Nice fat vs Naughty fat - Which type of Chocolate Muffins taste the best?

Can butter taste better than vegetable oil?

Vegetable oil is often being misunderstood having lesser fat content than butter. The actual fact is NO! With the same weight, they both contain the same amount of fat and calories. The significant difference is that butter contains more saturated fat than some vegetable oil and excessive consumption of saturated fat can be bad for our hearts.

Vegetable oils that has lower amounts of saturated fats, and higher levels of unsaturated fats are olive, peanut, canola, avocado, safflower, corn, sunflower, soy, cottonseed and rice bran oils. Based on information from Wikipedia, butter contains 63% saturated fat. Typically, sunflower oil has 11%, olive oil has 14% and rice bran oil has 20% saturated fat. Shockingly, coconut oil contains 86% saturated fat!

Using vegetable oil with less saturated fat content is clearly a healthier option...but is it a tastier option?

As I was browsing a couple of my food magazines, I saw two different chocolate muffins recipes. One uses melted butter and another uses vegetable oil. Instantly, I had this idea and have bookmarked these recipes for this taste test...

Drum rolling... "Ta Da"...

Not surprisingly, the muffins with the "naughty" fat are the clear-cut winner. These muffins are less sweeter than the other ones and the addition of white chocolate subtly boost the sweetness of these muffins and the overall texture is simply beautiful.

For a fairer test, I have used rice bran oil to make my "nice" muffins as rice bran oil tastes comparatively to butter. In fact, the muffins with the "nice" fat are very delicious and moist as well. Unfortunately, this taste test has been a highly competitive comparison. The only reason that they have lost is because their opponents taste simply better... Or simply one recipe is just better than the other.

 

 

Here's the recipes from Super Food Idea and Australian GoodFood magazines and both are Aug 2011 issues.

(with my modification in blue)

	The Good Fat Chocolate Muffins	The “Naughty” Fat Chocolate Muffins
Source of recipe	Super Food Idea Magazine, Aug 2011 issue	Australian GoodFood Magazine, Aug 2011 issue
	Make 12 x 1/3 cup capacity muffin	Make 12 x 1/3 cup capacity muffin
Ingredients
Self-raising flour, sifted	21/4  cup	1 2/3 cup
Cocoa powder , sifted (Dutch cocoa)	1/2 cup	1/3 cup
Caster sugar	1 cup	2/3 cup
Dark chocolate chips	3/4 cup	1/3 cup
White chocolate	-	100g
Oil / Butter (melted)	1/2 cup vegetable oil (rice bran oil)	100g butter
Milk	2/3 cup	1
Vanilla extract	1 tsp	-
Eggs	2	1
Baking Time	25 min	18-20 min

 

Preheat oven to 180°C or 160°C fan forced.

Line muffin pan with paper cases.

Combine flour, cocoa, sugar and chocolate chips in a large bowl. Make a well in centre. Whisk vegetable oil or butter, milk, vanilla and eggs in a large jug. Add the wet ingredients to well. Using a wooden spoon, stir until just combined (don’t over-mix). Spoon mixture into paper cases.

Bake accordingly to the above suggested baking time or until firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand in pan for 5 min. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve.

Happy Baking

Please support me and like me at Facebook.