Carrot, Apple, Raisin, Coconut Muffins
Kathrynne and I made these for the second time yesterday. We both like them (Jesse will eat them, too!). They aren't completely healthy since they have quite a bit of sugar and oil (probably could substitute some with applesauce), but they are yummy!
Combine:
2 c flour
1 1/4 cup of sugar
2 t. baking soda
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
Stir in:
2 c. grated carrot (I used the food processor)
1 apple, peeled, cored and grated
1/2 c raisin
1/2 coconut flakes
In a bowl beat:
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 t. vanilla
Stir into flour mixture until batter is just combined. Spoon into well greased muffin cups, filling to the top. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.
Combine:
2 c flour
1 1/4 cup of sugar
2 t. baking soda
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
Stir in:
2 c. grated carrot (I used the food processor)
1 apple, peeled, cored and grated
1/2 c raisin
1/2 coconut flakes
In a bowl beat:
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 t. vanilla
Stir into flour mixture until batter is just combined. Spoon into well greased muffin cups, filling to the top. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.
posted by Crystal Paine at 2:44 PM
12 Comments:
I'm interested in hearing what your readers have to say about whole wheat flour vs. white flour (bleached or unbleached). I haven't done any reading on it (yet); but have heard that white flour sits like paste in the stomach and that there is little to no nutritional value in it. Whole wheat flour seems to be a lot heavier - does is simply take adding more moisture to a recipe to even it out? I'd like some advice from the ladies.
Thanks, Womanhood.
Hi Crystal, you mentioned the unhealthy quantity of oil; if you use coconut oil they will be quite healthy! I am looking for recipes that use oil, so that I have something to use coconut oil in--I need to try your recipe!
I just wrote about the health benefits of coconut on my blog, if you are interested in finding out more.
Renee
Renee,
Won't this get very expensive, very fast? Where do you get your coconut oil?
I enjoy using coconut oil, also, but not in this large of quanities.
shawnkathleen,
Whole wheat is definitely tons better for you than white flour. Basically white flour is whole wheat flour with all the good stuff removed! For bread baking, if you add "vital wheat gluten," it makes your loaves rise better and not be so heavy. For lighter products, whole wheat pastry flour is a great alternative to regular whole wheat flour. We are at the point now, where white flour is virtually non-existent in our house. (The only thing I still use it for is when I make white sauce, as I have found the whole wheat to make the sauce grainy.) It took some getting used to, but now I love the taste of whole wheat so much more the white, that I couldn't imagine going back. (We even use all whole wheat when we make cookies and prefer them over the regular. :-)
renee -
You are not the first person I've heard mention coconut oil. I had always heard coconut oil was bad for you. Do you have any sites that talk about the "goodness" of coconut oil? Thanks.
On another note, we use olive oil in all our recipes that require oil, since it is one of the healthiest oils. Depending on the recipe, we use extra virgin if we want a stronger taste and mild if we don't want an olive taste at all. We have successfully used the mild in muffins, pancakes, etc.
daybreaking
(I also wrote the previous one about whole wheat flour and vital wheat gluten, but forgot to sign my name.)
That recipe looks really yummy, Crystal! Just recently I was wondering about carrot muffins... we've tried lots of different muffins and love carrot cake, but I hadn't seen any carrot muffin recipes around. So, I definitely want to try those out sometime.
Shawnakathleen--
You might try whole wheat pastry flour sometime. It's from a softer wheat berry and the product is much lighter than regular whole wheat. The only thing we use whole wheat flour for is our bread; for cakes, cookies, muffins, pie crusts, etc., pastry flour has worked great.
The thing about white flour is that the bran and germ in the wheat grain is removed and just the starchy part is left. The fiber (and vitamins, etc.) of the bran and germ was meant to balance the starchy part.
We made these tonight and they are delicious! Now that we've experimented and like it...I think I will try the whole wheat pastry flour. I am very leary of the white sugar and flour for more than special occassions. ;0)
(Crystal, if you don't mind sharing these websites for "daybreaking")...
If you want a summary on coconut oil, I just wrote a post on www.montanamaiden.blogspot.com.
For proven scientific studies and more great information, go to www.coconutresearchcenter.org.
The soy industry likes us to think that all saturated fat is bad, but really, there are different kinds of fatty acids, some of which are bad and some not. Coconut oil is the best natural source of medium-chain fatty acids, the most healthy. MCFA's are also a main component of mother's milk that nourishes babies so well.
Olive oil is very healthy but not as stable when exposed to air, heat, and light, which of course is impossible to avoid.
Yes, coconut oil is expensive, but is an investment in better health! I admit, I hardly ever use more than a 1/2 cup in any given recipe. In Crystal's recipe, you could use have coconut oil and half olive or some other oil.
Hope that helps!
Renee
Oh, Bessiejoy,
We get coconut oil at the local health food stores or order from a natural regional delivery company.
I believe www.coconutoil.com and www.coconutoil-online.com have more resources listed, as well as the website I shared with daybreaking, above.
These look yummy, and I've got everything to make them!
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
They sound good, Crystal. Thanks for posting the recipe. I will have to try them sometime for those of us in my family who like coconut. We recently posted a similar carrot muffin recipe on our blog, if anyone is interested.
And, Renee, thanks for your research on coconut oil--I found your post informative.
I tried them this morning - wow!
I'm gonna have to post this one to my blog as well, just to make sure I have it forever! You should really send it to the carnival of recipes. It's a keeper!
BTW, I was out of oil (how did that happen?) and used applesauce instead. I cut back the sugar just a bit, and would have cut back more if I had realized I would be using a cup of applesauce; I think that added a lot to the sweetness.
Oh, and did you really mean 2tsp of baking soda? I took a chance and used baking powder instead since that's usually what's in muffins (esp. in quantities over 1/2 tsp). Not sure if I was right, but it turned out fine.
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