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Here’s a low-fat recipe in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

(It’s for an Irish soda bread, so it’s not a good recipe if you are on a no carb diet.)

I will give you the basic recipe first, and then some variations.

Basic recipe.

4 cups flour (I like to make this 2 cups whole wheat flour, and 2 cups all-purpose flour)

2 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 400°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or grease and lightly flour the baking sheet.

Put the flour in a large bowl, along with the baking soda and salt. Use a whisk or fork to combine it well,
and make a well in the center. Pour in the buttermilk. Using either your hand, or a wooden spoon, stir until the mixture is blended. It should produce a soft dough, if it is too wet and sticky, add a little bit more flour. Try not to overwork the dough, as it will make for a tougher loaf.

Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface, and using floured hands, shape the dough gently into a round. (Before you shape the dough, you can also cut it in half, and make two small loaves rather than one large loaf.) Flatten the loaf slightly, it should be about 2 inches high. Transfer it to the baking sheet. Using a sharp knife, cut a deep cross into the top of the loaf, and prick each of the four segments.

(If you’re baking two small loaves, reduce the cooking time given below.) Bake the bread for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°. Continue baking until the loaf is golden brown, and sounds hollow when tapped, another 20 to 30 minutes. (Oven temperatures vary, you may need to adjust these cooking times to your oven.) Transfer the soda bread to a wire rack and let cool 20 to 30 minutes.

This basic recipe has about 8 g of fat in total, 4 g from the buttermilk, and 4 g if you use 2 cups of whole
wheat flour.

Some variations on this recipe:

Add 1 cup of raisins or currants, which have been plumped in boiled water for 10 to 15 minutes and drain well.

Add 1 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans. (You could also add 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup nuts.)

If your prefer sweeter soda bread, add a few tablespoons of sugar to the buttermilk and mix well. The sugar will add about 45 calories a tablespoon, but as little as three or 4 tablespoons makes the bread pleasantly sweet.

You can make this recipe with all whole wheat flour, it makes for a slightly denser loaf, and requires a
little bit more liquid, be careful not to add too much though. (You can also make it with all all-purpose
flour, which makes for a much lighter loaf, but I prefer the texture of the whole wheat and all-purpose flour mixture.)

This is a fairly easy bread to make, and you can be enjoying it in less than two hours.

Technorati Tags: Irish Soda Bread, low-fat recipe, St. Patrick's Day

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.