A few weeks ago I came home from the grocery store with lots
of extra carrots. I was craving carrot cake, but didn’t have the time to make
and frost a layer cake, nor did Ryan and I need a giant cake sitting around.
Instead, I decided to fulfill my craving in a slightly healthier way—via carrot
bread and muffins.
I used the same recipe for both and baked them in the
different pans to see which we liked better. While we liked both (enough to
finish everything in record time!), the muffins were the clear winner. I’m not
sure if I baked the bread a few minutes too long or if the smaller size of the
muffins yielded a moister muffin, but if you’re trying to decide, I vote
muffin!
There’s no trying to hide the vegetables in these, as the
shreds of carrot are visible with each bite. Carrots are a naturally sweet
vegetable meaning these didn’t need a ton of additional sugar included. I kept
them pretty plain but they’d be good with shredded coconut or chopped nuts
mixed into the batter as well. If you really wanted to, you could top them with
cream cheese frosting and find yourself with a much lighter carrot cake than
most recipes!
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Carrot Bread / Muffins
from food.com
*Makes one 9 x 5 inch loaf of bread or 12 muffins
Ingredients:
-1 1/2 cups grated carrots
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-2 eggs, beaten
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp nutmeg
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a mixing bowl, combine the vegetable oil with the sugar. Beat in the eggs, followed by the vanilla and grated carrots.
2. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the carrot mixture and mix just until combined.
3. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan or muffin pan. Bake bread for 45-60 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Bake muffins for 15-20 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let the loaf or muffin pan cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes before removing from the pan to cool completely.
