Monday, January 12, 2009

Whole Wheat Carrot Cranberry (or other variations)



I love this recipe and have been tweaking it for months. It started out as a Cream Cheese filled Carrot muffin. I wanted it more healthy and realize it is very versatile. It is super moist and dense and freezes well (just pop a frozen one into the microwave for 30 seconds for a mostly healthy treat).

Whole Wheat Carrot Cranberry Muffin

1 (14 1/2 ounce) can sliced carrots drained (or steam a bag of fresh baby carrots)
1 egg
3 tablespoons apple sauce

2 tablespoons veggie oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
¾ white flour
¾ cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (I don’t use salt when using canned carrots)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
½ bag fresh cranberries (blackberries work well too. Use whatever is in season!)

Place carrots in a food processor; cover and process until smooth. In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, salt and spices. In a small bowl, whisk the pureed carrots, eggs , apple sauce and oil; stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Fill muffin cups almost full. Makes 12 muffins. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm.

If you want the cream cheese filling try this:

8 ounces cream cheese
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar

Cream these together. When making the muffins put a scoop of muffin batter in the muffin cup. Add a tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture. Fill the remainder of the cup with muffin batter - no need to only fill 2/3 of the way...fill the whole thing up. It's a dense muffin :).

Go over to Blessed With Grace, the host of Tempt My Tummy Tuesday for more delish recipes!!

7 comments:

  1. Yum! That sounds really good. I will have to give it a try. I love cranberries.

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  2. What a great idea to freeze them like that!

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  3. Mmmm, I bet the cream cheese filling is super yummy.I am in a eat fat and sugar sort of mood, but only in my mind. Hehehe Thanks for sharing.

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  4. I *love* the fact that these are dairy free. I've been working on converting recipes for my daughter, but this is one she'd totally love and no work for me. Peachy!

    One question -- after you steam the baby carrots, do you shred them or before or?...

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  5. These sound delicious!!

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