{Gluten Free} Carrot Cake Muffins

For Easter this year I made that cute little (gluten free carrot) bunny cake with lots of delicious cream cheese frosting and tons of sugar! It was a big hit! There was only a tiny bit left over and we were not quite ready for the deliciousness to end. So… I decided to try to make a healthier muffin version that we could enjoy for breakfast. These muffins are so flavorful, moist, and just down right delicious. This recipe can easily handle some add ins like walnuts & raisins offer a little more texture and shredded coconut give an extra pop of flavor. Personally I’m kind of like a little kid when it comes to muffins. I like my muffins naked (no nuts or raisins for me) but since most of the other adults in my life who would be consuming these muffins really like those things and because I love them so much I decided to throw them in there. You can easily add any type of nut or dried fruit that you would like or you could keep it simple with just the carrots.

What you’ll need:
2 medium sized bowls
1 small bowl
liquid measuring cup
measuring cups and spoons
box grater or food processor
something to mix with
muffin tin
cupcake papers

Ingredients:
1 cup agave syrup (I buy mine at costco its really affordable and lasts a long time)
1/2 cup of brown sugar
3 cups of shredded carrots (6-8 carrots depending on their size)
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup sunflower seed oil (I buy this at trader joe’s but if you don’t have any you can also use vegetable oil)
4 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 cups gluten free all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
a pinch of ground ginger
a pinch of ground nutmeg
a pinch of ground cloves
1/3 cup of almond milk (in an attempt to make this recipe dairy free I used almond milk instead of regular milk you can use what ever you prefer)
*1/3 cup plain sparkling water
1 teaspoon of golden flax seed slurry
3 cups of grated carrots
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup shredded coconut
*if you begin to follow my blog and read my recipes you’ll see that many of my recipes call for sparkling water. Sparkling water helps make your gluten free recipes taste more like the “real thing”. The bubbles help give your baked goods more air pockets. There’s a lot of science behind it that I won’t bore you with and even though we might not know each other just trust me and use it if you’re baking gluten free :)
 
Now for the how to:
Prepare your flax seed “slurry” before you do anything else. In your small bowl mix 1 teaspoon of golden flaxseeds and 2-3 teaspoons of HOT water and set aside so they can do their thing. Preheat your oven to 350 & put your cupcake papers in your muffin tins. (I believe this recipe made about 20 muffins because I filled the tins up to the top) Now for the fun part (not really) grate your carrots. Congratulations you just did your arm work out for the day. Now back to baking… In one of your medium sized bowls combine your flour, salt, baking powder & soda, cinnamon, and spices. In your other medium sized bowl first melt your coconut oil (about 15 seconds in the microwave) then add your sunflower seed oil, toss in your agave syrup and brown sugar and mix well. Next up is your eggs, vanilla and lastly in this bowl in goes those flaxseeds that have been soaking. In a liquid measuring cup you can combine your milk and bubbly water. Now time for us to bring it all together. For this recipe I like to add a little of the flour mixture and then a little of the milk/water mixture to our bowl of liquid ingredients alternating until everything has been mixed together. Please note your batter will be VERY runny. Its okay. I was really concerned that my batter was not thick enough but they turned out even better than I had anticipated. Back to mixing our ingredients… Fold in your grated carrots and if you’re using nuts or dried fruit fold that in as well. Like I mentioned before I filled up my muffin tins almost to the top. Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Keep an eye on them when your tooth pick comes out with a little crumb on them you know they’re done. Make sure you invite your friends over while these are baking so they can ohhh and ahh and enjoy the amazing smells that will be wafting through your house. Take the muffins out allow them to cool in the muffin tins for a few minutes and then remove them from the tins and allow them to cool the rest of the way on your baking racks.  These make for a great breakfast or even a healthy dessert. Happy baking!