Monday, January 22, 2007

Cranberry Muffins


Cranberry Muffins

These must have tasted much better if I hadn’t substituted butter with canola oil and yogurt. I just felt like "healthier" muffins all the sudden today. Maybe the idea wasn’t too terrible, but the problem was the proportion :P And maybe I didn’t need to add soy milk at all. But the toasted walnuts and coconut flakes, along with the slightly tart dried cranberries, made the muffins pretty tasty, so this was not a total failure after all.

I’ll try again and post a recipe then (if I had a success).
;)


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks delicious!

obachan said...

Thank you. Hey, you are in Hawaii now, right?
Have a great time!

Donna said...

Have you ever tried substituting the oil/butter with applesauce? It's not a direct substitution, I think you use slightly more applesauce and decrease any other liquids. I don't know how easy it is to get applesauce in Japan, but you can just cut up a couple of apples and cook them until soft enough to mash. I've done this for cakes and they turned out pretty good, there wasn't much difference in the texture or taste.

Anonymous said...

Hey Obachan,
A rule of thumb to use when making muffins is basically keep the liquid to dry ratio the same and you can make pretty well any substitution you want - ie, yoghurt, buttermilk, cream, milk, can all be used - or just plain water. Oil can substitute for butter, and you can cut down on the amount if you don't want the calories (it does taste better with even just a little bit of oil). Apple sauce or mashed bananas work as substitutes, but then you need to cut down on the amount of sugar that you use. And if you are using maple syrup or honey, then you cut back a bit on the liquids. The basic idea applies to sweet or savoury muffins, for instance goat cheese (feta) and zucchini, olive and lemon, etc...

The major thing is to mix the batter as little as possible (I keep myself to no more than 20 stirs) It should look lumpy and gloppy and pretty ugly. But after baking... you can't always judge a book by its cover.

obachan said...

donna
Applesauce! That’s it! Yeah, I’ve seen so many recipes using applesauce as a substitute for butter, and recipes for applesauce itself, too. And I LOVE canning. I don't know why it never occurred to me to make applesauce myself and use it for baking! Thank you, Donna, for inspiring me. I know what I’m going to do after work today. ;)

aja
Thank you! This really helps. I bet my apple sauce is going to be on the sweet side, even though I’m not going to add suger. The apples available here are usually sweet, not like tart cooking apples such as granny smith. So I think I’ll be needing less sugar when baking muffins. Sounds healthy! ;)
And yes, I tend to overmix the batter. Thanks for the advice. Now, wait for my post about improved version of cranberry muffins! :D