No reader has been so regular that he or she remembers Day 1 of this weblog, in which I was driven out of my own home by some revolting Low GI Muffins. Since that first terrible experience, all I can say is that people wandering around looking for the Holy Grail is as Nothing compared to my 187-day search for a Low GI Muffin recipe; a recipe that is Edible, and does not make me think of pony nuts and straw. Thanks to various dull 'ishoos' involving the odd visit to Speshul Doctors, I must be Wary of things that are full of sugar and the like and eat mainly Low GI foodstuffs, for it is in this way, and this way alone, that I lose weight. (I hasten to add there is nothing faddy about this; Those With My Condition were aware of the Low GI Diet many years before size 10 journalists in womens' magazines decided to drop two dress sizes on it.)
Today I found a recipe, from the North America, that involved cups and yoghurt. I remembered, with a sudden jolt, that I had bought some 'cups' in the Canada: the making of North American recipes was possible! My friends, let me tell you something. I made the recipe, with the cups, which were easier than scales with numbers on. (A question for North American readers: does one leave one's cups attached to each other, or separate them?). I even worked out the rest of the strange and subtle North American Language of Recipe ("t" meant, I decided "teaspoon"; "T", "tablespoon"), all by myself!
The muffins are fairly palatable, bearing in mind that they do not contain the ingredients (e.g. butter, flour or sugar) that make 'normal' muffins (a.k.a. an excuse to eat cake for breakfast) quite nice. The walnut is my own attractive embellishment; one that, I am sure you will all agree, makes them look rather elegant.
From now on, I shall only make North American recipes with cups, as they are better than measuring scales. As far as I can tell, means I will be eating mainly Bundt cake, muffin and macaroni cheese. Still, needs must!
For those that wants it, here's the recipe:
APPLE OAT BRAN MUFFINS
From The Good Carb Cookbook; I found the recipe here.
Makes 12
2 c oat bran
2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1 t ground cinnamon
1/4 c dark brown sugar
1/2 c nonfat or lowfat vanilla yogurt
1/2 c apple juice
1/2 c fat free egg substitute or 2 lg eggs + 1 egg white lightly beaten
2 T canola or walnut oil
1 c finely chopped peeled apples
1/2 c chopped walnuts, pecans, dried cranberries or dark raisins (optional)
1. Combine oat bran, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir and mix well. Add brown sugar and mix well. Press out any lumps of brown sugar.
2. Put yogurt, apple juice, egg substitute (or eggs), and oil in a small bowl and mix well. Add the yogurt mixture to the oat bran mixture and mix well. Fold in apples and if desired, nuts or dried fruit.
3. Coat bottom of muffin cups w/ nonstick spray and fill 3/4 full w/ batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 16 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of muffin comes out clean.
4. Remove the muffin tin from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before removing the muffins from the tin. Serve warm or at room temperature. Refrigerate or freeze any leftovers not eaten within 24 hours.
Nutritional info per muffin:
100 calories, 19 g carb, 0 mg cholesterol, 3.4 g fat, 2.6 g fiber, 4.4 g protein, 133 mg sodium, 83 mg calcium
GI rating: Low
Stuff I did: Put the apples in; put in a mixture of walnuts, linseeds, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries and dried blueberries; forgot to buy apple juice so used slightly diluted elderflower cordial instead; didn't have any ground cinnamon, so used mixed spice. Do not have a freezer so will not be freezing leftovers, and fridge is full of cabbage, so will have to eat them all by 6.30 tomorrow otherwise they will Become Poisonous and Kill Me. Didn't coat the muffin cases with stuff as forgot and they were fine. Remain deeply perturbed by N. American use of word "batter" to describe "mix"; "batter" is what you make pancakes (known as 'crepes' in the Americas, I believe) and Yorkshire pudding out of. Oh, and couldn't find any low-fat vanilla yoghurt that wasn't made mainly of sugar, so I used the rhubarb yoghurt I had in the fridge instead. And I don't know what a Canola is and I didn't have enough walnut oil, so I used sunflower, although walnut would have been nicer.
Random Addition: What has actually happened today is that someone I know died. (No comments on this please, we weren't close and I didn't always like him that much.) But it would be odd writing anything today without mentioning it, so now I have. He was 42 and died quite quickly. If you smoke, give up now, and be nice to people you like.
