Cherry Rosemary Yogurt Mini Loaves

Last week I shared with you one of my strawberry recipes and it was a high time to show up with one since strawberries are gone for this year (unless you live outside Europe - I'm so jeleaus!) and another fruit is starting leaving us. Oh yes, you're right. Sweet juicy cherries. I can't express how much I love them. LOVE them. I think they're my most favourite fruit. The taste is so sweet, full of juiciness, no sourness, fresh, deep red colour, shiny....simply outstanding. If you love cherries as much as I do these loaves are just perfect for your taste buds AND you definitely won't gain weight by eating them, because they're almost fat free, high in proteins and don't contain any added sugar! Isn't this a piece of pure slim-and-thin-in-summer bliss?

Don't get me wrong, as you can see I usually (almost never) don't care about calories because when I bake it just has to be high in calories - c'mon, butter, sugar, chocolate, caramel, all these things are too good to avoid. However, summer is here and I'd like to be fit and in shape so that I can go swimming without feeling ashamed (you know this feeling, don't you?). So this time I've tried to bake something healthy, a kind of guilt free comfort food/pleasure whatever. And you know what? I think I succeeded.

If anyone told me that something without fat and sugar could be tasty, I probably wouldn't believe him/her. So I deeply hope you're gonna believe me when I say YES, it CAN be tasty even without sugar and fat. Well, not everything, but in this case it is. I didn't even want to bake anything like that but somehow I started putting things together and realized that I had omitted the fat. I said to myself "Hey, at least once you could try baking something healthy" and in order to do that I used sweetener instead of sugar. Added tons of fruit, low-fat buttermilk and hoped that it'd turn out great.

I hate using sweeteners because it's something artificial, unnatural and you can read almost everywhere how bad it can be - it's said that in bigger amount it could even cause cancer and other unpleasant diseases. However, you only use a little of it, at least in my recipe - I'm really afraid of using that stuff. Of course, you can use more, it's up to you. The more you use, the sweeter loaves you get. I'm using saccharin in this recipe but feel free to use your favourite sweetener or even sugar (though in this case the nutritional value as well as calorie count differs!).

By the way, have I mentioned that you won't be hungry for at least 2 hours? They only contain the good carbs which take longer to be processed in your body so you feel full for long time. All important issues have been said and you can go baking :D

Ingredients:
Dry ingredients:
100g whole rye flour
100g whole wheat flour
100g all-purpose flour
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
16 saccharin tablets, finely crushed
Wet ingredients:
150g plain low-fat yogurt
350g buttermilk
450g halved pitted cherries
2 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine wet ingredients. Now pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones. Gently stir using your wooden spatula until moistened and just incorporated. Do not overmix, there should be lumps in the batter. Divide the batter into greased and floured mini-loaf baking pan. Bake in preheated oven to 180C for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 150C and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden in color. Turn the oven off and let the loaves cool down in it for about 5 minutes so that they won't "fall". Remove from oven and serve.

• You can use either frozen or fresh cherries. If using frozen, let them thaw and then drain.
• Nutritional value in 100g: 112 kcal, 5.4g proteins, 0.7g fat, 22.3g carbohydrates. One loaf  (about 170g) contains approx. 190 kcal, 9.2g proteins, 1.2g fat and 37.9g carbohydrates - this is the perfect way how to start your day. The numbers may differ though, it depends on what stuff you use. If you add sugar, cream yogurt, different kind of flour etc. it'll contain more fat/carbs/less proteins etc.

Verdict:
I can't help but love these! The loaf is so moist, tender and fullfilling, not too sweet and very juicy and refreshing thanks to the cherries. I'd say that it's even better than most "normal" sweet breads loaded with fat and sugar. Rosemary and cherry together drew my attention on this beautiful blog by Martina. The rosemary-cherry combination is perfect! The two complement each other so well that it's hard to believe they weren't meant to be together in the first place (at least I thought that rosemary was supposed to be used with meat and savoury food). Even if don't want to lose weight try them out! They're extremely tasty :) And if you want to gain weight then you can make them, too and eat them all at once :D


Linked to:
Sweets for a Saturday
These Chicks Cooked 
Whisking Wednesdays 
Foodie Wednesday 
Sweet Treats Thursday 
Sweet Tooth Friday