The Perpetual Feast

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.