Today's 1%: Healthier Baking--Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I’ve really taken up baking this past year. There is a lot of bad baking in the world, but when done well there are few things more enjoyable. I mean, a really good scone is unbelievable. But I’ve only had really good scones a couple of times in my life. Digging into the actual chemical processes of baking has taught me a lot, and makes identifying the causes of poor scones a lot simpler. (Chill the butter, bare minimum of mixing, and try not to touch the dough with your warm hands, for starters.)

If there was one recipe that I could count on before starting to actually read about baking, it was my mom’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe. I have people email me regularly each fall asking for the recipe “one more time”. I’ve eaten it at other people’s houses after they’ve asked me for it. It’s a great, foolproof recipe.

But it’s not especially good for you. Which is OK, because we don’t eat muffins a lot. But…what if you could? Just as I continue to tweak my sandwich bread recipe, I dared to start toying with the sacred muffins. Here’s what I have figured out:

Original Recipe:

2 ¼ c flour

2 c sugar

2 t cinnamon

1 t baking soda

½ t each of salt, ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves

2 eggs

1 15 oz can of packed pumpkin

½ c vegetable oil

2 c chocolate chips

Combine dry and wet separately. Fold together, add chocolate chips. Bake, yadda yadda yadda.

Revised Recipe:

*1 ¼ c all purpose flour

*1 c white whole wheat flour

*1 ½ c sugar

2 t cinnamon

1 t baking soda

½ t each of salt, ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves

2 eggs

1 15 oz can of packed pumpkin

*¼ c vegetable oil

*¼ c natural applesauce

*1 ½ c chocolate chips

Combine dry and wet separately. Fold together, add chocolate chips. Bake, yadda yadda yadda.

Guess what? They taste the same. (Roy backs me up on this.) I bake these in the large muffin tins, and the recipe yields one dozen muffins. (If I’m going to eat pumpkin chocolate chip I’d like a substantial portion.) I did a rough nutritional analysis of these swaps/reductions and discovered that the original recipe clocked in at right around 400 calories per muffin. And a lot of sugar and fat. The revised recipe cuts down the calories to 300 per muffin, with greatly reduced sugar and fat levels. (For example, there is a 375 calorie difference between a quarter cup of oil and a quarter cup of applesauce.)

I daren’t get too fancy with things, but I’d be willing to go whole hog and try a full ½ c of applesauce next time. I think the pumpkin keeps things from getting dry, even if there are exchanges for the oil/flour.

My next project: finding a trusty lemon poppy seed muffin recipe. Early attempts from trusted bakers have yielded dense, dry results.