All the joy of gingerbread cake without guilt
| • | Wally's world |
By Elaine Magee
Q. Dear Recipe Doctor, I love the smell and taste of gingerbread. I've looked up several recipes for gingerbread cake online and found they call for lots of butter and sugar. Have you ever thought about lightening up gingerbread cake?
A. I'm totally with you on the smell and taste of gingerbread being a welcome holiday experience and food tradition. I concocted a recipe for gingerbread muffins that I hope will satisfy your hankering. It's more of a muffin than a cake because I'm using less sugar and a lot less fat than is normally called for in a gingerbread cake. I also switched to half whole-wheat flour and replaced one of the eggs with egg substitute. Instead of whipping the brown sugar with the butter, I used a mixture of canola oil, rich in monounsaturated fats and plant omega-3s, and fat-free sour cream (or light cream cheese).
These muffins ended up being super moist and flavorful and a great way to celebrate the holiday season and they were low in calories, fat and saturated fat too.
A traditional recipe of unfrosted gingerbread cake has 205 calories, 6.5 grams fat, 4 grams saturated fat, and 36 mg cholesterol per muffin-size serving.
GINGERBREAD MUFFINS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add muffin liners to 20 muffin cups.
In a small bowl, combine baking soda with boiling water and stir briefly then set aside. In a large bowl, combine flours, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves nutmeg, salt and baking powder with whisk.
Fit your electric mixer with the paddle attachment, then in a large mixing bowl, combine canola oil, light cream cheese or sour cream, and brown sugar together by beating on medium speed. While beating on low speed, add in molasses, the baking-soda mixture and the flour mixture. Now beat in the egg and egg substitute.
Fill muffin cups each with about 1/4 cup of batter. Bake until the top center of a muffin barely springs back when gently pressed (about 22-25 minutes). Let the muffins cool, then dust the tops with powdered sugar if desired.
Makes 20 muffins.
Elaine Magee is a registered dietitian and author. Learn more at www.recipedoctor.com.
