Tender, sweet and moist Carrot-Ginger Muffins with gingerbread flavour, topped with Coconut Butter Frosting.
If you love the flavour of my carrot cake cupcakes or gingerbread, you'll probably love these Carrot-Ginger Muffins too!
If you've recently started following a gluten-free diet, you may be missing muffins! Having a morning muffin was a favourite coffee-time snack for me.
But now there are these Carrot-Ginger Muffins! And a whole new realm of possibilities has stretched out before me. Thanks to this recipe that I discovered in Practical Paleo, a cookbook I recently discovered, I have finally found a grain-free muffin recipe that actually turns out looking and tasting like . . . a muffin!
When you read through the recipe below, you might think there is a mistake. When I first starting gluten-free baking, I was shocked at the number of eggs used. However, this isn’t a typo.
This is a recipe taken from Practical Paleo. It seems like ½ cup of coconut flour couldn’t possibly be enough, but coconut flour absorbs more water than almond flour does, is denser, and creates a softer product.
Baked goods made with coconut flour or almond flour are significantly different in texture than those baked with all-purpose flour and they do take some getting used to.
These Carrot-Ginger Muffins are full of fresh carrots and raisins (if desired) and they have a distinct gingerbread flavour. Each muffin has about ¼ cup of carrots, a powerful veggie that can give you a healthy dose of Vitamin A, plenty of fiber to cleanse your body, and antioxidants to make your skin glow.
But that's not all! Top them with this amazing Orange Coconut Butter Frosting and suddenly this little lowly muffin becomes worthy of a spot at your dessert table.
Coconut butter, healthy coconut oil, freshly grated orange zest and ginger and a touch of maple syrup combine to make real, honest-to-goodness frosting that would provide a wow! factor on a birthday cake too. See my post How to Make Coconut Butter so you can make this frosting.
Carrot-Ginger Muffins
Ingredients
- 6 eggs
- ½ cup butter or coconut oil, melted
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup cooking molasses
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup coconut flour
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 3 cups carrots, shredded
- ½ cup raisins, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Line muffin tins with 12-18 muffin liners.
- Whisk together, or use your food processor to blend the eggs, butter, vanilla, molasses, and maple syrup. Sift the coconut four, sea salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and ground cloves and either stir in or pulse your food processor briefly to combine. Next add in the carrots and raisins and stir or pulse to combine.
- Fill muffin tins with ¾ full. Bake for 35-40 min.
- Cool then frost with Orange Coconut Butter Frosting.
Nutrition
Orange Coconut Butter Frosting
Ingredients
- ½ cup coconut butter
- ½ cup coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 2 tablespoon orange zest
- 2 tablespoon shredded coconut
- 2 tablespoon maple syrup
Instructions
- Combine all frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Spread on the muffins once they have cooled.
Nutrition
This recipe was barely adapted from one I found in Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo. This cookbook is a terrific resource for those making a change to a grain-free diet. It is full of information on nutrition and how it relates to your health, has 30-day meal plans and over 120 easy-to-follow recipes.
Angela Lawson
Can this recipe be used for a large cake?
Flavour & Savour
Hi Angela, I haven't tried this, so I can't guarantee results, but you could try baking it in an 8-inch square pan. You will likely have to increase the baking time. Check at 35 minutes, then again every 5 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Thanks for a great question!
Lily Lau
You made the impossible, to make a muffin look healthy! Hahah, thank you for this lovely recipe 🙂
Flavour & Savour
Thanks Lily! These disappeared quickly in our house. BTW, love your site!
Sarah & Arkadi
i can totally eat that for breakfast right now! ginger eh?! nicely done!