13 comments:
Canola is what I think we call rapeseed oil - you couldn't have a food product with rape on it you see.
I would perhaps try half-fat creme fraiche instead of the yoghurt, that might work. I am fond of low GI food.
It can be surprisingly satisfying to be nice to people you don't like too. It can shock them into niceness and otherwise gives you the moral high ground.
Z, you are right. It is my usual Mode of Behaviour (e.g. with the boys upstairs). Usually it works, but sadly not in the case of one of the boys upstairs.
Everyone should try it, particularly when they talk to people in shops.
Always be nice to the People in Shops (writes an ex-shop boy)! Because they suffer the Attentions of Twats more than most.
If the measuring cups are the metal type yes, I do have them in one group-using a binder ring or a shower curtain hook. When they are pulled out of the drawer it sounds like a very cheap windchime. Did the same thing with teaspoon/tablespoon measures. There is a special show on public t.v here with a doctor(shown during the "beg drives") that is all about the gut factor and colon-not the punctuation type. 90 minutes about one's innards-eeeeuuwwww
I usually take the measuring cups apart but leave the spoons together. But I have the wonderful dishwashing machine and taking the cups apart means they get clean.
Yes, canola is rapeseed.
Americans differenciate between pancakes and crepes. We make both, but our pancakes are not as sweet (or quite as dense) as British ones. But we love to put fruit and nuts in the batter on occasion.
Batter is a generic American term meaning "stuff to make bread-y things out of that you can pour." If it's too thick to pour, it's dough. We generally only use mix as a noun to describe something that you pour the dry ingredients out of a box for.
Camera Obscura: sensational! I also have some lovely spoons from the Americas that are together. It makes sense to take the cups apart, certainly. Mine are rubber, but I rather wish they are stainless steel.
'pancakes' in England are what are descibed elsewhere as 'crepes', unless one is talking about Scotch pancakes, which are thick, and sweet, and sometimes contain sultanas. What happens elsewhere in the British Isles I cannot say, but in England a pancake is a pancake, a crepe. Oh yes.
I am liking the batter/dough distinction too. Thank you.
Pete - I too have worked in shops. It is Imperative.
Martina - did you record it?
Yes U.S pancakes are quite thick and if you use a mix or recipe-sweet. I tend to make them from scratch without sugar. Top with Canadian maple syrup. Crepes here have more liquid to the batter so they are thinner, eggier and you can eat more with less guilt.
I am liking your thin guilt-free crepes, which sound like our own pancakes. I have only sampled the Maple Syrup in hard fudge form (which was like Scottish tablet, but that's a different story) in a market in Montreal. It was snowing outside. Someone had a toy gorilla, and there were tiny tomatoes. It was nice.
Those transatlantic pancakes are what we call Scotch pancakes. Crêpe is French for pancake, unless you pour the batter into a mould and then it's Yorkshire Pudding. So there.
This recipe business is all very well, unless you are in France where I've never seen oat bran - could I use foie gras instead? I've got the dried cranberries left over from Christmas and I suppose, within reason, cup measurements are relative, so I might have a go, using a small mug. And there are no tea- or tablespoons here, just coffe- and soupspoons. Can I make small muffins, using a bun tin? Or I might just go and lie down instead.
Pancakes. Well now. Scotch Pancakes: also known as drop scones. If you come from Edinburgh you will these crumpets. Yes, I know that crumpets are usually yeasted and made in a ring, but not in Edinburgh.
Crepes are clearly to do with Johnny foreigner. Not to mention Gallettes (buckwheat of course)
US style morning pancakes are often made with buttermilk - you can get a very nice US pancake mix from Costco which works well and means you don;t have to try and source the buttermilk!
Maple Syrup is good stuff of course - the organic stuff sold by Tescos is pretty good.
Tablet - Scottish delight. It's often pretty poor though, best if you can make it yourself.
I'm rambling.
That's that cleared up then, i.e. what pancake is what. If anyone cares. I used to.
Liz. Sugar. Work of Satan but I think a small bit of brown sugar spread across 12 muffins is better than sweetener which I think might get you first. I am very cross with myself for still using sweetener in my coffee and am going to try and wean myself off it. But you get the point.
Don't know if you've heard of it or not, but agave nectar is a great sweetener for baked goods and is low gi. You can find it at most health food stores.
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