American Baker in Germany

I've been baking for years. I started baking around age twelve. I'd never tried to bake lactose free before. And then my then four-year-old daughter was diagnosed as lactose intolerant. It surprised me. I thought to myself, "What am I going to do now? What about birthday cakes? Cookies? Can my daughter still have these things?" I wasn't sure where to start. What exactly can she have and what can't she have? So, let's talk about lactose intolerance for a moment. Lactose intolerance is a lack of an enyzme or an insufficient amount of an enzyme called lactase in the intestines. Lactase breaks down lactose to a simpler sugar and makes it possible to digest. It is not an allergy. Allergies are an overreaction of the immune system. Lactose intolerance doesn't involve the immune system. Symptoms of lactose intolerance include: stomach aches, gas, diarrhea or constipation, nausea, vomiting, weakness, lack of appetite and if it's not diagnosed for a lon...

It came to mind a while back that I had never made a cheesecake since I've lived in Germany. But I'd also never made a lactose free cheesecake before. But with my lactose intolerant four-year-old, I couldn't make another kind. You can get lactose free products in most grocery stores these days, but different brands are available in different stores. If a different brand is available in your local grocery, it should work just as well. I used the recipe from the food network found here.  https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/cheesecake-recipe2-2011459 A few ingredients needed substitutions. There are no graham crackers in Germany, so I used butter cookies instead. And I couldn't find lactose free sour cream at my local grocery store, so I substituted lactose free quark. I combined the butter cookie crumbs with the melted butter and a bit of sugar.  I pressed them in the bottom of my 9 inch cake pan and put them in the oven.  While the base w...