Pumpkin Raisin Muffins - Low Fat Recipe

Makes 16 servings

This low-fat version of the original is quite moist and tasty. Made with whole wheat flour and flaxseed at only 139 cals per serving, this makes the perfect breakfast on the go!

Ingredients
1/4 c flax seed
3/4 c all purpose flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup splenda
3/4 cup applesauce
14 oz canned pumpkin
1/3 cup whole milk
1 tsp white vinegar
2 eggs
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 tsp vanilla
Directions
Mix milk and vinegar in separate container. Let set for 5 mins. (This mixture replaces buttermilk)

Whisk together all dry ingredients. Then combine brown sugar, applesauce, pumpkin, milk, vanilla and eggs. Mix well. Stir/fold in raisins. Spoon into greased muffin pan or use paper muffin cups.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, Grease muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until tops spring back or insert toothpick until it comes back clean.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8 oz package cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 C butter (1/2 stick) at room temperature
4 C sifted powdered sugar (You can decrease this amount if you don't care about it being as stiff for piping)
1/2 C cocoa powder

Mix cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.
Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time.
Mix in cocoa powder.

from Cupcake Project

cottage cheese cornbread

(adapted from Closet Cooking)
1 c cornmeal
1 c flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 T brown sugar
2 eggs
1 c buttermilk
1 c cottage cheese
1/4 c canola oil
1 c frozen corn

Preheat oven to 375F. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the cornmeal through to the salt and set aside. In another bowl, mix up the sugar, buttermilk, cottage cheese and oil and then blend it with the dry ingredients. Stir in corn. Pour batter into a buttered baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the centre comes out clean.
from Everybody Likes Sandwiches

No Knead French Bread

3 cups of lukewarm water

1.5 tablespoons active dry yeast
1.5 tablespoons coarse salt

6.5 cups all-purpose flour

Grab a very large mixing bowl, or a large container that you can cover. In it, mix the water, yeast, and salt. You don’t have to heat up the water to a precise optimal temperature for the yeast. I’ve even used just regular tap water, and it’s worked well for me. Just let that sit together for a while (you don’t have to wait for the yeast to dissolve completely), then dump the flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon. You don’t need to knead this, and you’re not looking to make it come together into a dough ball. You just want everything mixed well, with no streaks of flour left, and you’re done.


Leave it in your container, covered (but not airtight, or it’ll pop), for a few hours. When it has risen and then deflated a bit, your dough is done. It’s ready to be used or stored in the refrigerator.

To bake the bread, just grab a chunk of dough, about the size of a grapefruit. Dust your hands with flour to help prevent sticking, and gently pull the sides of the dough toward the bottom, rotating the dough, until you get a roundish shape with a smooth surface. It should only take you about a minute or less to do this. The dough won’t be entirely in the bottom, where it may look bunched up, but don’t worry about it.


Put it on a cutting board that’s been dusted with cornmeal to prevent sticking, and let it rest for at least 40 minutes. No need to cover it. If the dough has been refrigerated, it helps to let it rest a little more, until it’s no longer chilled.


Twenty minutes before you are ready to bake, put a cast iron skillet (or a pizza stone) in the middle rack of your oven, and put a broiler pan (I used a cookie sheet) in the bottom rack. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Dust some flour on the top of your loaf, and slash the top, about 1/4-inch deep.

After twenty minutes of preheating, it’s time to bake. (You can put the bread in after 20 minutes, even if your oven hasn’t reached 450 degrees yet.) Slide the loaf onto the baking stone, and then quickly pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler pan. Then quickly shut the oven door to keep the steam inside.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until you get a nice brown crust. Remove and let cool completely, if you can wait that long.
from Honey & Jam

Sugar Donut Muffins

Sugar Donut Muffins
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk (low fat is fine)
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.  In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract.  Divide batter evenly into 10 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.  Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour remaining sugar into a small bowl.  When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from the pan and roll in sugar. Cool on a wire rack.  Makes 10 muffins.

(Makes about 24 mini-muffins.  Not sure about rolling in sugar... no butter=not much sugar sticking.  butter=wetish sugar and no storage.  Will see as they cool.  Muffin batter is good -- halved the nutmeg and still a bit too much for me.)

