Carrot Cake Muffins

I recently made these Carrot Cake Muffins.  They are very tasty but if you want a little more sweetness you need to add more raisins to the mix.  I added half a small individual box of raisins.

The recipe is from the New York Times.  (Thanks to my brother for sharing it.)

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (I used ground)

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs (at room temperature)

1/3 cup raw brown (turbinado) sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 1/3 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup golden raisins with 1 tsp unbleached all-purpose flour or

2/3 cup chopped pecans

1 1/2 cups grated carrots

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with the oven rack in the upper third of the space.  Oil or butter muffin tins.  (I used PAM)

Sift together the whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk and vanilla.

Using a whisk or spatula, stir the dry ingredients with the wet and mix until well combined.  Do not beat; a few lumps are fine but make sure there is no flour at the bottom of the bowl.

Grate the carrots.

Fold in the carrots, raisins and pecans.  (Feel free to leave out the raisins or pecans if you don’t want them in the muffins.)

Using a large spoon, put the mixture into the muffin cups filling them to just below the top (about 4/5 full).

Place the muffin tin in the oven and bake about 25 minutes or until lightly browned and well risen.

My recipe made 18 muffins because I used the smaller muffin tin.

Enjoy!