Muffins Taste Great With Or Without Walnuts

Dear Tina: I’ve been looking for a maple muffin recipe for some time with no luck. I appreciate your help. Shirley, Spokane

Dear Shirley: here’s a great tasting maple muffin recipe that includes walnuts, although you could leave them out if you like.

Maple Nut Muffins

From “The Streamliner Diner Cookbook,” by Irene Clark, Liz Matteson, Alexandra Rust and Judith Weinstock (Ten Speed Press, 1990).

1/4 cup butter or margarine

2 cups unbleached white flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup walnuts, toasted and finely chopped

2 large eggs, beaten

3/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins.

Melt butter or margarine; let cool.

Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and walnuts in a medium-sized bowl. In another medium-sized bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients, including the melted butter or margarine.

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix with as few strokes as possible; don’t overmix. Spoon batter into muffin tins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until light brown on top. These muffins dry out quickly if overbaked.

Yield: 9 muffins.

Nutrition information per muffin: 311 calories, 13 grams fat (38 percent fat calories), 7 grams protein, 43 grams carbohydrate, 62 milligrams cholesterol, 1 gram dietary fiber, 379 milligrams sodium.

Dear Tina: I need a diabetic recipe for jam or jelly using no sugar. Do you have one? - Polly, Bonners Ferry, Idaho

Dear Polly: I located this recipe for a sugarless spread in a diabetic cookbook. You can substitute raspberries for the strawberries if you prefer.

Strawberry Spread

From “Healthy & Hearty Diabetic Cooking,” by the Canadian Diabetes Association (Diabetes Self-Management Books, 1993).

1-1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin

2 cups sliced fresh or frozen unsweetened strawberries

Artificial sweetener equivalent to 8-12 teaspoons of sugar

Red food coloring (optional)

Sprinkle the gelatin over 2 tablespoons of water in a small bowl and let stand 5 minutes to soften.

In a medium saucepan, combine the berries and 2 tablespoons water. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes. (Or microwave on High, covered, for 5 to 10 minutes.)

Add the softened gelatin, sweetener, and food coloring (if using) and stir until the gelatin dissolves. Skim any foam from the surface.

Ladle into hot sterilized jars leaving 1/2 inch of headroom. Store, well sealed, in the refrigerator or freezer.

Yield: 14 (2-tablespoon) servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 7 calories, no fat, trace protein, 1 gram carbohydrate, no cholesterol, less than 1 gram dietary fiber, trace sodium.