Orange juice keeps pumpkin muffins moist

Dear Recipe Doctor: I would love to make Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins but haven’t seen a recipe for this to save my life! I want them to be super moist and full of flavor. I trust your lightening abilities much better than mine.

A: I’ll be honest with you. I developed two different pumpkin cream cheese recipes after reading your letter and they were good but the pumpkin muffin part wasn’t as good as I remember the orange pumpkin bread being from my column about a year ago. So I went back and used that orange pumpkin bread recipe as my muffin batter. I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

In this batter the moisture is coming from an entire orange, which is pureed, plus I used 1/4-cup plant sterol-fortified margarine with 7 or 8 grams of fat per tablespoon. Moisture is also coming from orange juice and the canned pumpkin. I cut down on the sugar a bit and substituted whole-wheat flour for half of the flour. The cream cheese mixture is made with a light cream cheese and as little powdered sugar and corn syrup as I could get away with.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins

If you don’t want to use Splenda, just use 1 cup of granulated sugar instead of 1/2 cup Splenda. Garnish the muffins if desired by inserting a pecan half into the center.

1 large orange

1/4 cup less-fat margarine (with 7 or 8 grams fat per tablespoon and no trans fats)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup Splenda

1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 large egg (higher omega-3 egg if available)

1/4 cup egg substitute

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/3 cup orange juice

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 cup unbleached white flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Cream Cheese Mixture:

8 ounces light cream cheese

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with muffin papers. Cut orange into wedges, and remove seeds (if there are any). Place orange wedges (peel and all) into a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat less-fat margarine with sugar, Splenda and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and egg substitute one at a time. On low speed, beat in pumpkin, orange juice and the orange puree.

Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice together in 8-cup measure and whisk to blend. Add flour mixture into orange mixture, stirring just until combined. Spoon batter by 1/4-cup fulls into muffin papers.

For cream cheese mixture, add cream cheese, corn syrup and powdered sugar to small mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Drop a tablespoon full into the center of each muffin, pressing down gently so the cream cheese sinks a little.

Bake for about 20 minutes (until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean). Once the muffins cool, keep them in an airtight bag or container in the refrigerator.

Yield: About 16 regular-sized muffins

Approximate nutrition per serving: 190 calories, 3.5 grams fat (1.1 grams saturated, 17 percent fat calories), 5 grams protein, 35 grams carbohydrate, 18 milligrams cholesterol, 3 grams dietary fiber, 303 milligrams sodium.

Weight Watchers POINTS = 3