Eating With the Seasons: Carrots for Tasty Muffins

⏲ Grab a coffee! 4 min. read.

Carrot cake and carrot muffins should really be a fall thing. Anyone with a vegetable garden knows carrots generally are ready to harvest in late summer to fall. (There are a couple of varieties that mature in spring, in milder climates.) 

I decided for this fall I would buy extra carrots and cook with them more often. If they're mature by late summer, then maybe there's a particular health benefit to eating them in fall and winter. 

I wish I could say I would be using our abundance of garden carrots this fall. But the bunnies got to both plantings of carrots, eating the tops off before they could grow roots. I was left with 7, yes, 7 carrots for this gardening season.

from the pedestrian overpass from the parking lot to the beach --
that's the Puget Sound in the clearing

It was particularly chilly today. I walked on the nearby beach and needed to wear my winter jacket. My fingers got cold enough after a while that I put on the mittens I had left in the pockets last winter. 

When I came home I decided to bake something to help me warm up. Carrot-spice muffins seemed like a good choice for the day.

Carrots are naturally sweet. I also added some raisins and sweet spices to the batter. The result was that I only needed to add 1/4 cup of brown sugar for a 12-muffin batch.

During WW2 in England, citizens were encouraged to use carrots liberally in baking and "sweet" cooking (like breakfast porridge), as their natural sweetness could reduce the amount of sugar required for a recipe. In fact, there was a "chocolate" cake recipe that was popular that used finely grated carrot to add both moisture and sweetness to a batter that used no more than 2 spoons full of golden syrup and 2 spoons full of granulated sugar. The end result was a chocolate cake that was mildly sweet, but passable enough for a Sunday dinner dessert, and the carrots were undetectable, yet added just enough sweetness to call it cake.

The average amount of sugar called for in a 1 1/2 cup flour muffin recipe ranges from 1/2 to 3/4 cups of sugar. King Arthur Baking Co's recipe for basic plain muffins calls for 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar. Calculated for a 1 1/2 cup flour batch, by their proportions, the amount of sugar I should use is 6 tablespoons, or 2 full tablespoons more than what I used in Lower Sugar Carrot Muffins. The carrots, combined with the raisins and sweet spices yield a muffin that doesn't require as much granulated sugar, yet is still sweet enough. 

To put the sugar amount into perspective, each muffin has 1 teaspoon of added sugar.

In case you would like to try these, here's the recipe.

Lower Sugar Carrot Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 tseapoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups shredded carrot
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup milk
4 to 5 tablespoons of oil, shortening, or butter -- melted if choice of fat is solid (I use 2 1/2 tablespoons butter plus 2 tablespoons avocado oil)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

note: you could also use 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and skip the whole wheat flour, if you prefer.

Prepare 12 wells in a muffin pan.

Combine flours, soda, baking powder, spices, salt, and brown sugar. Stir in the shredded carrot and raisins. 

In a small bowl beat together the egg, milk, fat, and extract. Stir into the dry mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 24 mins, or when the tops spring back when pressed with a finger.

yield: 12 muffins

I mentioned in the ingredients that I use 1/2 liquid oil, 1/2 solid fat (butter). When making a quick bread, subbing 1/2 liquid fat for any solid fat called for will yield a product that remains moist longer than using a solid fat alone. I like to use half oil, half butter so I get the rich flavor of the butter, yet still get a product that will remain moist longer.

Muffins are traditionally meant to be mildly sweet in order to taste the flavors of individual ingredients like added fruits, nuts, butter, and spices. They're not supposed to be sweet like cake.

Commercial or bakery-style muffins are made intentionally sweet, in part to promote sales, but also because commercial muffins typically remain on the rack for a day or two before selling. At that point, they might sit in the customer's kitchen for an additional day or two before consuming. Additional sugar acts as a modest preservative, keeping the quick bread moist longer. In addition, sugar tenderizes batters, inhibiting gluten development, resulting in a super soft, cupcake-like product.

Does this mean my carrot muffins are inferior compared to their commercial counterparts? I don't think so. But it also depends on one's expectations. What I can say is that my family loves these. They would love them more if I added a cream cheese topping, but I don't do dairy, and sometimes they have to live with my dietary restrictions. But if you want, you can also top these with some whipped cream cheese sweetened with a little honey.

This fall I intend to center many of my quick breads, cookies, cakes, and other desserts, as well as soups and roasted vegetable side dishes around carrots. Carrots not only support eye health, but they also boost the immune system and help repair skin cells that are stressed by cold, dry weather. They're also a bargain vegetable. Carrots have a lot going for them. But you know why I really want to incorporate them more, I think they're just plain tasty.