Conference turris::cooks

    Ok. How about muffins. Bran or Blueberry.  The recipe I have for
    bran muffins has about 1/4 cup oil. Other liquids are: honey, egg
    white.... thats it.
    
    What about cake mixes? I have a choc. cake mix and the liquids are:
    water, vinegar and oil. I'd love to substitute the oil in this one.
    Oh, there's probably an egg or two in there also.
    
    Is that specific enough? I should probably show the entire recipe,
    huh? I don't have them handy, tho.
    
    Thanks,
    Beth

    Hey Beth, you still need SOME oil in your diet!
    
    That said, you can usually cut the oil in half in muffin and quick
    bread recipes, using other liquids to compensate.  Less than that
    and the texture is not good.
    
    I have no idea about the cake mixes.  What are you doing eating
    cakemix chocolate cake anyhow, Beth?  I've seen you in FLEX 
    saying you're trying to eat good food.....;-)  Anyhow, how about
    trying Eggbeaters for the eggs in the cakes?  Or maybe using eggwhites
    for the yolks, say 3 whites for 2 whole eggs? That would cut the fat
    down.  I might try cutting the oil down a little, but cakes can
    be really funny about proportions.  Y'know, you could run down a
    recipe for that Tomato Soup Chocolate Cake - maybe one is in here.
    I think that has less oil in it, plus it is very rich, you can't
    taste the soup, and it's got some nutritional value.  You can even
    use low-salt soup, and I've used salt-free tomato puree.  Then you
    can make the mix cake and give it to a bakesale!

    -Louise
    

    Tomato soup/choc. cake? Gag! Yes, I am eating healthy... I'm just
    PREPARING for a splurge! 8-) 
    
    Ok, I'll reduce the oil in the muffins and replace it with juice.
    I know I need some oil, but I try to make it as little as possible.
    
    Louise... my splurge will be AFTER the August 30th dunking! I'm
    slowly learning some chocolate control.
    
    just preparing, in case of an emergency... 8-) 8-) 
    beth

develop a taste for angel food or sponge type cakes - no oil - you can
add cocoa to the white angel food recipe and have chocolate...any good
cookbook can tell you the actual measurments.  don't try to reduce the
oil in a cake by too much...that controls the texture and you'll end
up with a very unattractive product.

Angel cakes are particularly nice because they use egg whites, no oil,
and are reasonable substitutes for the other sweets..

Cooking Light magazine has lots of recipes that reduce the bad stuff.
I recommend a subscription for those looking to eat better and enjoy
eating.

  One of the important things that oil or fat does in a cake (or
  anything baked) is to keep it moist. If you remove too much of the
  oil, it won't bake right, and you'll either get something which stays
  raw on the inside or becomes too dry (and rock hard). The only way to
  know how much oil you can get away with removing from the recipe is to
  experiment, but you can make a good guess by figuring that a typical
  pancake recipe (which is very sensitive to proportions of flour,
  leavening, fat and liquid) calls for something like 1 cup flour, 3/4
  cup milk, 1 egg, 1 tsp baking powder, and at least 3 tbs oil. If you
  cut the oil proportion to much less than that, it probably won't work
  right. 

  Also you may be able to partially compensate for the reduced moistness
  by reducing the amount of baking powder or baking soda, since these
  then to increase the lightness and dryness of the end results. But if
  you cut the leavening too much, you also end up with rocks. But ....
  you can compensate for THAT by beating more air into the mixture, and
  maybe increasing the amount of egg. In particular, if you separate the
  eggs, beat the whites and fold them in at the last minute, you may get
  good results. What you end up with, of course, will be a totally
  different recipe, but it may be just as good or better.

    Believe me, the tomato soup chocolate cake tastes really good! and
    you can't tell there's any tomato anything in it.
    
    Any of the vegetable based quick-breads stay moist with a minimum
    of oil.  I'm thinking of carrot breads, zucchini breads, pumpkin
    breads...you just have to modify the recipes so there is much less
    SUGAR - you KNOW all that white sugar is blecko for your diet.
    Adding fruit or applesauce to a quickbread, such as a bran bread,
    often will make it sweet enough to reduce the sugar by 1/2 or more.
    
