From Publishers Weekly
Ojakangas (Light Muffins; Quick Breads) fine-tunes the ingredient lists on some 200 baked goods (many already relatively low in fat) to bring them warm from the oven with a fat content well under 30%. Fruit purees and low-fat dairy products replace oils and other fatty ingredients without a loss of moisture or texture. Although Ojakangas's detailed instructions make these recipes?and the shift in baking procedures some of the substitutions require?accessible to home bakers, her precision elsewhere can be somewhat irritating. Nutritional counts are measured down to the hundredths and each recipe is strictly categorized (shaped, bar, drop, or twice-baked cookies, for example). Nevertheless, such recipes as Cocoa-Nutmeg Snickerdoodles, Swedish Almond Rusks and Cranberry-Raisin Streusel Cheesecake amply reward the home baker's persistence. Ojakangas is a reliable and inventive recipe writer: Mango Angel Pie (a meringue crust and an uncooked filling), Wild Rice Muffins, Icelandic Three-Grain Brown Bread, Crab and Vegetable Torte and a Swedish saffron-scented bread known as Saint Lucia Crown are examples of some of the unexpected pleasures in the collection.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The latest collection from the prolific Ojakangas (Light Muffins, LJ 5/15/95) includes new light desserts and muffins as well as lots of breads and other baked goods. Some are entirely new; others are lighter versions of favorite recipes. Ojakangas uses some nonfat dairy products and fruit purees to replace high-fat, calorie-laden ingredients, but she doesn't attempt to fiddle with rich, gooey treats such as fudgy chocolate brownies, believing some indulgences are best left unadulterated and reserved for special occasions. Ojakangas is a reliable and experienced baker, and her book is recommended for most collections. Tribole (Healthy Homestyle Cooking, Rodale, 1994) writes the "Recipe Makeover" column in Shape magazine. Here she presents lightened dessert recipes, with "before" and "after" nutritional analyses for the traditional version and the new one. Some of these seem to exemplify the type of "recipe torture" Ojakangas refers to and avoids?e.g., a Peanut Butter Cheese Pie that substitutes pureed nonfat cottage cheese for cream cheese, a gelatin-milk combination for heavy cream, and peanut butter and jam for butter in the crust. But if you need one more low-fat dessert book, readers on low-cholesterol diets may find Mile-High Sundae Pie and Triple-Layer German Chocolate Cake tempting, whether or not these deliver the taste of the real thing.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
