In this recipe for Carrot Cake Muffins, we are taking that great cake, and turning it into a healthy muffin. We’ve made a lot of swaps and changes here so that these muffins can be a snack that you can feel great about giving to your family.
Add some vegetables. Carrot cake already has vegetables, but you could really add vegetables to almost any muffin recipe. Don’t miss my Zucchini Muffins; they are my kids’ favorite.Swap some of the sugar out for honey. Honey packs more sweetness per punch. This means that you can use less! Generally speaking, when you take out sugar, replace it with half the amount of honey. In this recipe we went from 1 cup of sugar to 1/2 cup of sugar + 1/4 cup of honey.Swap some of the oil for applesauce. Swapping oil for apple sauce will absolutely change the texture of your muffins. It makes them a little more dense. However, it is a worthy trade off when you are looking to make a recipe lighter. In this recipe we take the best of both worlds by only substituting a portion of the oil.Use some whole wheat flour. Though we didn’t do it here, if you want to take a further step to making these a little healthier, swap some (but not all!) of the all purpose flour for whole wheat flour. You can read more about that here.
Shred the carrots. This is the part of the recipe that takes the most time. You want them very fine, so use the smaller side on a box grater. See more on this below.Combine dry ingredients. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and salt in a large bowl.Mix wet ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugars, vegetable oil, apple sauce, and carrots.Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Be careful not to overmix; you want to stir it until they are just combined.Bake the muffins. Fill your muffin cups about 2/3 full with batter, as they will rise while baking. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out with just a few crumbs.
Measure your flour correctly. Since this is such an important step, it gets its own section below. Make sure your baking soda and baking powder are active and you use both. You will need both; they are not interchangeable. To test their freshness, drop the baking soda in a small amount of vinegar and the baking powder in water; they should bubble immediately. You need to replace them every six months. Your eggs should be room temperature. This makes them thinner which will mix into the batter better, allowing the muffins to rise more. Fill a bowl with lukewarm water and put them in there for a few minutes to speed this along.
Start by whisking the flour in its container (flour bag, glass jar, etc.). Use a spoon to scoop it from the container into a dry measuring cup. Level off the measuring cup with the flat end of a spatula.
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