Carrot Muffins

One of the worst things about trying to avoid wheat (at least for me!) is the thought of not having cakes and biscuits anymore.

Personally I don’t have the will power to avoid things like this so having a healthier option is always going to be a winner! I find it easy to avoid bread and pasta but a nice slice of cake with a cup of coffee is a little bit of heaven. (Note to self – investigate the possibility of healthy banoffee pie. I could make millions.)

This was my first attempt at baking with coconut flour and I have to say these carrot muffins were a roaring success. I ate 2 of these as soon as they came out of the oven – please tell me I’m not the only person who does this? ‘Leave to cool’ – Seriously!?.

I immediately regretted only making 1 batch. They are very quick to throw together though so I can see plenty of these in my future! I’m thinking lemon and blueberry or even coffee flavoured. They’re very handy for breakfast – and handy to throw into a lunch box also.
They freeze extremely well and will have defrosted in your lunch box by lunchtime. This recipe for carrot muffins came from the book The FODMAP Solution which I bought in the kindle store.

This is the first recipe I made from this book, it’s been such a success I’m sure I’ll be trying more! The recipe is moderate in FODMAPs as a result of the almond flour – so if you are following that diet you should probably stick to just 1 of these – woops.

On the plus side these are gluten free, dairy free and free from refined sugars and all guilt. I mean there’s banana, carrot and coconut in here, that’s 3 of your 5-a-day

Ingredients:

• 1 heaped teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 large ripe banana
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder (gluten free)

1. Preheat oven to 180C Fan. Grease your muffin tin with the coconut oil. I made some of these in paper and some directly in the tin. They come out much better done directly in the tin!
2. Lightly beat the 4 eggs. In a small bowl mash the banana and add the maple syrup, vanilla and carrots. Mix these in with the eggs.
3. Mix the dry ingredients in. Combine until you get a nice batter. Spoon it into the muffin tin. (Note: The original recipe called for salt, I didn’t put it in. It also asked for a tablespoon of cinnamon – I used a heaped teaspoon instead and it was plenty. Finally, I added baking powder – make sure to use gluten free as I was afraid they’d be like little rocks without it….)
4. Bake for 25-30 mins until they are crispy on the top and springy to the touch.
5. Cool the carrot muffins in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out. (I won’t judge you if you don’t follow this step.)
I made whipped coconut cream with vanilla and maple syrup to serve these with. It’s so tasty with these muffins. I followed the steps here to make it.