I rarely bake low-fat things. If I haven't already told you, my motto is, if it doesn't taste good, why make it? But, in this case, I relented.
When I found this recipe for
Low-Fat Oatmeal Muffins, I thought I would for once give it a shot. Applesauce, oats, whole wheat flour, fresh berries - healthy right? And since it came from Joy the Baker I thought it had to be good. The original recipe called for fresh blueberries, but since I've never been a big fan of those I figured I'd go with raspberries instead.
Well, I'll be honest with you - they were...okay. Not great. Not awful, just okay. There were a few specific problems I had that could potentially be corrected.
Firstly, the raspberries I used weren't very sweet, they were actually quite tart, and so biting into one in the cakey muffin was sometimes an unwelcome surprise. For me anyway.
Also, the fresh berries made the muffin surrounding the berry a little wet, not overwhelmingly so, but noticeably so.
And I have to admit, I made a perhaps questionable substitution. As I was measuring out my oats, I realized I was about 1/4 cup short of the 1 1/4 cups the recipe called for. I searched around my kitchen, looking for anything that might work - and then I found some plain shredded wheat in the cereal section. Crushed some of that up, poured it in - and tada! Don't know if I would recommend that in the future, but I can't really say if it affected the recipe at all.
And, well, finally - they tasted low fat. I also felt the dough itself was a little bland - maybe increasing the brown sugar and the cinnamon just a touch would help. Then again, that's just me.
I don't want to discourage any of you from baking low-fat, there are great recipes out there - and I know alot of you have had success with splenda replacements for sugar and brown sugar alike.
So, go forth and bake! And then tell me about it please!
Tip of the Day: Substituting applesauce in baked goods works best in oil based recipes, not those with butter. If you're trying it, substitute the applesauce for oil 1 to 1, and then add 2 tbsp oil in addition. Good Luck!
Recipe: (from
Joy the Baker)
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp oil
1 egg
3/4 cup raspberries
Combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, combined the applesauce, buttermilk, sugar, oil and egg.
Pour the wet ingredients in to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. S
Fold in the raspberries.
Divide the batter in to 12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups.
Bake at 375 F for 16-18 minutes.
These simple cookies contain just egg whites, sugar, vanilla, and chocolate chips - so there is no substituting or leaving out ingredients for this week. And they're so easy too. Just whip them up, stick them in the oven, and forget about them.
The batter, if you can even call it that, is beautiful and shiny and white, and they puff up to pretty white puffs with a crispy outside and a chewy, sweet inside.
I used chocolate chips in these, but you can make them without any additions, or use chopped nuts - just keep it small so they don't weigh it down. I used mini chocolate chips, but if all you have is bigger, you can run your knife through them before you add them.
