Carrot Cake Muffins

I love muffins especially when they hit the mark of being nutritious and delicious at the same time.  That’s how I feel about these muffins, plus they freeze well and make a great quick breakfast.

When my sisters and I were kids, my mother would put wheat germ in ‘everything’ (she told us this later in life).  I’m not sure what ‘everything’ was.  I always assumed it was just baked goods, but I never asked her. As a youngster I was a terrible eater, so I am not surprised by my mother’s actions.  If we went out for dinner and there was no tuna fish sandwich on the menu (wwhhaat!!), then I would eat crackers and pickles (how that came about, I have no idea).  So including  wheat germ and wheat or oat bran in this recipe just seemed the right thing to do.

Possible additional alterations:  substitute apples for the carrots or use a combination of apples and carrots.  Substitute walnuts for the pecans or substitute raisins or use a combination of all.  Spread with cream cheese frosting?  mmmm,  just thinking out loud!

Carrot Cake Muffins (adapted from Bon Appetit)

1 cup quick cooking oats

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

4 tablespoons of wheat germ

4 tablespoons of wheat or oat bran

3 teaspoons of baking soda

2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 cup of chopped pecans

7 ounces of flaked sweetened coconut

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups of grated peeled carrots

1, 8 ounce can of crushed pineapple, drained

1/2 cup boiling water

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 2, 12 cup muffin/cupcake pans with canola spray.

Combine and stir thoroughly the first 12 ingredients into a very large bowl, from quick cooking oats to coconut. Use your fingers to break up brown sugar and separate coconut.

Combine liquid ingredients in a medium bowl or glass measuring cup:  vegetable oil, buttermilk, eggs and vanilla and stir thoroughly with a whisk.

Pour liquid ingredients and carrots and pineapple into bowl with dry ingredients and stir until almost combined.  Add boiling water and finish stirring.  Be careful not to over mix.

Using an ice cream scoop, scoop batter into muffin pans.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Cool in pans for 30 minutes and then remove muffins onto rack to cool completely.

I use the box grater to grate the carrots:

mise en place:

prepped pans:

dry ingredients, oats to coconut:

liquid ingredients and carrots, pineapple and water added:

ready to go in oven:

cooling:

yum!