Moist Apple-Carrot Muffins

Jasmine Green Tea and Apple-Carrot Muffins. See the flower I made with
some finely sliced apples? That's me trying to be fancy!

This recipe is brought to you compliments of the over-abundance of carrots I recently discovered in my fridge. Oh, it's also brought to you by the gray weather we had yesterday. Gray weather makes me yearn for warm spices like cinnamon and cloves. Muffins just seemed like the right way to combine it all. 

And hoo-boy. Let me tell you; it was. These muffins were mind-blowingly spectacular: they were moist, light, and comfortingly spicy. I combined two recipes to make them: Cook's Illustrated Carrot Cake and Joy of Baking's Carrot Muffins. 

I really wanted the spice of a carrot cake and the, uh, relative healthiness of a muffin, so I added carrot cake spices to a muffin recipe that had fruit and veggies in it. The result was a breakfast muffin that was as delectable as a dessert. (My taste buds bear witness to this: in the past twenty four hours, I've eaten four and a half. But you didn't hear that from me.)

Helpful Hints:

(In case you were wondering, I bold words in this section to enable easy skimming. I tend to be fairly detailed in my description of the process of a recipe, so I bold key phrases so the reader can quickly find what tip is most helpful for them.)  

I used Cook's Illustrated method for mixing muffin ingredients. The secret to airy, fluffy, moist muffins is in how you combine the ingredients - specifically the sugar, eggs, and oil. First, I shredded the carrots and apple in the food processor. (This was the first time I had tried using the processor to grate. I may never use my box grater again - it was so fast!)

Then I wiped out the food processor bowl with a paper towel, mixed my sugar and eggs together, whipping them into a creamy, uniform mixture and added the oil. Something about creaming the sugar, eggs, and oil this way created a much lighter crumb. Lastly, I mixed the shredded apples and carrots and the sugar/egg mixture with the remaining dry ingredients. 

To make this even healthier, substitute one half cup of all purpose flour for whole wheat. 

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that when made with a food processor, the hands on time was about twenty minutes. That means you could have freshly made muffins in under an hour.That's right. Under an hour to do everything from measure ingredients to pulling 'em all warm and munchable from the oven. While that blissful possibility sinks in, lets all say a word of prayer thanking the good Lord for those Kitchen-Aid people. Because really, aren't they brilliant?

Also in the interest full disclosure: these muffins would have been even better if I hadn't forgotten the nuts. I'm a doofus. Don't be like me. Add the nuts and your wildest dreams will come true. 

Assuming you can avoid eating the entire pan in one day, any leftover muffins will taste even more moist the following day. It's like . . . a reward for having self control. Or something. 

About the cinnamon: don't be afraid to use an entire teaspoon. I didn't because I use a pretty strong cinnamon, and it seemed like it lost some of its punch in the baking process. 

This recipe inexplicably only made nine muffins, not twelve. Just a heads up - don't be surprised if you don't fill your whole pan. 

Variations: Next time I make these, I'm adding 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger. A little zesty punch of ginger never hurt anything. Please quote me on that. 

According to Joy of Baking, you can also use 1/2 cup of sweetened or unsweetened flaked coconut in this recipe, but that seemed weird to me, so I left it out. But I'm weird about my coconut. 

Apple-Carrot Muffins

Tweaked from Joy of Baking with help from Cook's Illustrated

Makes nine standard-sized delicious muffins

2-3 small, peeled, raw carrots (enough to make 1 1/3 cup grated carrots)

1 small apple, peeled

3/4 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/4 cup chopped, toasted pecans or walnuts

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350. Grease/Pam your muffin tin.

Using food processor fitted with grating disk, grate carrots and apple and transfer to bowl. Wipe bowl clean with paper towel, fit with blade, and mix sugar and eggs for twenty seconds, then add oil and vanilla extract in steady stream and mix for another twenty seconds. 

In large bowl, mix nuts, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Add grated carrots and apple. Gently fold in sugar, egg, oil, and vanilla extract mixture until just combined. 

Spoon batter into greased muffin tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Poke a toothpick in the center of a muffin; if the toothpick emerges with only a few moist crumbs, remove from oven and place on cooling rack for ten minutes. Remove muffins from pan and consume delightedly.