Blueberry Muffins

So I made these horrendous mexican chocolate snickerdoodle cookies a while back. I say horrendous because I tried to make them healthy. That's right, I broke the cardinal rule of baking: I attempted to alter a recipe that I had never used to begin with. And what's worse is that I attempted to make them healthy by substituting applesauce for the oil in the recipe. The oil -- that's why I thought I could get away with it. Of course you can't substitute applesauce for butter, but surely if a recipe calls for oil, then using applesauce is totally legit, right?

Fail.

However, the experience got me thinking -- these cookies came out all nasty and cake-y and weird. However, if you have something that's already meant to be cake-y, then applesauce could work as a substitute, virtually eliminating the fat from the recipe, right? Then, I realized I had been going about this all wrong. Let cookies have their fat -- they need it. But what doesn't need a lot of fat?

Blueberry Muffins.

I started with a basic recipe for blueberry muffins with a crumb topping. I still want to tweak some things. In particular, the muffins I made also contain raspberries simply because I had some extra laying around. The raspberries were tasty, but they didn't do too much for the structural integrity of the muffin, that's for certain. In terms of fat, there is still an egg yolk in the recipe, but I eliminated the oil, replacing it, quite successfully I might add, with a mixture of applesauce and nonfat greek yogurt (my new kitchen baking staple). The results were a firm muffin with a coarse crumb -- just how I like them. Like I said, I still need to do some tweaking, but this is a great place to start. I should note too that I may be on a muffin kick soon - they're one of my favorite foods, and I've never been 100% happy with how they turn out... at least up to this point.

Healthier Option: Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup nonfat greek yogurt
1 egg
zest of 1 lemon
1/3 cup milk

1 cup fresh blueberries

Crumb Topping
1/2 cup sugar (a mix of white and brown is delightful)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp butter, cubed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a muffin tin either by greasing and flouring the muffin cups or by using paper liners.

In a bowl, whisk all of the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl combine the applesauce, yogurt, egg,lemon zest, and milk. Pour the wet ingredients on top of the dry ingredients and stir or whisk together, just until combined. Avoid overmixing the batter -- I count to 10 and then stop. Gently fold in the blueberries.

Prepare the crumb topping: mix the sugar, flour, and cinnamon together. Cut in the butter until crumbs form.*

Fill the muffin cups to the top with batter and top with crumb topping. Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes. Start checking after 20, just to be safe but the muffins should be brown and puffed up. Rotating the pan may be necessary halfway through cooking if your oven heats unevenly. For me, this yielded 8 muffins in a 1/2-cup capacity muffin tin.



*I didn't substitute or alter the crumb topping in order to make it healthier. I did however, only use about half of the crumb topping for all of the muffins. Of course, you could simply eliminate it altogether.

I've really needed to post some things...

But school has taken a turn for the crazy, hence my absence for the last two months. I definitely love writing in my blog and logging my recipes. It's something I plan on making time for in the future. I've even been working on a new Wordpress blog to replace this one since blogger's format is getting a bit old for me.

Either way I have about three interesting things I've been working on. First up is a new, light alfredo sauce I got from a Runner's World magazine. It sounded delicious, but I was concerned because I had previously tried a recipe from Runner's World that was kind of a total failure - as in, there was no fixing it - damned "pasta toss."

But it is Runner's World, not Chef's Wold.

Either way, this lighter alfredo sauce was AMAZING. Rocco DiSpirito provided the recipe and his trick was to use chicken stock and 5% greek yogurt to mimick the creaminess of alfredo sauce. BRILLIANT. Additionally, it removed the need for loads of butter and cream. I went a step further and used 0% (that's right, fat free) Fage greek yogurt. The results were nothing short of amazing. Now, of course, parmesan cheese still does contain some fat, but over all, this is definitely a healthier version.

Light Alfredo Sauce

2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp butter

2 tsp cornstarch
pinch of nutmeg
3/4 cup chicken broth

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided
3/4 cup nonfat greek yogurt

Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for two minutes. In the mean time, combine the cornstarch, nutmeg, and chicken broth, stirring until the cornstarch is dissolved. Add the chicken broth to the garlic and bring to a simmer, raising the heat slightly, if necessary. Let the mixture thicken slightly, then add 1/2 cup of the parmesan cheese. Stir or whisk until the cheese is melted. Remove from heat and whisk in the yogurt until smooth and creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Use the reserved parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top of the dish.

I tossed this with some leftover spaghetti (I know I know, not the best sauce/pasta combo but it's what I had on hand) and some broccoli. The result was delightful, ridiculously easy to make, and comparatively healthy.


Next up is Alton Brown's pancake mix. I've recently been re-watching some Good Eats dvds I got from my wonderful friend Anne, and I've realized how necessary it is to get back to the basics sometimes. Brown's pancake mix will no doubt succeed so, having not tried to make a pancake with it yet, I have no hesitation in posting the recipe so that, in the future, I don't have to pull out the dvd again.

Alton Brown's Pancake Mix
(This can be doubled to the extent of making 6 times this recipe)

1 cup All-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Combine well and SHAKE!!!

For each cup of dry mix, you'll need the following wet ingredients:

2 tbsp melted butter
1 egg, separated
1 cup buttermilk

Combine the egg yolk with the butter and the egg white with the buttermilk. Whisk the liquid ingredients together. In a separate bowl, scoop out one cup of the pancake mix. Pour the wet ingredients on top of the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined (AB did it for a count of 10 seconds).

Heat griddle to 350 degrees and go wild. Wait for bubbles to appear on one side before flipping the pancakes.

I plan on trying these out tomorrow, but I have no doubt they'll work just fine.


The final food item I've been working on is a cold oatmeal. I love oatmeal - as far as breakfasts are concerned, it's hard to beat oatmeal - but it's decidedly a cool-weather food. So I've been experimenting, perhaps most successfully with soaking oats over night in applesauce in the refrigerator. Add some cinnamon and raisins and you've got a pretty delectable morning ahead of you. It will take time and experimentation though. I'd love to incorporate bananas into it. On a separate note - I just had a thought - why not carrot fettucini noodles and broccoli alfredo? That will be my dinner tomorrow night...