Carrot Cake Muffin

on 2024-03-10

Background🔗

After the success of blueberry and rebel copycat, here is my third muffin variation. It's actually inspired by the following conversation.

(A back from his weekly long run)

A: I had a weird craving during the run. I suddenly want white bread and carrot sandwich

YY: (dumbfounded) Eww... That doesn't sound very appetizing. Do you want anything else in the sandwich? Maybe cheese? Butter?

A: Mmmm, yeh... Butter

YY: (comtemplating for a while) Maybe what you really want is carrot cake. You see, it's got carb, carrot and butter. (can't help grinning for interpreting A's crude idea into a fine one)

A: Mmmm, yeh...

Later, I had a warm carrot cake muffin from the MIDWIFE and the BAKER. It hits the sweet spot, literally and figuratively, that I decided to make a similar version, but as always, more nutritious.

Carrot Cake🔗

The batter base and general procedure roughly follow the previous two muffin variations. I will first go over the ingredients and then the procedure. Hopefully, you can get the general muffin framework to create your own.

Ingredients🔗

My goal is always to make tasty things extra nutritious. Normally, you'd think of muffin as a sweet treat rather than a nutrient-dense meal. With smart use of high protein ingredients, you can turn this "sweet treat" into a well-balanced meal.

I divide the ingredients into two parts: batter base and usecase specific. Batter base will be more or less the same no matter what flavor you make. Usecase specific will be the ones for carrot cake

The amount makes 12 jumbo.

Batter base

  • flour, sifted 360g
  • egg 4
  • soft cheese (sour cream / cottage cheese / greek yogurt / buttermilk or any combination of them) 300g
  • oil 60g
  • milk, to adjust final batter consistency, amount varies, aim for thick scoopable consistency

Usecase specific

  • carrot, grated 450g
  • nuts, chopped (walnut / pecan / cashew or any combination of them) 150g
  • raisin 150g
  • coconut, shreded 100g
  • coconut / brown sugar 60g (more for topping)
  • baking powder 12g
  • bake soda 6g
  • ginger, grated or ground, generous
  • cinnamon, generous
  • nutmeg (optional)
  • cocoa (optional)
  • apple, diced (for topping)

The add-ins and spice mix are highly subject to your personal preference. You can use more or less or none for any of them. As long as the total amount is less than carrot. After all it's the star of the show.

Procedure🔗

After several batches, I've summarized a somewhat optimized procedure to mix batter more efficiently.

  • Use a blender or whisk to mix wet base (egg, soft cheese and oil)
  • Grate carrot and mix with sugar (Similar principal as macerating fruit with sugar, this draws moisture out of carrot before mixing everything together. So we don't have a changing batter consistency after mixing)
  • Mix everything except flour into wet base in the follwing order (starting from small amount to large for even distribution)
    • all spices
    • baking powder / soda
    • all add-ins
    • carrot with its juice
  • Fold in sifted flour (Stop once no large streak of flour remains. Don't overmix)
  • Measure total weight and divide into silicone molds
  • Top with diced apple and sprinkle with sugar
  • Bake for 35min at 425F (May need to adjust time and temperature depending on oven. Use a toothpick to test doneness. Insert into the center. Should come out clean with no raw batter)

Serve and Storage🔗

Muffin is best served warm. Maybe 20min out of the oven. Don't cut open too early when it's still hot though. The crumb hasn't fully set yet. Too much steam coming out makes inside taste too moist.

Serve with cream cheese or room temperature butter. Slightly warm crumb makes spreading super safisfying. Especially for the reheated ones, cream cheese / butter compensate for the loss moisture and add luscious mouthfeel. Personally, I really like the tanginess of cream cheese to go with the soft and just slightly sweet crumb.

Store leftover in a sealed ziplock bag. If you plan to finish in the next two days, leave it on the bench. Otherwise, pop in freezer. It can stay in freezer for quite some weeks. But I doubt you'd wait that long to finish.

To reheat (if from freeze, move to room temperature the day before), pop in 400F oven for ~8min or until warm.

Good for All🔗

Make a batch over the weekend and you have quick and nutritious breakfast, lunch or snack options for everyone in the family.

Here is our quick lunch.

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