Carrot Cake Muffins

Another one in the series of my new obsession with healthy-ish breakfast foods, thank you Martha Shulman. I didn't have high hopes for this recipe, because I hadn't like the matrices of the past few NYTimes muffins I had made. Yet I was surprised as these were not boring, but rather delicious. They definitely took longer to make, as all I had were baby carrots and I had to finely grate them-- a whole bunch of them-- instead of using a fat carrot or two. Do people actually use real carrots anymore? Baby carrots are so much easier to eat, and sweeter. But even with the work since I am satisfied with the result, I am happy. Can I mention the turbinado sugar inside the muffin? What an idea! So good. Gave the muffin just the right level of sweetness.

Original recipe from Martha Shulman found here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/health/nutrition/01recipehealth.html?ref=recipesforhealth

Notes: I used 1/3 cup pecans, 1/3 cup raisins-- just the regular kind, not golden raisins. I'm not a big fan of raisins when I eat them plain, but whenever I bake with them I want there to be more, so I think you could easily put in 2/3 cup raisins and still have room in the matrix for 1/3 cup nuts. I also didn't have any allspice, and the muffins taste great without it, but next time I will definitely throw in the allspice as I am such a spicy fan.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 C. whole-wheat pastry flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. allspice

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

2 eggs

1 1/3 C. buttermilk

1/3 C. raw turbinado (brown) sugar

1/3 C. canola oil

1 tsp. vanilla

2/3 C. golden raisins tossed with 1 tsp. flour or 2/3 C. chopped pecans

1 1/2 C. grated carrots

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with the rack in the upper third of the space. Oil or butter muffin tins.

2. Sift together the whole-wheat pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk and vanilla. Using a whisk or a spatula, stir in the dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Do not beat; a few lumps are fine, but make sure there is no flour at the bottom of the bowl. Fold in the raisins or pecans and the carrots.

4. Spoon into muffin cups, filling them to just below the top (about 4/5 full). Place in the oven, and bake 25 minutes until lightly browned and well risen.

Yield: Twelve muffins, depending on the size of the muffin tins.

Nutritional information per muffin (based on 12-muffin yield): 239 calories; 1 gram saturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 32 milligram cholesterol; 38 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 323 milligrams sodium; 5 grams protein.