Low Fat Banana Muffins

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Low Fat Banana MuffinsI’ve read about how applesauce can be used in baked goods in place of fats such as eggs, oil, and butter but hadn’t tried the substitution until now. And I’m happy to report it’s a good substitution!

Of course, these muffins are not meant to replace my favorite banana bread. They are simply a low fat alternative, and even with the chocolate chips they are still only three points each. They’re easy (no need for a mixer!), moist and flavorful, and lighter than I was expecting after reading some of the reviews.

The lightness may be because I made muffins rather than a loaf (I like wrapping them individually then freezing them so I can defrost one at a time). I made the mistake of using paper liners, and the muffins completely stuck to them so I suggest spraying a muffin tin with Pam and forgoing the liners.

Photos of the process here.

Ingredients
4 very ripe bananas
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar (I used Splenda Sugar Blend)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
4 tablespoons applesauce (I made my own)
1/2 cup chocolate chips, optional

Preparation

  1. Mash bananas in a bowl.
  2. Add all other ingredients and mix well.
  3. Pour into greased loaf pan.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes if making muffins (or 50 to 60 minutes if making a loaf), or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

Yields 16 muffins or one loaf.

Recipe adapted from Recipe Zaar.

May 21, 2009 | Filed Under Bread, Low Fat Desserts, Muffins | 11 Comments 

Snickerdoodle Muffins

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Snickerdoodle MuffinsI bookmarked this recipe a couple years ago, after a friend sent me a link to a blog post about a food blogger who received an email from a reader asking for a refund because she tried this recipe on the blog and didn’t like it. I kid you not.

While I have received emails and comments from people not liking a recipe and calling it a waste of money, I have never been asked for a refund. (I just don’t understand some people!)

These muffins are good–they’re moist, fluffy, and taste like a snickerdoodle, but look like a muffin. While they’re easy to make, they are a little messy but definitely worth it. And they’re also a nice change from everyday chocolate chip or berry muffins.

Photos of the process here.

Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp cream of tarter
¾ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 and ¼ cup sour cream
2 and ¼ cups all purpose flour
plus 1 cup sugar and 2 TBSP cinnamon mixed together for rolling

Preparation

  1. Cream the butter and sugar until soft about 3 to 5 minutes. Add in the vanilla. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix until each is incorporated.
  2. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cream of tarter.
  3. Add the flour mixture and the sour cream alternately to the egg-butter mixture in three additions. Start with the flour and end with the flour. Scrape the bowl occasionally.
  4. Using an ice cream scoop (I used a large cookie scoop), scoop out muffin batter one at a time and drop into a shallow bowl filled with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the muffin around in the mixture until it is covered completely in cinnamon sugar. Place muffin into a greased muffin tin. Depending on the size of your tins, you should get about 12 to 14 muffins (I got 18).
  5. Bake them for approximately 20-22 minutes in a 350F degree oven or until they are golden brown.

Recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.

May 7, 2009 | Filed Under Muffins | 13 Comments 

Low(er) Fat Lemon-Raspberry Muffins

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Low-Fat Lemon-Raspberry MuffinsAs I’ve mentioned before, I’m watching what I eat (I’ve lost 4 pounds thus far, yay!) and am always looking for good low(er) fat and low(er) calorie recipes that don’t have weird ingredients in them. Fortunately, I stumbled upon this recipe.

The muffins are moist, flavorful, filled with fruit, and only four points each! (Update: These got a thumbs down the next day from my family. Oh well.) Also, I found it interesting that the recipe calls for grinding the sugar (or in my case, Splenda blend) with the lemon zest. I think I may try that next time I make sugar cookies.

Ingredients
1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup nonfat buttermilk (I could only find low-fat)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white whole-wheat flour or whole-wheat pastry flour (see Shopping Tip)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (not thawed) raspberries

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 large (1/2-cup) muffin cups with cooking spray or line with paper liners.
  2. Zest one lemon. (If you don’t have a Microplane zester, treat yourself to one!) Combine the zest and sugar in a food processor; pulse until the zest is very finely chopped into the sugar. Add buttermilk, oil, egg and vanilla and pulse until blended.
  3. Combine whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture and fold until almost blended. Gently fold in raspberries. Divide the batter among the muffin cups.
  4. Bake the muffins until the edges and tops are golden, 20 to 25 minutes. (Mine took about 18 minutes.) Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm.

