Whole Grain Carrot Morning Glory Muffins

by Lizzy W   |   February 18, 2015   |   2 Comments

I woke up this morning with a serious craving for carrot muffins… not sure why… but there are worse cravings.  So after reading a few blogs with different recipes, I substituted ingredients to make the perfect guilt-free whole grain carrot morning glory muffins!  These were so good – not too sweet, and so so moist – perfect morning muffin!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole grain pastry flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. fine salt
• 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla bean paste
• 1 egg
• 2 egg whites
• 1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2 1/2 cups shredded carrots (roughly 5-6 medium carrots, not grated but shredded)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 3/4 cup seedless raisins
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1-2 tbsp. ground flax seed

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with liners and spray the insides with baking spray.
• In a medium bowl, sift together dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt; set aside.
• In a kitchen aid mixer, beat together brown sugar, vanilla, oil, egg, and egg whites.  Add in almond milk and beat again.  Add in carrots (shredded but not finely), applesauce, and raisins.  Mix in dry ingredients and then gently fold in nuts and coconut flakes.  An alternative here is to add about 1/4 or 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.
• Spoon batter into liner cups and bake for about 20-25 minutes, until you can poke with a fork and it comes out dry.

– For a sweet topping, add on some cream cheese frosting – YUM!