Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Muffin Makeover



Yes, my muffins are on a paper plate. Don't judge me.

Remember the other day when I posted a very tasty (what, you didn't try it yet?) blueberry muffin recipe?  Well i fulfilled my promise and did a remix with dried cranberries, and trail mix.  Sounds exciting right? Here's the recipe.

Orange Cranberry Muffins
2 cups all purpose flour
2 ts. baking powder
1/4 ts. salt
1/2 cup Smart Balance Spread - Original
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 ts. orange zest
1/4 c. orange juice
1/4 c. milk ( I used 1%)
1- 1/4 cup dried cranberries or trail mix*

Preheat the oven to 375, and prepare your muffin pan by lightly coating it with Smart Balance.  Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.  

Fold carefully, please!
Action shot!
With a hand mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer cream the Smart Balance and sugar until it's fluffy, around two minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time, making sure the first is incorporated before you add the second.  If you're using a stand mixer remove the bowl from the stand.  Fold in the first third of the flour, then add the milk.  Fold in the second third of the flour, then the orange juice followed by the last bit of flour.  Make sure that the flour or liquid you're folding in is incorporated before you move on.  Add in the orange zest, then the cranberries or trail
mix.  Use an ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measure to dip the batter into the pan.  Top with extra cranberries or trail mix if you'd like.  Bake 20 minutes, or until the edges and tops are golden and puffed.


Trail mix with crack like addiction properteis.

Before I proceed I will say this: If you THINK you don't like dried cranberries, you do.  That's it, it's that simple.  If you can eat a raisin, you can eat a dried cranberry!  If you don't like raisins, eat Great Value Indulgent Trail Mix and you'll start eating raisins.  I NEVER ate raisins until I started eating it.  Plus, all this stuff is really good for you, so if for no other reason than that, let's give it a try. What do ya say? Yes? Okay!

These muffins were a great success, especially considering the substitutions.  Smart Balance has much fewer calories than the butter in the original recipe, as well as the 1% milk.  I used Simply Orange juice, but if you use a sweetened orange juice you may want to cut back on the sugar in the recipe. And now for my asterisk regarding the trail mix...I used Sam's Choice brand Indulgent Trail Mix, which has golden raisins, cranberries, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, almonds and cashews.  If I were you, I'd remove the whole nuts from the trail mix when adding it to the batter.  If you're a fan of huge nuts in your muffins, be my guest.  Otherwise I would chop them or leave them out all together.   








This recipe is modified from the Food Network recipe found here.

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