Carrot Gingerbread Muffins

Warm and spicy with crunchy sugar tops, these muffins are delectable. If you love gingerbread this is surely the kind of snack for you! I omitted the raisins because I couldn't stand the thought of raisins intruding on my snack, but feel free to add them if you wish. I also used muscavado brown sugar, a gift from Anne, which gave them an extra dark, caramel-like taste. Then I ripped one apart greedily as soon as they emerged from the oven, because the smell was so incredible I could barely stand it. What I love about this recipe is the inclusion of yogurt instead of loads of oil, so between that and the carrots, I feel good about eating them. You should too.



Adapted from Canadian Living September 2010

1/2 cup golden raisins
2 1/4 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch ground cloves
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar (or you could try muscavado sugar)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup fancy molasses
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 cup 1% plain yogurt
2 cups shredded carrots

Top your raisins with 2 tsp of water, in a small bowl. Cover them and microwave on high for 20 seconds, before stirring and setting aside to cool.

In a separate bowl, measure out your flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Whisk together and set aside.

Plop the butter into a large bowl and mix it up with an electric mixer, along with the sugars until light and fluffy. Add the molasses and vanilla, continuing to combine well. Beat in the eggs one at a time, stopping to scrape down the bowl and combine all the ingredients well.
Stir in flour mixture, then yogurt until everything is just combined. Fold in the carrots and raisins.

Spoon into muffin cups that have either been greased well or lined with paper cups. Top with a sprinkling of coarse raw sugar.

Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

Makes 12

Now try really, really hard not to just devour them all. It's hard!