Recently I was diagnosed with Fructose Malabsorption (also called Dietary Fructose Intolerance). I had not been feeling well for years but assumed it was due to female-related issues. Well, I had mixed emotions getting this diagnosis. Part of me was relieved to know what was wrong and glad that I could feel better by "simply" changing my diet. The other part of me was devastated. I have always liked to cook and bake and it seemed like all of my favorite items to cook with (flour, sugar, onion, garlic, tomatoes, apples, pears, etc., etc., etc.) were either off-limits or needed to be greatly limited. I had no idea so many different foods contained fructose or fructans. This diagnosis also greatly limits the pre-packaged foods/processed foods that I can have because so many things have high-fructose corn syrup, honey, lots of sugar, or other no-no ingredients. BUMMER.
Well, I've been on the search for recipes that are low-fructose friendly and let me tell you it's not that easy. I have found quite a few recipes but a lot of them sound very unappealing to me. I've also tried some that I thought sounded good and did not turn out at all. So...I thought as I found good recipes, I would share them here. This will help me keep track of the good ones and may also help someone else out there facing this same struggle. *Note: apparently everyone with fructose malabsorption has different tolerance levels for certain foods. So not everything I use will be tolerable for everyone else.
I really wanted pancakes today but since my go-to pancake recipe consists of wheat flour (contains fructans) and sugar (which is made up of 1 part glucose and 1 part fructose so is tolerable for some in small amounts only) I needed to find an alternative. I ended up finding this recipe for Banana-Oat Blender Pancakes from Mountain Mama Cooks. It sounded pretty good but I ended up needing to make some substitutions since I can't have honey and only had regular skim milk to work with (luckily I am not lactose intolerant!!). I also wanted to make sure the pancakes were sweet enough so that's why I made some of the substitutions I did.
Here's my Recipe for Low Fructose/Gluten-Free Oat-Banana Pancakes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup oat flour
1 1/4 cup milk
2 small ripe bananas (that's what I had)
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 Tablespoon real maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
Butter for griddle
Instructions:
1) Place all ingredients (except the egg and butter) in a blender and mix until smooth (what a great idea from Mountain Mama Cooks!) Add egg and pulse a few times until mixed in.
2) Heat griddle to medium heat. Melt some butter on the griddle. Scoop the batter onto the griddle and heat the pancakes until they are golden brown on each side.
3) Serve hot with real maple syrup.
These really were pretty good. They tasted a lot like banana bread. Paul and Alexa even liked them and this says a lot!
