Carrot Muffins

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From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...If you enjoy Morning Glory muffins I hope you will give this recipe a try. Long term readers of One Perfect Bite know that the highest accolade I give a recipe involves my socks rather than stars or other rating equivalents. I had one bite of these muffins, happened to glance down, and, sure enough, my socks were going up and down. These Texas-sized gems are really, really good. They are moist and lightly spiced and I hope that you will give them a try when you get some time to experiment. I found the recipe on La Belle Cuisine and made it exactly as it appeared there. Having tasted them, the only change I would make next time I make them, would be to cut back on the amount of orange zest called for in the recipe. I think a teaspoon would be fine. I used the large holes of a box grater to prepare the carrots, because I like a bit of texture in my muffins and I think the food processor grates them too finely. I do have one caution for those of you who plan to try this recipe. The instructions direct you to fill the muffin cups to the brim. If you do that I guarantee you will have spillover and the muffins will be difficult to remove from the pan. Filling the cups 7/8 full is a much better idea and it will give you one small additional muffin. These are delicious. Here is how they are made.

Carrot Muffins...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of La Belle Cuisine

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups grated carrots
1 tablespoon minced orange zest
An 8-ounce can crushed pineapple with juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions:
(All ingredients should be at room temperature.)
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Generously spray 6 giant-sized muffin cups with nonstick spray. Set aside.
2) In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
3) In a medium bowl combine oil, egg, buttermilk, vanilla, carrots, orange zest and pineapple. Stir to combine.
4) Add liquid mixture to flour mixture and combine briefly with wire whisk. Stir in chopped nuts. Fill muffin cups to top. Bake for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. and bake for about 20 minutes longer, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Turn the muffins out onto a wire rack. When completely cool, store in an airtight container. Yield: 6 large or 18 standard muffins.










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