Posted on: Wednesday, February 9, 2005
RECIPE DOCTOR
Slim down Food Network's tangerine tea cake
By Elaine Magee
I love surfing cable channels and every so often I happen upon one of the Food Network cooking shows.
I'll be lightening up recipes from this wonderful food channel's various shows in the next few columns. I hope the original chefs consider it a compliment — because I love starting with the best recipes I can get and then lowering the calories, fat, saturated fat and sugar.
Here we are taking on Gale Gand's Tangerine-Soaked Tea Cake, and I loved the way the light version turned out.
I reworked this recipe using half whole-wheat flour, reduced the butter and used no trans fat margarine, substituted Splenda for part of the sugar, used lower-fat buttermilk and used some egg substitute.
Doing all of this cuts the calories by a third and the fat in half.
The original recipe is from Gale Gand's "Butter Sugar Flour Eggs" and has 427 calories, 17 grams fat, 10 grams saturated fat, 78 milligrams cholesterol, and 1 gram fiber per slice.
TANGERINE TEA CAKE
Glaze (optional):
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 6-cup loaf pan with canola cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment. Dust the sides of the pan with a tablespoon of flour.
In a small bowl, combine the tangerine zest, 1/3 cup tangerine juice and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the whole-wheat and white flours, baking soda and salt.
In a separate bowl, beat the margarine and honey until fluffy. Add sugar and Splenda and beat well. Add eggs and beat well. Add egg substitute and beat mixture until blended.
With mixer on low speed, alternately add dry ingredients and buttermilk until the batter is just combined. Stir in the fruit juice and zest mixture. Pour batter into the prepared pan and place on a cookie sheet.
Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 80 minutes. Cool 25 minutes.
While the cake is baking, you can make the glaze, if you want to use it. Stir together the tangerine or orange juice, lemon juice and sugar until sugar is dissolved.
After the cake has cooled 15 minutes, run a knife around the sides and turn onto a wire rack.
Peel off the paper and spread the glaze over the top and sides of cake (or dust the top of the tea cake lightly with powdered sugar). The cake will last up to a week if wrapped well and stored in the refrigerator.
Makes about 12 slices.
• Per serving (one thick slice): 280 calories, 6 g protein, 47 g carbohydrate, 7.5 g fat (1.1 g saturated fat, 4 g monounsaturated fat, 1.9 g polyunsaturated fat), 18 mg cholesterol, 2.5 g fiber, 240 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 24 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids, 0.5 g; omega-6 fatty acids, 1.4 g. Weight Watchers points, 6. Elaine Magee's new book is "Fry Light, Fry Right." Reach her through her Web site, www.recipedoctor.com. Personal responses can't be provided. This column is distributed by Knight Ridder News Service.
