerate peaches quite well, I´ll make an exception for this Peach Cobbler.

Peach Cobbler is a quick and delicious dessert. In summer I make it with fresh peaches, in this case with Styrian Peaches which I bought at the local market. Peach Cobbler also tastes great with canned or frozen peaches.

Peach Cobbler recipes often say that the Cobbler should be eaten warm, with vanilla ice-cream and/or whipped cream. That is probably a really good idea and sounds yummy. I just must admit that I have never eaten it that way. I always eat it on its own, warm as well as cold. I love the crust and the liquid that collects at the bottom of the dish. Okay, and the peaches in between as well.

Ingredients:
~4 cups (~ 600g) sliced peaches, fresh, canned, or frozen
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup (100 g) flour
1 cup (200 g) sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg
6 tablespoons (90 g) butter

Melt the butter over low temperature and put aside.

Place the sliced peaches into a medium baking pan of about 10 x 6 inches (26 cm x 15 cm). I use a medium-size oval baking pan.

Sprinkle the peaches with the lemon juice.

In a mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar and salt. Add the egg and toss with a fork until crumbly.

Spread the mixture evenly over the peaches and cover them completely.

Carefully sprinkle the melted butter over the mixture. If there are some small dry patches left, do not worry. The butter will seep into those patches while baking.

Bake at 375° F (190°C)for about 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly.

Note:
If I use fresh peaches for this recipe, I never peel them. It saves me a lot of work, and in my opinion it does not make much of a difference. The peaches´ skins are really soft after the baking process. I do not even notice them, unless I really look for them.

If you prefer to make the Cobbler with peeled peaches, put the whole peaches into boiling water for about 10 seconds, then take them out and immediately run cold water over them. They will peel easily after that.

I do not really like doing this since in my opinion the peaches are a little soft after this process and start losing their juices. Also, as I said, it is a lot of work.