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This is a great tasting low-fat recipe, which can be used either for biscuits or muffins. It makes eight large biscuits or muffins, or 12 smaller pastries, or even 16 mini muffins.

I will give you the basic recipe first, and then include a couple variations which I have tried and enjoy.

Ingredient list
Dry ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour (you can use whole wheat pastry flour)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped nuts
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup dried fruit

Wet ingredients:
1 1/4 cups plain or vanilla low-fat yogurt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (you want a mild tasting oil such as canola or safflower oil, not something strong such as extra virgin olive oil)
1 teaspoon freshly grated orange or lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl, mixing thoroughly with a fork or whisk.

In another bowl, combine the yogurt, vegetable oil, and the grated zest.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients. Stir just until blended. Try not to overwork the mixture, as this will make the finished pastry tougher.

If you are using muffin tins, grease them well, or line them with baking cups. Fill them approximately 2/3 full, and bake until lightly browned, and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. (Depending on your oven, this will take around 20 minutes; I have a convection oven, and it takes about 15 minutes at 350°F.)

Another option is to line a cookie sheet with parchment, then drop the dough onto parchment, using a large spoon. Try and make the biscuits equally sized so they bake evenly. Some cooks use a measuring cup or an ice cream scoop to do this. My personal preference is just to eye them up. Baking them on a cookie sheet, instead of a muffin tin, produces a crustier exterior, which I prefer.

In terms of variations, my favorite combinations of nuts and dried fruit are sliced almonds and dried
cherries, and chopped pecans and dried cranberries. I also found that if you add 3 tablespoons of sugar with the wet ingredients, it improves the texture of the pastry, makes the outside a little crisper, and if you bake eight pastries, it only adds around 15 calories per pastry. When you bake pastries, without the sugar they are about 200 calories each, so adding the sugar would bring you up to about 215 calories each. If you choose not to add the sugar, adding the vanilla low-fat yogurt instead of plain yogurt helps them taste better.

If I’m using the almonds and dried cherries, I also add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract.

You can also bake this using all whole wheat flour or all whole wheat pastry flour, but I find it makes the
pastries a little heavier, so I like to use half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour.

If you want to make this as a cake, you can put the mixture into a 9 inch round baking pan, again baking until it’s lightly browned on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. This takes around 20 to 25 minutes.

Give this low-fat recipe a try, if you have any questions about it, leave a comment here.