I just made these today and love them so I thought I’d share! About a month ago I came across a recipe for carrot cake protein muffins that I thought sounded good but when I made it, it turned out kinda weird. The middle of all the muffins wouldn’t cook and the outsides burnt so I decided that I’d tweak a few things and see if I couldn’t get a better outcome. Shortly thereafter I found a great recipe that used apple butter, which was nice given the surplus of homemade apple butter in my freezer from when I decided I needed to buy a flat of apples last summer. So I took the apple butter recipe and gave it a little nutritional boost and this is what came out. The protein power adds a fluffiness to the texture which is sometimes lost on gluten free options so it makes for a great addition. I like to make extras and I will keep them in the freezer and have one or two mini muffins as a snack, I especially like them when we are up riding at the mountain. I hope you enjoy!
Carrot cake protein muffin – (Gluten/wheat free)
Ingredients
For the Muffins
- 2 cups gluten free flour blend (I use Namaste or Bob’s red mill)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups shredded carrots (about 3 large)
- ½ cup shredded coconut (or raisins)
- ½ cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)
- 1-2 scoops of Vanilla Protein powder of choice (I use Isalean)
- 1 cup Apple Butter
- ¼ cup honey or maple syrup
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ cup melted butter or coconut oil
For the Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- honey or maple syrup to taste
- Optional 1-2 tablespoons greek yoghurt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line a muffin tin with paper cups or spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, carrots, coconut, pecans (or whatever) and Protein powder until well mixed. Set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the apple butter, honey or maple syrup, eggs, vanilla, and coconut oil. Stir until smooth.
- Add the apple butter mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Do not over mix (this results in tough muffins), a few lumps of flour are fine.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin cups, filling them ⅔ of the way. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops begin to brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a baking rack.
- Make the frosting by combining the cream cheese, yoghurt and honey or maple syrup until smooth. Amount of honey or maple syrup depends on how sweet you want it, a hand mixer is great here. Spread onto cooled muffins.
** I used coconut instead of raisins because I don’t like the muffins to be too sweet, so if you like a little more sugar in your muffin you might up the maple syrup or add the raisins instead of the coconut to do so.