    Try finding a copy of the TARGET DIET COOKBOOK (title something
    like that).  It has loads of muffin and quickbread recipes that
    have a minimum of fat.  Lists all calories and total amount of fat
    per serving, and tells you what a serving is for that recipe.
    The cookbook has recipes for all sorts of foods, but the ones I've
    mainly used are the muffin recipes.

    Also, note that COCOA, the powder in the little brown can, has very
    little fat and very few calories, especially when you compare it
    to the baker's chocolate that comes in squares or packets.  You
    can have your chocolate and be thin too!  Try chocolate/applesauce
    quickbread...I don't have a recipe but it would not be hard to 
    modify a basic quickbread recipe.
    
    --Louise

    Could someone please point me to the Tomato Soup Cake Recipe???
    Or if its not posted could someone please do so???  I had this
    cake YEARS ago at a pot luck and loved it!  I have always wanted
    to try making it but never had the recipe.
    
    Those of you who are skeptical of the taste might want to take note
    of the fact that I was only 9 or 10 when I tried it and liked it...
    If a KID will eat it, anyone will!!! :-)
    
    Thanks!
    
    Lesa

    What can be used instead of the oil in a pasta salad?
    
    Julie

>    What can be used instead of the oil in a pasta salad?
    
Mix vinegar, a teaspoon or so of honey to "tone down" the vinegar, and
dijon mustard for zing.  Add a LITTLE oil for texture - 2 tablespoons
or so and then add some FRESH lemon juice and water mixed together.
You can get a very nice tasting dressing with very few calories/fat grams.

Experiment and taste test some combinations of herbs in the basic
dressing recipe to get different flavors.

I also use a low fat yoghurt cheese (spoken about in great length in
other places) and mix in lemon/water or vinegar and seasonings to get
a "creamy" dressing.  I like it, but if you don't like a tart flavor,
you might not.

    I have the answer you have all been looking for!  With regard to
    cutting out oil in baking only, a substitute can be made with corn
    syrup.  Sounds odd?  I got the tip from a low cholesterol cookbook
    and it works.  The consistency remains the same, although the product
    becomes slightly sweeter.  The sweetness can be adjusted with the
    quantity of sugar you use.  The ratio is a one to one substitution.
    The larger the quantity of oil called for, the more I would consider
    using a compound of 1/2 syrup and 1/2 cannola oil (Puritan Oil).
    
    This would only be a solution if you're unconcerned about sugar.
    Hope it helps.  Another solution to low cholesterol I never thought I'd
    use is Egg-Beaters, an egg substitute.  It doesn't change the recipe
    in texture or flavor and provides the same chemical reactions that
    an egg does.  Give it a shot!

    RE: eggbeaters - these are great things!  I made the mistake of
    picking up Morningstar Farms egg substitute, which I thought would
    be the same but in a more convenient size, but I didn't read the
    label.  I wish I had brought it with me, but they had much more
    additives/preservatives/stabilizers/fat than Eggbeaters.  I've been
    using them in souffle and frittata recipes, using them for yolks
    and real egg whites, and they work well.
    
    RE: Corn syrup tip - I'm going to try this one!  From other notes
    it sounds like you could get by with half the corn syrup and then
    half juice.  Either way, I'd rather have my calories from sugar
    than fat.
    
    Terry

    I know this note is old, but thought I'd add some info.
    
    I've been experimenting and have come up with the following:
    I use Applesauce in all kinds of baking (breads, muffins, etc) as a
    replacement for oil. Granted, it's not exactly the same thing, but it's
    not bad! When adding the applesauce, it's pretty much add another 1/2
    to the measurement. (i.e. 1/2 C oil changes to 3/4 C applesauce).
    I 'created' a banana loaf-bread thing, I'll enter it in the proper
    note.
    beth