Carrot Apple Muffins, Failures, and Inspirations

I like muffins because they are, at their core, socially acceptable breakfast cupcakes. That was the thought behind these Carrot Apple Muffins, which were intended to be a healthy, New Year's Resolution-appropriate morning nosh. Thing did not turn out well, as can be seen in the picture above, where the muffins look like astronaut food, or, generously, something you would buy at an overpriced vegan bakery in Park Slope. These are not vegan muffins. Don't get me wrong, they're not horrible tasting. They just don't have any sugar. Which, as it turned out, made them not sweet. Who knew?! Apparently the natural sugars in carrots and apples are not powerful enough to counterbalance the crazy amounts of healthfulness in these muffins. There's whole wheat flour and whole steel cut oats and almond milk and tahini and maple syrup...I know, I had you at "healthfulness" in the previous sentence, but I wanted to see how far I could go to horrify you. 

This, my friends, is what happens when you try to combine three recipes together. 

But it's not all bad. When you make a mistake in cooking, you still eat it. And you learn. I learned that my tiny food processor is nowhere near strong enough to pulverize steel cut oats into oat flour. I learned that sugar, when called for in a baking recipe, is probably an important ingredient to include. Finally, I learned that tahini might actually be a useful addition to my arsenal of baking supplies. 

The recipe itself is incredibly easy: mix dry ingredients together, mix wet ingredients together, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and spoon into muffin cups or sprayed muffin tins. 

I would like to say a big thank you to Deb Perelman over at Smitten Kitchen, who is a food blog and all-around wonderful inspiration not only for her excellent recipes, beautiful photography and great writing, but also for her willingness to share her failures. While we're at it, I wanted to share a few sites and books that inspire me to be a better cook, photographer, food blogger, and culinary genius. 

Mark Bittman's now-defunct The Minimalist column from The New York Times. Over 10 years of unbelievably simple, delicious recipes that have never failed me await your perusal. I knew I was hooked when I started reading his archives the first summer I lived on my own, in Chicago, and really cooked for myself.  Mexican Tofu Chocolate Pudding and Curried Tofu with Soy Sauce helped me fix my aversion to what my dad calls "toe cheese" (and you wonder why I was put off). His cookbook, "How to Cook Everything," is an amazing thing to have on hand. Who else has a 3-ingredient recipe as good as his Sausages and Grapes? 

Joy the Baker. Soft lighting, patterned china, and a fluffy cat all contribute to her pristine photographs. The only thing that could possibly make me want to move to LA, and the only writer I've found who makes both Kale, Spinach and Pear Smoothies and Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies seem equally appealing. 

Tastespotting. An incredibly dangerous and incredibly wonderful "visual potluck" of food blog recipes from around the web. 

The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Ree Drummond has time to run a massively popular blog about her life, homeschool her kids, and star on her own food network show. Her recipes are always good launching points. 

101 Cookbooks. Stunning, creative, and delicious. 

And so many more. The best food blogs, in my opinion, combine accessible, innovative recipes with pretty photography and writing that makes you want to make that recipe--preferably alongside the author. Let me know if you make the muffins--I will come over with something crazy sweet (like those Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies) to make up for the lack of sugar. Happy weekend! 


Carrot Apple Muffins

Heavily mangled from Bob’s Red Mill, Joy the Baker, and Whole Foods

Notes: The recipe below can totally be salvaged be slathering the baked muffins with honey or jam--or by replacing the maple syrup in the wet ingredients with 3/4 cup of brown sugar in the dry ingredients. Your choice. Also, do not use steel-cut oats in the muffins, unless you want a crunchier bite. 

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup oats or flax seeds, ground in a food processor      
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups grated carrots
• 2 medium apples, grated
• 2 large eggs, slightly beaten
• 1/4 cup almond milk (or coconut, or regular…)
• 3 Tablespoons tahini (or yogurt, or applesauce...)
• 2 Tablespoons maple syrup or honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 12-cup standard muffin tin or use muffin papers. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, combine carrots, apples, eggs, milk, tahini, maple syrup, and vanilla.
4. Add the carrot/apple mixture to the flour mixture, and stir until flour is moistened. Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake about 20 minutes or until a toothpick in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Makes 12 muffins.