Recipes for Bad Bellies: Fructose Friendly Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Muffins

For those that celebrate it, I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter holidays!

And as we say goodbye to Easter for another year, I decided to try something a bit different – Hot Cross Muffins. There have been a few recipes floating around online recently, but I chose to adapt this one by Anna from FODMAP Journey.

The main differences from this recipe were that I used raw brown sugar (because that was all I had), chocolate chips instead of dried fruit (because I am a chocoholic – and dried fruit can be tricky for me), and piped on the white chocolate crosses (for a bit of a different look). They also turned out to be more like cupcakes, perhaps because my muffin tins were a bit bigger than what Anna used – I used two tins of 12, which made 24 muffins/cupcakes in total.

Ingredients

225g butter, melted

200g raw brown sugar

150g almond meal

100g buckwheat flour

1 tsp mixed spice

1 ½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

3 whole eggs, whisked

140g milk chocolate chips

The rind of 2 oranges

3 tbsp orange juice

50g white chocolate

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 170°C, and line two muffin tins with paper muffin or cupcake cases.
• Whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar.
• In a separate bowl, combine the almond meal, buckwheat flour, salt, mixed spice and baking powder. Then, slowly add this mixture to the sugar and butter.
• Add the eggs, orange juice and rind and beat well with an electric hand mixer. Then, gently fold in the chocolate chips, making sure to leave lots of air in the mixture.
• Pour the mixture evenly into the muffin cases, and put in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
• Take out of the oven and allow to cool. 
• Once cooled, slowly melt the white chocolate (careful that it doesn't burn!), and then pour it into a piping bag and pipe the crosses onto the muffins - be creative!

I found that these have an interesting mixture of spices, chocolate and orange - almost like a Jaffa taste! They also go very nicely with a dollop of cream! :)

Recipes for Bad Bellies: Fructose Friendly Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding

I have recently been experimenting with making chia seed puddings, and making them fructose friendly. In today’s post I will share these experiences with you and give you my favourite recipe so far – Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding.

Chia seeds come from the flower Salvia hispanica (see photo below), and originated in Central America. There is a good reason that chia seeds are called a “superfood” – they are high in dietary fibre, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, manganese, phosphorus, and protein, and low in cholesterol. They are also gluten free and low in FODMAPs, and therefore fructose friendly! However note that some people with IBS can have trouble with chia seeds – perhaps because of the fibre.

The below recipe for Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding is adapted from this recipe by Minimalist Baker.

Ingredients

1/3 cup chia seeds

1 cup milk

½ cup cream

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

• Mix milk, cream, cocoa powder, maple syrup, cinnamon and vanilla extract in a bowl. Add chia seeds and stir well.
• Immediately pour the mixture into a mason jar, and place in the fridge to set overnight. It will be very runny at first, but will be thick and almost jelly-like once it has set.

I usually like eating this pudding with strawberries on the side, and it also lasts 2-3 days as it is quite filling!

Enjoy!

Recipes for Bad Bellies: Fructose Friendly Ice Cream

I have recently been experimenting with making ice cream, using my ice cream machine, and adapting recipes to make them more fructose friendly. So far, I have been using recipes from The Ice Cream Book, by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis. I would like to share a couple of these with you in today's post.

For now, I will focus on cream-based ice cream, which is made with a custard.

The basic recipe for the custard is as follows:

Ingredients

4 egg yolks

75g caster sugar

1 tsp corn flour (which I substituted with potato flour)

300ml low fat milk

300ml whipping cream

Instructions

• Whisk the egg yolks, caster sugar and cornflour (or potato flour) until the mixture is thick and foamy.
• Pour the low fat milk into a large saucepan. Heat the milk on the stove and bring it just to a boil, and then slowly pour in the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly.
• Using a double boiler technique (one pan with water underneath the pan with the custard), heat the custard slowly, stirring constantly. Once it thickens and the colour turns from off-white to yellow, remove from the heat and leave to cool.

• Add additional flavours (see below).
• Once the custard and other ingredients have cooled, stir in the whipping cream and then add the whole mixture to the ice cream machine. Churn for 25-30min until thick. Once ready, spoon the ice cream out of the ice cream machine and into a plastic container, then leave in freezer to set over night.

Note that I substituted potato flour for the corn flour, as potato flour has a similar consistency to corn flour and does not have a strong flavor. Considering the corn flour is just used as a thickening agent, potato flour is sufficient as a substitute.

Using this custard base, I have made two variations of ice cream – Chocolate Ripple, and Chunky Chocolate. 

Below are my versions of these recipes:

Chocolate Ripple Ice Cream

Additional ingredients

250g dark chocolate, broken into squares

25g butter

30ml golden syrup

90ml full cream

Instructions

• After preparing the custard mixture, add 150g of dark chocolate and stir until melted. Remove this chocolate custard mixture from the heat and leave to cool.

