These muffins are a delightful healthy treat that pay homage to a variety of delicious seasonal ingredients. Full of carrots, pineapple, raisins, ground flax, and just the right amount of honey, these muffins taste naughty and nice in one bite.
Ingredients
For the Muffins:
- 2 ¼ cups flour (to make gluten free: mix of 1 ¼ c. rice flour, 2/3 c. tapioca starch,1/3 c. cornstarch)
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 2 tablespoon fresh ground flax seed (these can turn green in baked goods, don’t be alarmed!)
- 1/3 cup Sweetree raw honey
- 2 tablespoon dark brown sugar
- 2 free range eggs
- 2 tablespoon neutral flavored oil
- 2 teaspoon vanilla (or vanilla bean paste)
- 2 cups grated organic carrots
- ¾ cup pineapple w/juice (puree your own fresh pineapple or use canned crushed pineapple)
- ½ cup raisins
For the Topping:
- 3 T. Sweetree raw honey
Method
Preheat oven to 180degrees C. Line a standard 12-tin muffin pan with cupcake liners. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground flax seed.
In a medium size bowl, mix honey, brown sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla until thoroughly blended. Fold in carrots, pineapple juice, and raisins. Add this mixture to dry mixture and mix until thoroughly incorporated, being careful to not over mix as this will cause the muffins to not be as light and delicate. Fill muffin tins ½ full with batter and baker for 15 minutes, checking to make sure they are baking evenly. Test with a toothpick and if it is clean after poking through the middle of a tester, and firm to the touch, remove from oven and let sit in tins for another 15 minutes. Once cool, warm honey and drizzle over tops of muffins.
Enjoy for breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner or dessert…Makes 9-12 muffins, depending on how big you like your muffins.
by Sarah Wadsworth - The Seasonal Alchemist
