 Making Healthy Quick Breads and Muffins --The Ingredients
Nearly everyone enjoys muffins or a real nice quick bread slice. They are great for breakfast, lunch and even a midnight snack. It is a friendly comfortable type of bread, that is quicker than our normal yeast risen breads. I am going to continue this post by talking about the ingredients that are used in making muffins and quick breads and how we can make them healthier. Eggs: Adding an egg or two to a quick bread makes it lighter, and its flavour substler-one reason that breads with more eggs often have more sugar and flavourings, too. In addition, eggs act as binders, making the texture less crumbly: but if wheat flour is included, eggs are not necessary. Egg can provide enough leavening in a simple recipe--one that is not heavily laden with fruit, for example--so that you need no baking powder or soda at all (Discussed in last post). Use one egg per cup of flour, beating the yolks separately into the combined fat and sweetener, folding the stiffly beaten whites into the batter as the last step. Reduce the liquid measure by about 2 Tbsp. for each egg you added to the recipe. Flours: Because they do not depend entirely on gluten for rising, quick breads and muffins can make good use of flours other than wheat, especially if the recipe includes some wheat flour or an egg or two. They'll make a bread heavier than you'd get with wheat, though rollled oats--not really a flour, or course--can make astonishingly light, very pretty breads and muffins. For one cup of wheat flour, you can substitute about: 1 cup rye flour or cornmeal 3/4 cup buckwheat, rice, or barley flour 1 1/4 cup bean flour 1 1/4 cup rolled oats Keep the flavour and the mood of your substitution in mind when you plan your bread. None of these characters is a straight-across double for wheat; each has its own personality and flavour. More perform better supported by wheat flour. On the other hand, to use bread flour as the only flour especially in plain loaves or muffins, makes for a flat flavour, and if the vigor of your mixing develops the gluten, the bread will be chewy where it should be tender. I recommend using Soft Wheat flour for your muffins and quick breads as it has almost no gluten in and does a great job of non-yeast products. I also recommend using the cookie or batter whips with the Bosch Universal Plus and on the low or jog speed, so as not to encourage development of gluten when making these types of breads. You can purchase Whole Wheat Pastry flour at some supermarkets or Natural Food stores which is made from the soft wheat. Click here for Basic Low Fat Corn Bread Wheat Germ: Wheat germ can add a lot to quick breads, both in flavour and texture, and many recipes call for it. It is better to toast it than to use it raw though. Wheat germ goes rancid very fast, so don't buy it in large amounts and store in the refrigerator. If you are milling your own flour, like I am in our Nutrimill, the wheat germ will already by in the flour so it is not necessary to add more. Liquids: Water or any form of milk; potato cooking broth; fruit juice; crushed, stewed, blended, grated raw fruits; zucchini; any of these can provide acceptable "wet" ingredients for a quick bread or muffin. As a rule of thumb, use about 1/2 to 1/3 cup of liquid for each cup of flour. Of course this will vary with both the nature of the liquid and the type of flour. If you are adding cooked beans or grains, reduce the liquid measure by about 2/3 cup for each cup of beans or cereal you add. Fat: Fat in quick breads my be oil or butter or a combination. You can use sesame butter, peanut or other nut or seed butters. If a recipe is plain, choosing dairy butter over oil may make a difference, but if the other ingredients provide interesting flavour, the bread may be just a tasty if you use plain oil. If you do opt for butter, cream it with the sweetener until the mixture is fluffy. The addition of fat in some form contributes tenderness, a soft, moist crumb, and fullness of flavour; and I haven't found any way to make good quick breads with none at all. However, I am definitely against adding a whole cup of fat or oils and the recipe I attach to this blog will reflect that attitude. Recently I have been trying my own oils that I can make with our new Omni Juicer oil extractor, using the flax seed oils and I like the results. I will talk more about this unit in future blogs after we have tried out several applications of the oil. Sweeteners: The sweetener tenderizes the crumb, too, and helps the bread cook properly, though if you use enough sweet fruit--bananas, for example, or dates--you actually can make a passable sweet-flavoured loat or muffin without adding the likes of honey or molasses. More practical, though, it seems to me, is to use a little bit of sweetener and have a better-textured as well as a tastier bread. Again, recently I have been experimenting with our new Xagave Naturaly Sweetener and have found some great recipes that it can be used in, cutting the calories in the muffins and quick breads in half and still making a great product. Click here for Pumpkin Bread using Xagave Tidbits: Chopped dried fruit, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains--can be folded in when you're combining the wet and dry ingredients. If it's protein you're after, you can incorperate as much as a cup of grated tofu or 1/2 cup cooked soy grits in a quick loaf. The soy will make the bread's flavour blander so choose a recipe that will have a lot of flavour like one with applesauce or mince or pumpkin pie spices. Nearly everyone has tried the standard zucchini loaves by now. I like to add zucchini to herby/savoury/cheesy breads or muffins or to cornbread, where it helps to make the bread moist and light. The flavour is superb grated into cornbread, providing you don't get carried away with the quantities. Start with a cup per recipe and see how it goes. Click here for Herbed Crumb Muffins  Toppings: Before you pop your quick bread in the oven, there are various things you can sprinkle on the top for added glamour or goodness. Oat flakes, wheat germ, almond meal, sesame or poppy seeds, finely chopped nuts, date sugar--all work well, either alone or in combination.
One Last Word: The variety possible in quick breads and muffins is really limited by your own imagination and the time you have to spend chopping and measuring. The recipes I provide, are just some we enjoy, but you will not limit yourself to these few. Mostly I am including breads that are not only good but also really QUICK--if half an hour goes by while you measure and chop and fuss, and another hour baking, and then the bread has to wait overnight to be ready to slice, from my point of view, it would hardly classify as a QUICK. My next post will continue on with techniques in making the quick breads and muffins and more recipes. We do invite any comments or recipes that you have found and would like to pass them on to others. |
Making Healthy Quick Breads and Muffins --The Ingredients
good quick breads with none at all. However, I am definitely against adding a whole cup of fat or oils and the recipe I attach to this blog will reflect that attitude. Recently I have been trying my own oils that I can make with 
Toppings: Before you pop your quick bread in the oven, there are various things you can sprinkle on the top for added glamour or goodness. Oat flakes, wheat germ, almond meal, sesame or poppy seeds, finely chopped nuts, date sugar--all work well, either alone or in combination.
