baking notes

[chhotii]

I made this recipe for oatmeal muffins for the first time, but, of course, with modifications (always with modifications):
- applesauce instead of oil
- w.w. flour instead of all-purpose
- brown sugar instead of white
- added cinnamon and nutmeg
- added about a cup of chopped fresh cranberries
- baking time rather on the long side
They are not sweet. Well, barely sweet. I thought that using applesauce instead of oil would make them sweeter, but it's too small an amount to be detectable. No oil means that they are kind of chewy, not quite the tender crumb you expect in a muffin. Using a fruit that's totally not sweet in a muffin that's not sweet enough is, hrm, perhaps a mistake.

I took these to a pot-luck brunch, and they weren't a hit. I have a lot left over. Perhaps there was just too much competition from other baked goods there. I'm still trying to decide whether I like them. I've been eating them, but not sure if I like them well enough to make them again. Maybe with further tinkering. Definitely should add nuts next time.

Comments

[ceo]

Yes, there was so much sweet carbs on that table I'm not surprised a lot of things didn't get eaten that otherwise would have been. I took half my loaf of Swedish coffeebread home with me, and that usually disappears in short order when I bring it to parties.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

In my experience, cutting sugar by up to half and/or substituting brown sugar for white sugar works fine as long as you're not baking something that is supposed to be super light (like most cake).

Ditto for subbing whole wheat for white flour.

Fat is another matter entirely. I don't ever, ever mess with the fat ingredients. Recipe calls for 1 cup of butter? Use 1 cup of butter. Ditto oil. THe only sub I make is Crisco instead of lard, and it's been years since I've even seen a recipe that called for lard. Applesauce is NOT fat.

But hey, at least you got invited. We sure didn't. We'd have none of our old friends left if Ben didn't work for Arisia. (Come to think of it, most of our friends through Arisia are not old-timers either.)