The Nifty Foodie

Words cannot begin to describe how much I love eggnog. The holiday season hasn’t begun until I chug a glass of the stuff. I know it’s super bad for you, but hey, Christmas only comes once a year, right? 

I’ve been looking for a recipe involving eggnog to bake. I made cookies a while back, but those were pretty darn cakey. Almost whoopie pie like. Then, I heard about this recipe from Jessica Lynn of  The Tale of Two Kitchens. I knew I had to make it happen. Instead of muffins, though, I wanted to make mini loaves to include in the coworker’s gift baskets.

I ended up over filling a bread pan and some of the batter spilled out onto the cookie sheet. It was fate since I made just enough for coworkers. So, of course, I sampled the baked on spillage. It was PERFECT!

Now, I know eggnog is hard to come by nowadays, but for next year, definitely give this recipe a try. The eggnog flavor isn’t very prominent, but it gave the mini loaves a wonderful, spicy note reminiscent of the holiday season. I also found that when making this recipe into mini loaves, I only really needed half of the streusel topping, so the recipe I’m posting has different measurements for the streusel topping.

Eggnog Cranberry Bread
Source: Slightly adapted from Recipe Girl, found on Tale of Two Kitchens

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbs baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup eggnog
1/3 cup melted butter
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup coarsely chopped frozen cranberries
2 Tbs granulated sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. butter, slightly softened
1/4 cup chopped pecans, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 4 mini loaf pans.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, mix eggs, sugar, eggnog, butter and almond extract. Mix in dry ingredients just until combined. Toss cranberries with 2 T. sugar and then stir into batter.

4. Prepare streusel topping: Combine topping ingredients using a pastry cutter (or two knives) until crumbly.

5. Fill prepared loaf pans until about 1/2 – 2/3 of the way full (this batter rises a lot!). Top with streusel topping. Bake 40-50 minutes, or until the breads test done with a toothpick inserted in the center coming out clean.

I do enjoy baking from scratch, but sometimes, I’m up for trying shortcuts. I found this recipe by perusing the Weight Watchers boards, because I wanted to try something a little different than pumpkin bread for breakfast.

This was a pretty good scone, but I think the recipe needs a little work. I think next time, I’m going to try brown sugar, more white sugar and more spices. I also didn’t have Splenda, which was recommended for the recipe, so I subbed sugar.

This was also a fairly wet batter, so I couldn’t really shape these like traditional scones. I ended up using a large cookie scoop to scoop individual scones out, and it worked out fine.

Pumpkin Scones
Source: adapted from a Weight Watchers forum

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Bisquick Heart smart mix
• 1/3 cup mini choc chips (omitted to save calories)
• 6 packets of Splenda (used 4 tbsp. sugar)
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 cup pumpkin
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp. skim milk

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl with a whisk.
3. Mix pumpkin, egg and milk in a separate bowl and add to dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.
4. Using a large cookie scoop, place scones about 2″ apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until the scones start to brown on top.

The Skinny: per serving, serves 8

Calories: 124.4
Fat: 2.6 g
Fiber: 1.5 g

I love blueberries. I’m especially happy that it’s blueberry season, because they are super cheap and fairly local. Local fruit is the best!

I’ve been wanting to make blueberry muffins for quite a while, but I also didn’t want them to be high in calories/fat either. So, I skinny-fied a highly rated recipe on Food Network. Is it any surprise that Ina’s recipe is the highest rated? So, of course, I’m going to play with her recipe.

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins
Source: adapted from Ina Garten

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup no-sugar added applesauce
• 1 1/2 cups sugar (could have used half splenda/half sugar but I was out)
• 3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 8 ounces fat free sour cream
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 half-pints fresh blueberries, picked through for stems

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place paper liners in muffin pans.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add in applesauce and mix together until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until just mixed. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula and be sure the batter is completely mixed.
3. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup just over the top, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean.

Yields 24 muffins.

Nutritional Facts:
Calories: 144, Fat: 2.9 g, Fiber: 0.8 g
POINTS*: 3

Do you want to compare to Ina’s original recipe?
Calories: 218, Fat: 12.5 g, Fiber: 0.7 g
POINTS*: 5

After a mishap with the muffins I made last time, I thought maybe there is a better way. I am a regular lurker on Hungry Girl and last week, she posted on her Chew The Right Thing thread about banana muffins. Chew The Right Thing is a blog that happens once a week concerning making high fat foods diet friendly. She showcases food from Starbucks to Taco Bell to homemade comfort food…it rocks!

So last week, she featured banana bread, which can have up to 400 calories a slice! I’ve yet to find a dense cakey banana bread that’s diet friendly, and tonight, I’m still searching unfortunately! I did play a little bit with the bread, but it wasn’t to where it would affect the texture. To see the original recipe, click here.

Here is my take on the recipe:

** denotes changes

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
1 tbs Splenda brown sugar **
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)
2 eggs **
1/2 cup no-sugar-added applesauce
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. maple extract **
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
Optional Toppings: no-calorie spray butter, Cool Whip Free

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine both types of flour, Splenda, Splenda brown sugar blend, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon (in other words, all dry ingredients). In a separate bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla extract (all the wet ingredients). Add this mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir until just blended. Spoon batter into a cupcake tin sprayed with nonstick spray or lined with paper cups. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Makes 12.

Calories: 138
Fat: 1.5 g
Fiber: 3.75 g

Points: 2

This comes out more like a dry bread with a lack of flavor. I’d prefer more moisture and density with spices. I’ll have to take that into account for next time…

I’m back to blogging!! Last week, I made cinnamon streusel muffins from a mix, and it came out delicious. I bought a LOT of blueberries (Winn Dixie had them at $1/pack), so I wanted to use up some this week. I found this recipe off of Betty Crocker’s website, so here is my attempt.

Cinnamon Streusel Topping

1/4 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose or whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat)
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar (I used 1 tablespoon of Splenda Brown Sugar, since it measures 1/2 cup to 1 cup regular brown sugar)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons firm butter or margarine
Muffins
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/4 cup of applesauce)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose or whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat flour)
1/3 cup granulated sugar (I used 1/3 cup Splenda)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh or canned (drained) blueberries (I used fresh)

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Grease bottoms only of 12 regular-size muffin cups or line with paper baking cups. In medium bowl, mix 1/4 cup flour, the brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until crumbly.
2. In large bowl, beat milk, oil, vanilla and egg until well blended. Stir in 2 cups flour, the granulated sugar, baking powder and salt all at once just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Gently stir in blueberries. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle each with about 2 teaspoons streusel topping.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan to cooling rack. Serve warm or cool.

All in all, this recipe is not very sweet at all. I think it would taste loads better with some brown sugar in the batter. I think I would also put another egg white to make the muffins more moist, since these were a bit on the dry side. Overall I would give these muffins a 6/10 since the blueberries and streusel topping helped enhance the muffin for the lack of sweetness it had.