Carrot Muffins

When I first told people what these muffins were made of, I could clearly see on their faces that expression "Carrots in muffins? No thanks.", but many of them seem not to know that carrots, when cooked, are a burst of flavor and add natural sweetness. That means you can have a delicious and healthy muffin at the same time.

Bless the lazy Sundays! My main activity in that day is doing anything but studying. Reading a good book, going horseback riding or watching TV are the best ways for me to relax.

I mean, everybody needs it. Besides these things, Sunday is the day when I usually crave something sweet that has to be homemade. And nothing beats a nice batch of muffins.

There is one thing I demand when having a muffin: moistness. I hate biting out of a dry one. So this is why I added sour cream to the batter. 

You might not have heard (if you are not a fan of baking) that sour cream, buttermilk,oil and applesauce help the cakes or sweetbreads become more moist and tender. So this is why I used both sour cream and oil in this recipe. 

You know, I mentioned that these muffins are healthy as well, so the amount of oil and sour cream is just 1/2 cup each. 

Here you go, the recipe with full instructions:

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

a pinch of salt

3/4 (three quarters) Tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup of raisins (I used golden but any type works)

1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts

3 Tablespoons shredded coconut

3 large carrots, grated

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 vegetable (canola,sunflower or walnut) oil

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon lemon zest (grated lemon peel)

Directions:

1. Bring 1/2 of water to a boil and soak the raisins, set aside while you are preparing the rest. 

2. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F/180 Celsius and line a 12-cup muffin pan with muffin paper liners or spray it with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

3.In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, walnuts, raisins (after you took them out of the water), grated carrots and shredded coconut. These are your dry ingredients.

4. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and the sugar until pale in color. Add the lemon zest, vanilla extract, oil and sour cream. Beat well. These are your dry ingredients

5.Now make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients. With the help of a spatula, combine everything together but do not over-mix(or else you will have a tough, dense muffin)! Just until you see no flour traces in the batter.

6.Divide the batter into the muffin cups, filling it about 3/4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes (depending of your oven) or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, with no wet batter on it but a few moist crumbs.

7. After you checked if the muffins are ready, take the tray out of the oven and transfer it on a wire rack and let the muffins rest in the pan for 5 minutes. Now take them out and enjoy! :)