I’ve been so excited about the weather getting warmer lately that I had to pull out a summeresqe recipe in celebration. While looking up recipes for lemon muffins, I stumbled upon one that called for ricotta. Conveinently enough, I had a small fat-free tub sitting in my fridge that had yet to be used. I knew I’d found a winner.
As it turns out, these muffins are definitely classified as awesome. Although I don’t bake muffins very often, these are the best I have made. And as an added bonus, they are low in fat and not too dry. To ensure their moistness, I pulled them a few minutes out of the oven before before they were completely done. A few sticky crumbs left behind on the test toothpick = perfect.
Low-Fat Lemon Ricotta Mini Muffins with Almond Flour
Recipe adapted from: Cafe Nilson Blog
Ingredients:
- 1 cup AP flour
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup ricotta cheese, drained
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/3 cup vanilla almond milk
- 3 tbs margarine (or butter), melted
- 3 tbs unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tbs lemon zest (about 2 medium lemons)
- 1.5 tbs lemon juice (about 2 medium lemons)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400F. Grease 12 regular sized muffin pans or line with muffin liner. Set aside.
- In a bowl, mix soy flour, almond flour, baking powder, sugar substitute and salt.
- In another bowl, whisk eggs, milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, cheese and melted butter.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Mix until just about moistened. Do not overmix or muffin will be dense.
- Pour batter into prepared muffin pans. Bake for 20 -25 minutes or until light brown and springy to the touch. Insert toothpick at center of muffin to test for doneness (toothpick must come out clean).
- When done, remove from pan and cool on wire rack.
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I also did a bit of playing around with the muffins by adding different toppings into a slightly larger batch. I had some frozen berries left in the freezer, so I pushed a few of those into some muffins. Then I found some frozen cranberries and studded those into a couple more. Finally, I found a bag of left-over mini chocolate chips and put those in one muffin. Here is what I found…
Chocolate chip muffin: Disgusting. The flavors did not compliment one another at all. I took one bite and threw it out. Who needs chocolate to ruin healthy muffin anyhow?
Cranberry muffins: Parfait! I loved the tart and sweet combination. Much better than the orange-cranberry fusion most commonly used in baked goods.
Blueberry muffins: Absolutely THE BEST. Of course everyone already knows lemon-blueberry muffins and/or quick bread is a classically delectable combo. But the blueberries really did take these muffins over the top. I recommend using this recipe with some fresh blueberries next time. Just place a few into the batter once it’s already been lined to avoid a totally blue-green looking muffin (unless you’re into strangely-colored food, which in that case is A-okay).
Thanks.
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