Light Muffins: Over 60 Recipes for Sweet and Savory Low-Fat Muffins and Spreads (Low-Fat Kitchen) [Hardcover]

Beatrice Ojakangas (Author)

Book Description

Series: Low-Fat Kitchen | Publication Date: June 18, 1995

Muffins for breakfast, muffins for snacks, muffins with a meal, even muffins for dessert! America loves muffins, but recently everyone has become aware that this popular treat can be a minefield of fat and calories. Now, in Light Muffins, Beatrice Ojakangas turns this favorite food into a delicious, healthful, low-fat treat.

Replacing high-fat ingredients, such as butter and oils, with naturally low-fat substitutes, such as fruit purees and extra liquid, Beatrice Ojakangas proves that muffins don't have to be bad for you to taste great. She fills chapters such as Breakfast and Brunch Muffins, Savory Muffins, Snack Muffins, Dessert Muffins, Fat-free Muffins, and Spreads with delicious muffin recipes to appeal to all tastes, and each of the 60 recipes is accompanied by a nutritional breakdown. Quick and simple to make, Beatrice's well-tested recipes ensure that the results are always moist, tender, and irresistible.

Beatrice Ojakangas, one of America's favorite bakers, brings her years of baking expertise to this book, and knows that if a muffin doesn't taste wonderful, it doesn't matter how good it is for you. Light Muffins is sure to be a staple on every baker's cookbook shelf, satisfying muffin cravings for any time of the day or night.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like the low-fat muffins starring in these sure-to-please 60-plus recipes, this collection packs a lot of flavor in a palm-sized package. Ojakangas (Quick Breads Light Desserts) begins with a short course in technique (mix batter "just until the dry ingredients are moistened") and an explanation of how she reduced fat content to 30% or less while maintaining the characteristic flavor and tenderness of muffins (e.g., increasing amount of liquid, shortening baking time, raising oven temperature). Included among such traditional offerings as Breakfast Apple Muffins (with oatmeal, diced Granny Smith apple, currants and spices) and Orange-Cranberry Muffins, are slightly more elegant variations: Hazelnut-Pear, with lemon zest and nut oil, and Hot Cross Muffins, calling for cake flour and nonfat yogurt. Savory muffins include those made with sun-dried tomatoes and spinach and Dilly Cheese Muffins, made moist with nonfat cottage cheese. The chapter Dessert Muffins includes Chocolate Spice-Zucchini, using cocoa powder, nonfat buttermilk and nut oil. Recipes for fat-free muffins, most made with fruit purees, and spreads are included in this reliable, tempting collection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In the hands of this master baker, muffin making virtually becomes an art form. Ojakangas' cornucopia of low-fat recipes reflects the ever increasing demand for more healthful fare. It also reflects the research and development that went into reworking or converting formulations from a popular earlier book, Muffins, in order to maintain taste and moistness while reducing or substituting certain ingredients. Among the more than 60 delectable recipes are such innovative treats as sun-dried tomato and spinach muffins and both savory and fruit spreads to enhance the baked goodies. Includes nutritional information for each offering. Alice Joyce

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 95 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter; 1st edition (June 18, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517700662
• ISBN-13: 978-0517700662
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,047,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Muffins

More About the Author

Beatrice Ojakangas has taught cooking and has written articles for Gourmet, Bon Apetit, Cuisine, Pleasures of Cooking, Cooking Light, Womans Day, and Redbook. Her previous books include The Great Scandinavian Baking Book and Great Whole Grain Breads. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Managing your muffins, April 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Light Muffins: Over 60 Recipes for Sweet and Savory Low-Fat Muffins and Spreads (Low-Fat Kitchen) (Hardcover)

This delightful,slim volume is incredibly easy to use, with a great variety of tips & tricks for virtually fool-proof muffins. Best of all, the recipes cover the gamut from no-fat to low-fat, with no sacrifice of flavor or texture. Sweet or savory, they are all good. Among my favorites, pineapple corn muffins & blueberry creme muffins. My sister, an accomplished baker, swears by the Irish soda bread muffins, and the no-fat blueberry jam recipe.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DE-licious!, November 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Light Muffins: Over 60 Recipes for Sweet and Savory Low-Fat Muffins and Spreads (Low-Fat Kitchen) (Hardcover)

The recipes in this book are wonderful, I especially enjoy the orange muffins and the brown bread muffins. The quick jams are not really jelly-like, much more runny, but still tasty. I am looking forward to trying even more of the recipes in this so far no fail book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely Little Book, Worth the Price, May 12, 2006

By 

Susanne Koenig "mynewwritinglife.blogspot.com" (Memphis, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Light Muffins: Over 60 Recipes for Sweet and Savory Low-Fat Muffins and Spreads (Low-Fat Kitchen) (Hardcover)

I've had this tiny book for about ten years and I really enjoy having it around. Although sometimes she requests for you to obtain unusual ingredients--like walnut oil instead of regular oil (to add a nutty taste without adding more nuts)--it is by far the best little collection of muffins I've ever come across. The chocolate zucchini spice muffins are *not* to be missed, especially if you love zucchini bread and have avoided it because of the fat. (This particular recipe calls for walnut oil, but I've always made it with whatever cooking oil I've had on hand and it tastes marvelous).

The recipes, I'd like to note, are all very original, not a rehash of the muffin repertoire you've seen before. There's Hazlenut-Pear Muffins, English-Muffin Muffins (I'm baking these tomorrow), and Sweet Potato Streusel Muffins.

You will not regret buying this little gem of a book. It's an elegant little collection and (nearly) guilt-free to boot.