Fom Nicole @ Bakingbites

Satsuma Mandarin + Vanilla Upside-Down Cake

Satsuma Mandarin + Vanilla Upside-Down Cake      
Makes one 9-inch cake.
4 to 5 medium Satsuma mandarins (1 1/2 pounds), thinly sliced and seeded
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, save pod for another use (I used 1 t vanilla paste)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed Satsuma mandarin juice (from 1 mandarin)
1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon finely grated mandarin zest
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup whole milk
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook mandarins in a large pot of boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain. Arrange slices in a single layer on paper towels.

2. Place 1 stick of butter in a 9-by-2-inch round cake pan. Mix half the vanilla seeds and 1/2 cup sugar, then sprinkle over butter. Place in oven until butter melts, about 7 minutes. Carefully whisk in 2 tablespoons mandarin juice.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Cream zest and remaining 1 stick butter, 1 cup sugar, and vanilla seeds with a mixer until light and fluffy. With mixer running, add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce speed to low. Add half the flour mixture, then the milk and remaining 1 tablespoon juice. Beat in remaining flour mixture.

4. Arrange mandarin slices in a circle over sugar in pan, starting in the center and spiraling outward, overlapping slices slightly. (Use slices that are completely intact.) Gently spoon batter on top of mandarins, and spread evenly. Bake cake until golden brown and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool in pan on wire rack. Run a knife around edge of pan to loosen cake. Invert onto a serving plate, and let cool before serving. (Cake will keep, covered, for 1 day.)

Recommendations to halve the layer of butter.


From The Portland Pickle and Martha Stewart (original)

Red Lobster Cheese Biscuits

Red Lobster Cheese Biscuits
12 biscuits
Biscuits
2 cups Bisquick
3/4 cup Buttermilk
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
Topping
2 tbs butter
1/4 tsp Parsley Flakes
1 tsp Garlic Powder

Mix the ingredients together and either divide into 12 muffin tins, sprayed with cooking spray or make 12 drop biscuits on a pan, sprayed with cooking spray.
Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.
Check them at about 15 minutes.
Melt topping ingredients in microwave and brush on biscuits immediately after removing them from the oven.

Triple Lemon Loaf

Lemon Lemon (Lemon) Loaf
Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
Printable Recipe
Makes 2 9x5x3 loaves

For the Lemon Cake:
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups sugar
8 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup grated lemon zest (from about 4 lemons)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the Lemon Syrup:
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

For the Lemon Glaze:
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted, or more if needed
4 to 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Make the Lemon Cakes:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray the sides and bottom of two 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottom with parchment paper and spray the paper.

2. Sift both flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.

3. Put the sugar, eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a food processor and pulse until combined. With the motor running, drizzle the butter in through the feed tube. Add the sour cream and vanilla and pulse until combined. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

4. Sprinkle the flour mixture, one third at a time, folding gently after each addition until just combined. Do not overmix.

5. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes, rotate the pans, reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F., and bake for another 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

6. Let cool in the pans for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the Lemon Syrup:
1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Once dissolved, continue to cook for 3 more minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

2. Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper or Silpat and invert the loaves onto the pan. Use a toothpick to poke holes in the tops and sides of the loaves.

3. Brush the tops and sides of the loaves with the lemon syrup. Let the syrup soak into the cake and brush again. Let the cakes cool completely, at least 30 minutes.

The soaked but unglazed loaves will keep, wrapped in two layers of plastic wrap and frozen, for up to 6 weeks.

Make the Lemon Glaze:
1. In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners' sugar and 4 tablespoons of the lemon juice. The mixture should be thick but pourable. If the mixture is too stiff, add up to another 2 tablespoons lemon juice and whisk again, adding small amounts of lemon juice and/or confectioners' sugar until you get the right consistency. Pour the lemon glaze over the top of each loaf and let it drip down the sides. Let the lemon glaze harden, about 15 minutes, before serving.

The glazed loaves will keep for up to 3 days, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, at room temperature.

From Amy @ playinghouseblog.com