Healthy Carrot Breakfast Bread…Muffinized

The “Healthy Carrot Breakfast Bread” is one of the more popular recipes on my blog. I still make it regularly whenever I have carrots around, tweaking the recipe slightly depending on my on-hand ingredients.

This weekend I turned the bread into muffins for easy snacks to take to my dietetic internship rotation.

I changed the recipe just enough from the original to feel like I should re-post.Since I didn’t quite have enough carrots to equal one pound, I threw in a pear to round out the volume. I also used almond butter instead of applesauce or mashed banana.

I like to use an ice cream scoop to portion my muffins in their tins. If you do not have one, just fill the tins 3/4 of the way with a spoon.

Once the muffins cool completely, I usually freeze half of them to pull out at a later date as an “emergency” snack. They freeze well in a sealed zipped bag.

Healthy Carrot Breakfast Bread…Muffinized

adapted from this post

1 cup oats (to be pulverized into flour) or oat flour 

1 cup all-purpose flour (whole wheat works well, too)

2 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

spices: 1 T. cinnamon, 1/4 t. cloves, 1 t. ground ginger, 1/2 t. nutmeg, pinch of salt

12 oz. carrots, peeled + 1 pear, peeled

2 large eggs

1/2 cup of agave or honey (maple syrup works, too)

1/4 cup canola oil or melted coconut oil

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup almond butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a muffin tin or set liners in the grooves.

Grind the oats in a blender or food processor until they look like flour. Transfer to a bowl and whisk together the 1 cup of oat flour with the 1 cup of all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Set aside.

Take the peeled carrots and pear and chop them into rough bite-sized pieces. Do this next step in batches: throw a small amount of the carrots/pear into the blender/food processor and pulse until a fine chop (not totally a puree but not giant carrot chunks…somewhere in the middle). Dump the finely chopped carrots/pear into a large bowl. ***Note: can also grate by hand

Whisk together the eggs, sweetener, oil, yogurt, and almond butter. Pour this mixture into the carrots and stir it all together with a rubber spatula.

Add the dry mix to the wet and fold with a rubber spatula until it all comes together. Scoop batter into prepared muffin tin (use an ice cream scoop for easy portioning). Sprinkle the tops with a little sugar. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, rotating half-way through baking.

Tags: almond butter, breakfast, carrot, fall, muffin, pear, quickbread, snack