Posted on: Wednesday, April 13, 2005
RECIPE DOCTOR
Snack on modified Mandarin muffins
By Elaine Magee
Q. I ate a wonderful muffin at a local restaurant and I would love to make something similar at home. They were called Mandarin Orange Cream Cheese Muffins, and they were moist and delicious and had chunks of mandarin oranges in them with a cream cheese frosting on top. Can't wait to see if you take this on!
A. Any excuse to make muffins! Plus, these did sound totally delicious to me, and my daughter is nuts for mandarin oranges. I used one of my favorite muffin recipes that I lightened years ago as my base muffin, then I added in some orange flavoring and stirred in the mandarin oranges at the end. For the base muffin, though, I cut back on the margarine and added some light cream cheese in its place.
If you want to use Splenda for half of the sugar, that will work fine, too.
These muffins are perfect for a spring brunch or breakfast (and even for dessert).
Original recipe might contain 250 calories, 10 grams of fat and 60 mg cholesterol per serving.
MANDARIN ORANGE CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS
Light Cream Cheese frosting:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 12-cup muffin pan with canola cooking spray or line with cupcake liners.
In a large mixing bowl, beat margarine and 1/3 cup light cream cheese together on medium speed. Add sugar and continue to beat mixture until creamy. Beat in egg, then egg substitute. Beat in orange flavoring.
In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (whole-wheat flour, white flour, baking powder and salt).
Add half of flour mixture to margarine mixture, then half of milk. Add in remaining flour mixture, then remaining milk. Gently stir in mandarin oranges.
Fill each muffin cup with 1/3 cup of batter. Bake in center of oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until cooked through. Let cool.
To make cream cheese frosting add 1/3 cup light cream cheese and 2/3 cup powdered sugar to small mixing bowl. Beat together until fluffy. When muffins are completely cool, frost. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator.
Makes 12 regular size muffins.
• Per muffin: 212 calories, 5 g protein, 37 g carbohydrate, 5 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 1.3 g monounsaturated fat, .7 g polyunsaturated fat, 25 mg cholesterol, 1.5 g fiber, 238 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 21 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids .2 g. Omega-6 fatty acids .3 g. Weight Watchers Points 4 Elaine Magee's new book is "Fry Light, Fry Right." Reach her at doctor@recipedoctor.com. Personal responses can't be provided. This column is distributed by Knight Ridder News Service.
