The snow is finally melting! I can see parts of my truck and driveway. For three mornings in a row, I did not have to shovel snow!! What will I do with all the free time.
Obviously, I’ll cook. I bake muffins about once a week. They go in my lunch bag and make a great late night snack. I occasionally (today) eat a muffin and fruit for breakfast. These muffins are a little different because they are made with fresh ginger, which gives them a little bite. They are not dark brown, like most gingery baked goods. I did not have to alter the original recipe from Cooking Light, because they were already quite low fat.
Lemon-Ginger Muffins
1 cup sugar, divided
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ cup chopped peeled fresh ginger (yes, I’m lazy; I use the fresh chopped ginger from the jar)
1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest (the outer yellow layer of the lemon skin)
2 cups plus two Tablespoons all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup low fat buttermilk
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg
1 large egg white
Cooking spray
Preheat oven to 375. Spray 12 muffin cups with cooking spray. Combine 1 tablespoon of the sugar, ground ginger, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside.
Combine fresh ginger, sugar, and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Whisk together and set aside (if you are using whole ginger, you will need to grind this mix together in a food processor until finely minced, but since I am lazy I skipped this step by using the prepared ginger.)
Combine remaining sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Make an indentation in the center of the flour mixture. Combine the ginger mixture, buttermilk, applesauce, oil, egg and egg white; stir well with a whisk. Add to the flour mixture, stirring until just moist.
Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon cinnamon mixture over each muffin. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from pans immediately and cool on a wire rack. Makes 12 muffins at about 2 grams of fat/muffin.
Note: The originally recipe called for prune butter as the fat replacement, but this product has essentially disappeared from local groceries. I think applesauce made a good replacement, but if you have prune butter you could use it.
Variation: I didn’t have blueberries in the house, but I think that these would be very good with a cup of blueberries in the batter.
0 Responses to “Lemon-Ginger Muffins”