Homemade Applesauce

I noticed a lot of gluten-free cake and muffin recipes called for apple sauce. Hence, the existence of this post!

Ingredients:

1. 12 medium-sized Red Delicious apples (peeled, cored and cut into 8 pieces for each apple)
2. 2 cups of freshly juiced apple juice
3. 3 teaspoons of soft brown sugar (*optional) (you can omit this)
4. A squeeze of lemon

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1. Put all the cut apples into a large pot.

2. Pour the apple juice, sugar and lemon juice into the pot.

3. Mix everything up.

4. Cook the apple concoction on medium heat until it boils. Then bring it down to a simmer for approximately 20 minutes.

5. Once the apples have softened, transfer the apples in small batches to a food processor.

6. Once they are all pureed, pour the pureed apple sauce into another pot and bring it to a boil.

7. Allow to cool.

8. You can keep them in mason jars or freezer bags. I kept mine in small freezer bags and kept them in the freezer.

Bon appétit!

Heavenly! *Slurp!*

The Bitch Called G

G and I were best friends. I mean, I LOVE G. Couldn't live without G. And I'm sure G love(d) me too as G did not give me any problems at all back then.

And then it started......

G started hurting me.

Caused me pain.

So much misery.

That all I could do was lie in bed and cry.

And yet, after all the pain and misery that G has inflicted upon me, I still love G. And would accept G back into my life in a heartbeat.

You must be wondering who G is.

G is G.L.U.T.E.N!!!!!

I had somehow become gluten intolerant.

It was sometime after the surgery end last year that this intolerance/sensitivity started. The first time I noticed was some bloating after drinking barley water. Did not give it much thought though.

And then I ate some red bean bun and thought that I had come down with some sort of food poisoning.

Soon, oats gave me diarrhoea so bad that I thought my entrails would be expunged.

And slowly it escalated to weekly episodes.

I was constantly feeling ill. Cold sweat, nauseated, always felt as though I was coming down with influenza or some killer-virus, severe migraine for no apparent reason, diarrhoea, sharp and excruciating pain in the abdomen, feverish, severe bone-crushing-pain, a strange metallic taste in my mouth and paranoia. It was happening so frequently that Joel told me that something was very wrong for me to be feeling unwell so frequently. I was consuming so much porridge at one point that some of my friends started asking me whether I was eating or not. I was losing weight. I was exhausted. I couldn't sleep. And all I was consuming was LOW in salicylates!!! What the hell was I doing wrong??????

So I started keeping track of the weekly attacks that soon became almost daily.

Biscuits, bread, cakes, flour, barley, oats, muffins, white sauce...etc.

It all came down to gluten.....

So I thought it was celiac. But nope, the blood tests showed that it isn't. The blood tests also showed that I am not allergic to wheat or barley or oats. I have been on a gluten-free diet for about a month. I improved. I wasn't sick anymore. And so I experimented by consuming something with gluten again. And WHAM! I was sick all over again.

I saw Dr. Yadav and he said that it was obvious that I had developed some intolerance/sensitivity to gluten.

I guess my relationship with G can never be mended......

Boo-hoo.

(But I know that there are gluten-free oats that are sold! Hehe...)

Gluten-Free Cookies

*Attention: I am still in the midst of improving this recipe! As of now, this is one of the food which I am having for snacks.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups of white rice flour

2. 2 cups of brown rice flour

3. 1 cup of tapioca starch

4. 2/3 cup of potato starch

5. 1 1/2 teaspoons of xanthan gum

6. 1/2 teaspoon of sea-salt

7. Sunflower oil

8. 1 cup of rice milk (for recipe, click on LINK)

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1. Mix all the ingredients above until everything is well blended.

2. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

3. Preheat oven to 170C.

4. Take golf ball sizes of dough and flatten them with the palm of your hand.

5. Repeat step 4 until all dough is used up.

6. Bake for approximately 20 to 25 minutes.

7. Allow to cool.

Bon appétit!

Gluten-Free Banana Cake

Ingredients:

1. 50gm of glutinous rice flour
2. 150gm of white rice flour
3. 25gm of brown rice flour
4. 1 teaspoon of baking soda
5. 4 eggs (room temperature) - beaten
6. 5 medium sized bananas (mashed)
7. 1/4 cup sugar
8. 1/2 cup of rice milk (for recipe, click on LINK)
9. 1/3 cup of sunflower oil
10. 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
11. 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds

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1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, baking soda and sunflower seeds.

2. In another mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, bananas, sugar, milk, oil and vanilla until combined.

3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until all are mixed well.

4. Preheat oven to 170C.

5. Line baking tray with baking paper.

6. Pour mixture into baking tray and bake for approximately 20 minutes.

7. Allow to cool.

Bon appétit!

Gluten-Free Moist & Fluffy Butter Cake

Ingredients:

1. 250gm salted butter (melted butter)
2. 50gm of fine sugar
3. 50gm of sweet rice flour (this is also known as glutinous rice)
4. 250gm of white rice flour
5. 8-medium sized eggs
6. 1 teaspoon of baking powder
7. 1 teaspoon of baking soda
8. 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

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1. In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter and the sugar together. 

2. Separate the egg whites and yolks.

3. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

4. In another bowl, beat the yolks.

5. Add the egg yolks into the butter/sugar mixture bit by bit while stirring continuously.

6. Then add in the egg whites into the mixture bit by bit while stirring continuously.

7. Add in the vanilla extract.

8. Fold in the flour, baking powder and baking soda little by little and mix with the spatula.

9. Preheat oven at 170C.

10. Line a cake tray with baking paper.

11. Pour mixture into it and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown.

12. Set aside to cool.

Bon appétit!

P.S: I'm beginning to get the hang of gluten-free cooking!

Cooking For Joel: The Perfect Milk

Ingredients:

1. 3 tablespoons of brown rice
2. 1/2 tablespoon of quinoa
3. 1.4 litres of water
4. *Optional: Brown sugar

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1. Wash the rice and quinoa and soak it for an hour in the fridge.

2. Pour the water away and give it a rinse.

3. I used my Philips soya maker for the next step. If you do not own one, you can blend the mixture with the water and then strain the liquid out. You can also blend the mixture, boil it and then strain it. Or you can boil the rice with water until everything becomes mashy and then strain the liquid out.

4. The soya maker pulverized the rice and boiled it for approximately 25 minutes.

5. I did not sieve the milk out this time. We drank everything. It was as good.

Bon appétit!