TASTE
Creamy pumpkin muffins are moist, thanks to orange
| • | Ming's dynasty |
By Elaine Magee
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Q. I would love to make pumpkin cream cheese muffins but haven't seen a recipe for this. I want them to be super moist and full of flavor. I trust your lightening abilities much better than mine.
A. I'll be honest with you. I developed two different pumpkin cream-cheese recipes after reading your letter and they were good, but the pumpkin muffin part wasn't as good as I remember the orange pumpkin bread being from my column about a year ago. So I went back and used that orange pumpkin bread recipe as my muffin batter. I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
In this batter, the moisture comes from an entire orange, which is pureed, plus 1/4 cup of margarine that's been fortified with plant sterols — the kind that is 7 or 8 grams of fat per tablespoon. Moisture also comes from orange juice and the canned pumpkin. I cut down on the sugar a bit and substituted whole-wheat flour for half of the flour. The cream-cheese mixture is made with a light cream cheese and as little powdered sugar and corn syrup as I could get away with.
If you don't want to use Splenda, just use 1 cup of granulated sugar instead of 1/2 cup. Garnish the muffins, if desired, by inserting a pecan half into the center.
Makes about 16 regular-sized muffins.
PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE MUFFINS
For the muffin batter:
For the cream cheese topping:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with muffin papers. Cut orange into wedges, and remove any seeds. Place orange wedges (peel and all) in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat less-fat margarine with sugar, Splenda and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and egg substitute one at a time. On low speed, beat in pumpkin, orange juice and the orange puree.
Add flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice together in 8-cup measure and whisk to blend. Add flour mixture to orange mixture, stirring just until combined. Spoon batter by 1/4-cup fulls into muffin papers.
For cream-cheese mixture, add cream cheese, corn syrup and powdered sugar to small mixing bowl, and beat until smooth. Drop a tablespoonful into the center of each muffin, pressing down gently so the cream cheese sinks a little.
Bake for about 20 minutes (until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean). Once the muffins cool, keep them in an airtight bag or container in the refrigerator.
Elaine Magee is a registered home dietitian. Learn more at www.recipedoctor.com.
