Here is my 4-year-old assistant, Nolan, with the pumpkin mix:
Although they have no idea what a blog is, he and Braden wanted to take photos, too. Future bloggers?
Braden even took pictures of the muffin liners.
Nolan read the instructions while I pulled out ingredients for Jennifer's healthy version.
The boxed recipe has you combine the mix with 1 cup of milk, 1/3 cup of oil, and 2 eggs. We added skim milk, 1/3 cup canned pumpkin instead of oil,
and egg beaters instead of regular eggs. Nolan was shocked at how two minor tweaks could save so many calories!
He mixed up the batter and sampled it to make sure it was still tasty.
His "taste" was more like a muffin's worth of batter.
We threw in some Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips in half of the muffins to, um, balance out the flavor?
While the muffins baked, I calculated the difference in the Pillsbury version (with oil & eggs) versus Jennifer's version (with pumpkin & egg beaters). Here is the calorie/fat info for the muffins without chocolate chips.
Calories | Fat Grams | |
Pillsbury Version | 203 | 8.5 |
Jennifer’s Version | 145 | 1.5 |
Savings | 58 | 7.5 |
Quite a difference! Not only do you save calories and a whole lot of fat, you add Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium, and Iron by using the canned pumpkin. The muffins are moister and taste more pumpkiny! Nolan was very happy with the results!
Do you ever use packaged mixes for baked goods or do you prefer homemade treats? Have you ever made substitutions like we did? How did it affect the taste or texture? What's your favorite packaged dessert? Favorite homemade dessert?
