What can you substitute in recipes?

jhloves2knit

I've been trying to substitute low cal ingredients for higher cal and less healthy ones. I made the following blueberry muffins today, and they didn't turn out very well. I've listed my substitutions and would like some ideas on where I might have overdone it. Or is there something about the recipe that would cause the problems?


* Blueberry Muffins –(batter very thick; added ½ c milk – muffins not soft, didn't raise much)

• 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (used 1 cup all purpose and ¾ cup whole wheat flour)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup milk (used soy milk and added 1/2 cup)
• ¼ Cup oil (used 1/4 cup applesauce)
• 1 egg (used Eggbeaters)
• 1/2 cup sugar (used Stevia)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries
Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
3. In a large bowl, stir together the milk, oil, egg, sugar, and vanilla extract until well blended. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Do not overmix. Gently fold in the blueberries.
4. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling them about two-thirds full. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. (I baked them for 18 minutes) Cool on a rack for 5 minutes. Remove to the rack to cool completely.
Nutritional Facts per serving
Calories 163, Fat 5.5 g,
Saturated Fat 0.7 g,
Cholesterol 18.6 mg,
Sodium 188.7 mg,
Carbohydrates 25.8 g,
Total Sugars 10.8 g,
 Dietary Fiber 1 g,
Protein 2.9 g

SueMizZou

I think your ratio of all purpose and whole wheat flour may be off. Cut back on the whole wheat flour and add more all purpose. I also think that non fat milk instead of the soy may be needed.

teresamwhite

I have a question first...Is this the first time you've made this recipe? Or is this a "tried n true" recipe that you've tweaked?

I would say, there isn't enough liquid in the recipe, at first glance. I think the oil (or in your case, applesauce) should be increased. The ratio of white/wheat flour is fine...you can swap out up to half of it in most recipes, wihtout sacrificing too much texture or taste. Try bumping the applesauce to 1/2c, and the milk to 3/4c.

Because soy milk has so much more protein, I would use skim milk instead to see if the result comes out better. Make sure you aren't scooping out the flour, try spooning it into the cup and level off without tapping the cup (settling). Whole wheat flour is much denser than white, so scooping will compact and end up being much more than what you need...up to 1/4c more per cup.

sprintto50

When you use Stevia in baking, you have to make up for the bulk difference between sugar and Stevia. You can add more applesauce and see if that helps.

jhloves2knit

Thanks to everyone for your help. I got this recipe off MFP and tweaked it to make it more low calorie. I'll definitely add more applesauce and milk and spoon the flour if I try something like this again.

shellfly

You might try swapping dates in for some/all of the applesauce/oil. I have been having some really good results doing that in recipes lately. The dates are a bit higher calorie, but they're also healthy, and they seem to really help with the texture and flavor of the food.

lynn_glenmont

You might try swapping dates in for some/all of the applesauce/oil. I have been having some really good results doing that in recipes lately. The dates are a bit higher calorie, but they're also healthy, and they seem to really help with the texture and flavor of the food.

I don't think this would get a good result from a baking standpoint. The applesauce is already subbing for a liquid/fat, and this would replace it with solid/carbs. I'm thinking you might want to choose either the applesauce sub or the eggbeaters sub, because in both cases you're eliminating fat. Other than a fairly small amount in the whole wheat flour, you've essentially eliminated all the fat in the recipe. Baking is pretty much the least forgiving kind of cooking you can do when it comes to these kinds of substitutions. The liquids, fats, and even sugars play necessary roles in getting a finished product with the texture, flavor, and browning (crust) that you expect.

girlinahat

I've never used Stevia (actually I've only tasted the stuff once and didn't like it) but one of the key reasons to use sugar in baking is due to the crystalline structure it allows to form. You may not get the same effect using sweeteners.

I know last time I tried to make a diabetic cake for someone, I used applesauce and a natural sweetener (forget what it was caled but it was liquid) and it failed miserably.

Personally I don't think it possible to get a truly low-cal cake product. Cake is by its very nature a sweet luxury. You may need to mix back in some higher cal ingredients - try half sugar/half stevia, and as others have said your liquids may be too much.

Probably use less wholewheat flour too.

good luck!!

castadiva

My guess would be that the egg and milk substitutions are the biggest problems. I suspect soy milk won't work well in baking, in general, and the eggs are a fairly essential staple, in baking terms. You might be able to make one of these substitutions work, but both is probably going to be difficult.

shellfly

You might try swapping dates in for some/all of the applesauce/oil. I have been having some really good results doing that in recipes lately. The dates are a bit higher calorie, but they're also healthy, and they seem to really help with the texture and flavor of the food.

I don't think this would get a good result from a baking standpoint. The applesauce is already subbing for a liquid/fat, and this would replace it with solid/carbs. I'm thinking you might want to choose either the applesauce sub or the eggbeaters sub, because in both cases you're eliminating fat. Other than a fairly small amount in the whole wheat flour, you've essentially eliminated all the fat in the recipe. Baking is pretty much the least forgiving kind of cooking you can do when it comes to these kinds of substitutions. The liquids, fats, and even sugars play necessary roles in getting a finished product with the texture, flavor, and browning (crust) that you expect.

I'm just a novice when it comes to trying to understand the science behind cooking/baking, so I can't tell you why it worked so well for me. Perhaps someone else might have an idea; I'd love to know. The two recipes where I swapped in dates were Quinoa Brownies (http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2013/02/quinoa-brownies.html) where I swapped them for the butter, and Double Chocolate Muffins (http://joandsue.blogspot.ca/2012/06/double-chocolate-muffins-low-cal.html) where the swap was for applesauce.

quiltlovinlisa

Personally I would leave the eggs and not use the eggbeaters, and then half the sugar. The applesauce for oil should be fine but it really works best when you substitute half the oil, not all the oil.