This traditional dessert with a healthy makeover makes the perfect sweet ending to your meal when you don't want to bust the diet. A typical pavlova uses a meringue base, whipped cream, topped with fruit. By using 0% fat Greek yogurt as a replacement for double cream, a large individual pavlova totals just 4 WeightWatchers ProPoints which can easily be halved to 2 ProPoints by making smaller meringues.
If you don't want to make the meringues yourself you can of course get shop bought ones, but since I have discovered just how easy and how much better tasting home-made ones are, I don't think I'll ever buy them again. Oh and a good tip is when you are making something that uses a yolk, don't throw the white away, pop it into a freezer bag and freeze it. I hate wasting anything and all you need is a couple of egg whites in the freezer and you are on your way to a delicious, low fat pud.
Part of my failure to make a good meringue previously was largely down to a very old handheld mixer. It was so old and slow that it actually left part of the egg whites runny in the bowl! I should have worked out that this was never going to result in stiff peaks. Earlier this year I became the proud owner of a beautiful KitchenAid. This coupled with a fool-proof meringue recipe (both courtesy of one of the best friend's a girl could wish for) I can finally add pavlova to my repertoire. This one's for you Lisa x
Makes 4 large ones or 8 mini ones:
- 2 large egg whites
- 110g golden caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp cornflour
- 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
- 400g 0% fat Greek yogurt
- Selection of fruit
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C /160 fan °C / Gas mark 4
- In a spotlessly clean bowl, whisk the egg whites till stiff peaks form
- Slowly add the sugar followed by the vinegar and cornflour
- Whisk for another 2-3 minutes till stiff and glossy
- Lay a piece of paking parchment or a silicon baking mat on a large baking sheet
- Spoon out the meringue to the shape and size of your choice. This mix makes 4 large individual meringues or 8 small ones.
- Place into the oven and turn the oven down immediately to 130°C / 110°C fan / Gas mark 1
- Bake for 1 hour then turn the oven off and leave the meringues inside the oven to cool down completely. These keep nicely in an airtight container for a couple of days.
- When ready, top with the yogurt and fruit.
WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 4 (large) 2 (mini)
The whole ethos of this food blog is that you can have your cake and eat it i.e. you can lose or maintain weight by eating healthy but tasty. Likewise if you are interested in maintaining a healthy, balanced diet you will find that all my recipes are carefully balanced with a mix of whole grains, vegetables and lean proteins making the dishes naturally low in fat.
So of course I was keen to try out some low calorie sweet treats and jumped at the chance to recipe test for Baking Mad using Silver Spoon's latest 'Half Spoon' product. It has a small amount of sweeteners added to make it twice as sweet and half the calories. It's granulated form makes it ideal for baking.
There are a list of recipe ideas on the Baking Mad website and I decided to give the Blueberry muffins a go. The lovely people at Baking Mad sent me the recipe, the flour and half spoon then I purchased the remaining ingredients. I carefully timed the baking of these on a day I was hosting a mum's coffee morning so to test them on a live audience! They are quick and easy to prepare with very little washing up and I managed to get them done before the school run which was pretty impressive!
All the mums liked the muffins. There were two main observations;
1) The muffins were not overly sweet. Some may say not sweet enough but for me I liked them.
2) The muffins did not rise particularly well. You can see by the picture they look more like cupcakes without icing. I followed the recipe and made 12 muffins as the recipe stated but perhaps it could do with some added baking powder to get a better rise.
On the whole though a nice recipe and if you are after a sweeter taste my advice would be to up the Half Spoon quantity or use a naturally sweeter fruit such as ripe banana. Hmmm, thinking that could be a good way to go especially as on the WeightWatchers plan bananas are 0 ProPoints!!
Ingredients - Makes 12
- 250g self rasing flour (I used Allinson Nature Friendly)
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 50g low fat margarine
- 75g Half Spoon Granulated sugar (Silver Spoon)
- 100g fresh blueberries
- 2 large free range eggs (I used Happy eggs)
- 235ml milk (recipe did not state full fat so I used semi-skimmed)
- Juice from half a lemon
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180c / 160c fan / 350f / Gas mark 4
2. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin cases
3. Sieve the flour and baking powder together in a bowl, twice
4. Add the margarine and rub gently until it resembles breadcrumbs
5. Stir in the sugar and blueberries
6. Whisk together the eggs, milk and lemon juice
7. Add to the flour mixture stirring gently but not over-mixing
8. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes
9. Allow to cool slightly and then serve warm
WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Blueberry Muffin: 4
