Title: Fruit Sweet and Sugar Free - Quick Breads And Muffins
Categories: Info Diabetic
Yield: 1 Servings

Fruit Sweet and Sugar Free by Janice Feuer 1993 Royal Teton Ranch

Quick Breads and Muffins ************************ Delicious, fast, and easy to make, quick breads and muffins always make meals more special. They are often filled with chunky nuts or dates, chopped or mashed fruits, and/or grated and pureedvegetables; and they are often fragrant with spices like cinnamon and ginger. It is just these fruits, nuts, and vegetables that make muffins and quick breads so appealing and versatile. Quick breads are as wonderful hot or toasted for breakfast as they are at afternoon tea or for rounding out a light soup and salad dinner. And muffins have become so popular they now star throughout the day from their first sustaining bite in the morning to their last remaining crumb at midnight.

Quick breads gain a lot in texture by borrowing techniques usually reserved for cakes. I suggest using an electric mixer to cream the sweetener and butter or oil together until light and fluffy, and then adding the eggs one at a time. This provides a strong structure in which to fold in the remaining ingredients. The resulting breads are more tender and close-grained than if made by the muffin method.

Muffins on the other hand, must be made by hand to give them their characteristic coarse gran and hearty, tender texture. Muffins are made by combining the sifted dry ingredients with the wet ingredients with as few movements possible, just to moisten the flour. When the muffin batter is half mixed, the fruit and nuts are quickly folded in. To have tender and light muffins it is important to leave the muffin batter lumpy, rather than smooth, and ribbonlike as with cake batters.

Each of these muffin recipes was developed for making beautiful large muffins in regular size muffin pans. The muffin batters are just the right consistency for filling each muffin cup completely. This is why ice cream scopps are recommended. They give a wonderful domed top to each muffin. Because of the large size of these muffins, lightly spray the top of the pans as well as the individual muffin cups with lecithin spray to keep the muffins from sticking.

It is important to back both muffins and quick breads in a completely preheated oven. Quick breads bake well in a 350 degree oven and are done when they shrink slightly from the edge of the pan, have a most inviting aroma, and don't stick to a clean toothpick when it is inserted in the center of the loaf.

Muffins do best in a slighly hotter oven, 375 degrees. The oven must be hot when you put in your muffins in order to get the highest rise and best shaped muffins. Depending on the efficiency of your oven, you may need to turn the muffin pan halfway through the baking time for even browning. The old-fashioned toothpick test doesn't work well with those muffins that have moise fruit added to them, such as blueberries and cranberries, so you will need to go by rich colour and aroma. Another test that works well is to press the tops of the muffins lightly. They should spring back to your touch. If they don't, bake the muffins for a few more minutes.

Cool muffins and quick breads in their baking pans for a few minutes before removing them to a wire rack to finish cooling, though both are delicious eaten hot from the oven. However, some quick breads, such as banana and cranberry nut bread, and date nut bread, taste even better if you can wait at least 12 hours before slicing and eating them.

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