Carrot Cake Muffins

Yum

The taste of traditional carrot cake in a muffin!  Brilliant if you ask me because carrot cakes can be a whole lot of work.

These carrot cake muffins have been healthified by reducing the sugar and flour and increasing the carrots and raisins.

You can make them in a variety of ways, depending on what you want.  You can make them plain using applesauce instead of oil, which is the healthiest option and they also freeze well like this.

The nutrition content in the recipe printout will reflect this option.

or you can go all out and include the cream cheese frosting.

Keep in mind this will add additional calories, fat and sugar.  I played around with both the muffin and the icing as much as I could so the muffin still had that traditional carrot cake texture and flavor but using as little cream cheese and powdered sugar as possible.

I’ve included the ingredients and instructions for the cream cheese frosting should you want make it.

The recipe makes 12 muffins total and I only used 4 ounces of cream cheese to frost them all.  You don’t need a lot of cream cheese or powdered sugar to still get the effect and taste.

Carrot Cake Muffins

Each muffin (made with applesauce and no frosting) contains approx.:
Cal 154; Fat 4.6 gr; Cholesterol 45 mg; Sodium 126 mg; Fiber 2.5 gr; Sugar 18.2 gr; Protein 3.8 gr

Adding the oil and cream cheese frosting increases the calories by 115 and the fat by 12.3 gr

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups carrots, peeled and finely grated
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup oil (or unsweetened applesauce)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour (King Arthur makes one)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon sea salt, fine
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin spice (or nutmeg)

For cream cheese icing:

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 2-3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 Tablespoon whole milk
• walnuts or pecans finely chopped for rolling or topping

Instructions

For the muffins:

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Line a muffin tin with liners. The silicone liners are reusable and the muffins don’t stick when coming out.
3. In a bowl, mix the carrots, walnuts and raisins together.
4. In another bowl, using a hand mixer or by hand, mix the sugar and oil (or applesauce) together until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla and continue mixing for about 30 seconds.
5. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin spice (or nutmeg) together.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the flour and stir until combined.
7. Last, add the carrots, nuts and raisins to the mixture and stir to combine.
8. Fill each muffin tin about 3/4 full and bake approximately 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Let cool if frosting with cream cheese.

For the cream cheese frosting:

1. Using an electric hand mixer, beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar and milk together until smooth, about 1-2 minutes.
2. Frost the cooled muffins with about 1 Tablespoon cream cheese and top with nuts if desired.

Notes

© HappilyUnprocessed. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words AND link back to this post

Recipe Source:  HappilyUnprocessed.com
I used all organic ingredients when making this recipe, and hope you do too!  🙂

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