• Put the remaining dark chocolate into another saucepan and add the butter. Heat gently, stirring until melted and combined. Add the full cream and heat until smooth, then remove from the heat and leave to cool.
• Once the custard mixture and whipping cream have been churned in the ice cream machine, spoon out the ice cream into a plastic container, alternating layers of ice cream and chocolate sauce. This recipe makes approximately 1.5L of ice cream. Leave in freezer to set over night.

Note that the use of golden syrup in this recipe means that it is already fructose friendly, as golden syrup is a fructose friendly alternative to honey.

Chunky Chocolate Ice Cream

Additional ingredients

200g milk chocolate

50g dark chocolate

50g white chocolate

Instructions

• Once the custard mixture has been prepared, add break 150g of milk chocolate into small pieces and add to the custard, and stir over the heat until melted. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
• Chop the remaining milk chocolate, as well as the dark chocolate and white chocolate. Mix the three types of chocolate in a bowel and leave to the side.
• Once the chocolate custard mixture and whipping cream have been churned in the ice cream machine, gently fold in the chocolate pieces. Spoon out the ice cream into a plastic container, and then leave in the freezer to set over night. This recipe makes approximately 1.5L of ice cream.

Recipes for Bad Bellies: Spaghetti with Herbed Beef Meatballs

Here is my first cooking-related post! I am not the best cook in the world, but I am making more of an effort these days to cook for myself more and try out different types of recipes that will have a minimal effect on my belly – and also improve my cooking skills in the process!

This recipe is based on the “Herbed beef meatballs with creamy potato nutmeg mash” recipe from the book Food Intolerance Management Plan by Dr. Sue Shepherd. I have made it with mashed potato before, with some green veggies as well, however this time I decided to try the meatballs with a tomato-based sauce and gluten free spaghetti instead. The sauce is my own recipe. Overall, this recipe should make enough to serve 4-6 people.

Ingredients 

For the meatballs:
600g lean minced beef

½ cup gluten free bread crumbs

3 eggs, lightly beaten

Your choice of herbs

Salt and ground black pepper

For the sauce:
1 bottle of tomato passata

1 can of diced tomatoes

Your choice of herbs

Salt and ground black pepper

1-2 packets of gluten free spaghetti, or other pasta
Cooking oil

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• Combine minced beef, eggs, bread crumbs, herbs, salt and pepper into a large bowel and mix well. 
• Using your hands, roll the meatball mixture into walnut-sized balls. Spread them out on a large plate and cover with cling wrap. Put the plate with the meatballs into the fridge to set for 10-15min. Tip: The meatballs will be easier to roll if you wet your hands with water first. 
• Bring a pot of water to the boil to cook the spaghetti. Once the water comes to the boil, add the spaghetti and cook for approximately 10min, or to the consistency you prefer. 
• Heat up a large frying pan with a small amount of cooking oil. Depending on the size of your pan, fry 8-12 meatballs at a time, for about 5min per batch, so that the outside surfaces are sealed. 
• Line a tray with baking paper. Once the meatballs are fried on the outside, place them on the tray and put the tray into the oven to cook further while you fry the next batch. Once all of the meatballs are fried and in the oven, leave them for another 5-10min, or until browned and cooked through. 
• While the meatballs are cooking in the oven, combine the tomato passata, canned tomatoes, herbs, salt and pepper in the frying pan, and heat the sauce on a simmer. 
• Once the meatballs are cooked through in the oven, add them to the sauce and gently stir through so that the meatballs are coated in the sauce. Add to the cooked spaghetti and serve, with a little bit of cheese on top! 

Here is a photo of my efforts:

For this recipe, I used some very specific products for most of my ingredients, which I have found to be useful for limiting the amount of fructose in my meals. All of these were bought from my local Woolworths supermarket.

Here are some notes about these products, apart from the minced beef, eggs, salt and pepper, which are just standard products.

Bread crumbs – This time I used the “Gluten Free Bread Crumbs” from the shop GlutenFree4U, because it was also marked as being “fructose friendly,” but I have also previously used the “All Purpose Rice Crumbs” by Orgran.

Herbs – I used the “Italian Herbs stir-in paste” by Gourmet Garden, which is good because it is an easy way to add herbs, without any additives that could affect my belly.

Tomato passata – My favourite tomato passata is by Val Verde, and it is great for sauces because it is just a pure tomato puree, and therefore without any added onion powder or garlic.

Canned tomatoes – Along with the passata, I used diced tomatoes in this recipe to add some texture to the sauce. Because they do not have any onion or garlic, canned tomatoes are a good base to make your own fructose free pasta sauce. There are two brands that I like to use: Ardmona, and Macro.

Spaghetti – For this recipe I used the San Remo “Gluten Free Spaghetti” (see image below), which is a good option because it is made with a variety of flours. However, it is not completely fructose free, so it does sometimes make my belly a little bloated. Some other good alternatives that I have tried are potato gnocchi, in particular the Golden Pasta range because it has a very small amount of wheat flour, or the Buon Appetito rice pasta range, which are made with only rice flour. Tip: I have found that the gluten free pastas don’t freeze well after cooked, so be careful with your portion sizes when cooking the pasta if you are planning to have leftovers.