Date and Orange Low Fat Muffins

These muffins are quite sweet, from the dates, and yet they are low in saturated fat, and very low in cholesterol. The use of butter, as in many muffin recipes, is replaced by canola oil. Egg whites are used instead of whole eggs and orange juice gives a nice flavour. They have approximately 8 grams of total fat each (1 gram saturated)

Ingredients

• 2 cups plain flour
• 5 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped dates
• 2 tbls orange zest finely grated
• 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup orange juice

Method

1. Heat the oven on 200°C . Brush oil on only the base of 12 - 16 muffin tins (normal size) or line with paper cases.
2. Sift the plain flour and baking powder into a bowl.
3. Add the dates, zest, and sugar, mix well and make a well in the centre.
4. In another bowl mix the juice, milk, eggs and oil.
5. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones all at once. Using a fork, stir and fold the ingredients together only until it is all wet, it doesn't even matter if there are small areas of flour about. Do not over mix it.
6. Spoon the mixture into muffin tins, and bake for approximately 20 -25 minutes for normal size and around 10 mins longer for texas size. They are ready when turning golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.
7. Place muffins on a wire rack to cool.