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Carrot Cake Muffins

Carrot Cake Muffins for Breakfast or an Easy Snack

A soft, close-grained carrot muffin made with two cups of freshly grated carrot against just a cup and a half of flour. Oil rather than butter, granulated sugar in the dry bowl and brown sugar in the wet, and only half a teaspoon of cinnamon so the carrot stays in front. No frosting, no nuts, no pineapple. Two bowls, a whisk, and about twenty minutes in the oven. Keeps three days at room temperature and two weeks in the fridge.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Servings: 12
Course: baking
Cuisine: British
Calories: 250
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

For the Dry Bowl
  • Flour 1 ½ cups
  • Sugar 1 cup (the granulated sugar belongs here, not with the wet ingredients)
  • Cinnamon ½ teaspoon
  • Baking soda ½ teaspoon
  • Baking powder ½ teaspoon
  • Salt ½ teaspoon
For the Wet Bowl
  • Vegetable oil ½ cup
  • Brown sugar ⅓ cup
  • Large eggs 2, at room temperature (cold eggs can make the oil mixture look separated)
  • Vanilla extract 2 teaspoons
  • Finely grated carrots 2 cups, not pre-shredded carrots, they should be freshly grated

Method
 

  1. Heat the oven and prepare the tin. Set the oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with paper or silicone cupcake liners. If you’d rather skip liners, grease the tin well with cooking spray, reaching into the corners of each cavity.
  2. Whisk the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together. Whisking rather than stirring breaks up any clumps of soda or powder, which matters because half a teaspoon of leavening left in a lump will leave a bitter spot in a finished muffin.
  3. Build the wet mixture and add the carrots. In a large bowl, combine the oil, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla, and mix well until the brown sugar has dissolved and the eggs are fully blended in with no streaks left. Stir in the grated carrots so they’re evenly distributed through the mixture.
  4. Bring the two bowls together. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until completely incorporated. Work only until the flour disappears and no dry pockets remain at the base of the bowl, because every extra stir past that point builds gluten and toughens the crumb.
  5. Portion the batter. Fill the muffin liners 2/3 full, keeping the amounts even so every muffin bakes on the same schedule. Any higher and the batter will spill over the rim as it rises.
  6. Bake and cool. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the tin before transferring them to a cooling rack to continue cooling, which lets steam escape from underneath rather than softening the bases.
  7. Serve or store. Serve fresh, or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. To bring stored muffins back, reheat them in the microwave for about 15 seconds and spread a little butter on top.

Notes

Important: Overmixing is the single most common way these go wrong, and the damage is invisible until they come out of the oven. A batter that’s been beaten smooth bakes into muffins that are dense, rubbery, and full of long vertical holes. Fold with a spoon or spatula, not a mixer.