Recipe from Eating Well.
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April 16, 2009 | Filed Under Low Fat Desserts, Muffins, Weight Watchers | 6 Comments 

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins

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Vegan Pumpkin MuffinsLast year we spent Thanksgiving in Texas with family, which includes my cousin and his wife whom have been vegan for years. So the challenge was to find a vegan recipe that would not only wow the vegans, but the non-vegans as well.

This recipe definitely did just that, and these goodies have now become a regular addition to our Thanksgiving meal. The muffins are soft, moist, and flavorful and the common reaction is, “These are so good, I never would have guessed they were vegan!”

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photos of the process here.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup pureed pumpkin (fresh or from a can)
1 tablespoon soy yogurt
1/2 cup soymilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons molasses

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease muffin tins with vegetable shortening or spray on oil.

Sift together dry ingredients (flour through cloves). In a separate bowl, wisk together wet ingredients (pumpkin through molasses). Pour wet into dry and combine. Fill muffin tins 2/3 of the way. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Recipe from Post Punk Kitchen.

November 27, 2008 | Filed Under Muffins, Thanksgiving, Vegan | 6 Comments 

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes/Muffins/Cookies

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Chocolate Chip Cupcake/Muffin/CookieI would probably call these “Blondies with Chocolate Chips” but who am I to change a recipe title? Don’t let the name fool you–aside from the fact they are baked in cupcake tins, they are nothing like a cupcake–they are buttery and chewy like a blondie. And they are quite delicious. So much in fact, one of my coworkers said these may be his new favorite and ranked them up there with cake balls. I know!

As you can see from the picture, mine are ugly. I omitted the nuts in the topping so I was left with a goopy chocolate chip mixture (which tastes delicious just looks sort of blah). Also, I was out of mini chips so I had to use regular size and I think they are entirely too large for the petite size of the cupcake/muffin/cookie. All that aside, I’d still eat them. In fact, I uh, may have had a few.

Photos of the process here.

Cupcake Ingedients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cupcake Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°. Line miniature muffin pans and coat with cooking spray.

Beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add vanilla extract and mix well. Add egg and beat until blended.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to butter mixture, mixing just until combined.

Spoon about 1 & 1/2 teaspoons batter into each muffin cup. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Topping Ingredients
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping Preparation
Beat brown sugar, egg, and salt until blended. Stir in chocolate chips, pecans, and vanilla.

After cupcakes have been baked, spoon topping mixture over each cupcake. Bake for 8-10 more minutes.

Makes about 3 dozen cupcakes.

Recipe from Bake or Break.

August 27, 2008 | Filed Under Brownies and Blondies, Cakes and Cupcakes, Cookies and Bars, Muffins | 11 Comments 

Low Fat Chocolate Chunk Muffins

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Usually when you hear the words low fat you think of bland, dry, or flavorless baked goods. I’m happy to report that is not the case with these muffins. These are moist, chocolately, and flavorful! And as an added bonus, they are easy to make and don’t even require a mixer.

Lowfat Chocolate Muffins
Photos of the process here.

Since it’s Mother’s Day weekend and I’m down in San Diego at my parents’ house, I wanted to make these for my mom. After going through her cupboards, I realized she doesn’t have a mini muffin tin so I decided to double the recipe and make a dozen regular size muffins rather than 18 mini muffins. (From my experience, three minis usually equal one regular size muffin.) I also used whole wheat baking flour instead of all-purpose flour and Splenda instead of sugar. You can’t even tell I made any substitutions.

Ingredients
1 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar or 1/2 cup sugar if you like your muffins sweeter
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup light sour cream
scant 1/2 cup 2% milk
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 egg white
3.5 ounces chopped dark chocolate

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and position a rack in the center of the oven. Measure all of the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl, and whisk together. In a separate bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients and whisk to combine, trying to get as many lumps as possible out of the sour cream. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients all at once and stir to incorporate. Once mixture in combined, fold in the chocolate chunks.

Grease a mini muffin pan. Scoop the muffin batter into a tin with a tablespoon measuring spoon, using one tablespoon of batter per muffin cup. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the muffin tins for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Recipe from Joy The Baker.

May 9, 2008 | Filed Under Low Fat Desserts, Muffins | 12 Comments