Carrot Cake Muffine Recipe! I am in heaven!

I am horrible about breakfast when I'm working. I never plan enough time in the morning to make breakfast or even eat breakfast at home. (And most of the time my stomach doesn't let me eat that early.) All last year I lived off of Toaster Strudels, the breakfast-y kind not the jelly filled kind, and instant breakfasts. That all changed when I found a recipe for carrot cake muffins. I hate carrot cake... with a passion! I just happened to marry someone who is in love in carrot cake and has since stopped eating it because he knows I hate it. So I compromised and made these muffins for him. Then I ate one. Oh My Goodness!! These are amazing!! There's cream cheese inside the muffins! Needless to say, I eat these for breakfast so I'm not tempted to stop at Carl's Jr or Maverick for breakfast. I add in a no sugar added instant breakfast to drink to give my breakfast more protein so I stay fuller long. I don't have a lunch break this year, just random 20-30 minute breaks in between generals. If I have to prepare my classroom for the younger kids I'm left with 10 minutes trying to shove a salad down my throat before the kids come. Awesome -_-

Anyway here is the recipe for the carrot cake muffins. I found the recipe from pinterest here. It is a King Arthur flour recipe and pretty much the most amazing thing I have ever tasted.

One 8oz package cream cheese
2 1/4 cups (9 1/2 ounces) AP flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided.
¼ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup grated carrots (2 med-large carrots) I usually add more.  



1) Preheat oven to 400 F

2) Lightly grease or use paper liners in a 12 well muffin pan (I used 2 6-well silicone muffin pan and sprayed with non-stick cooking spray)

3) Unwrap the cream cheese and add 1/4 cup white sugar to a microwave safe bowl or a small pot.

4) If you are cool, unlike me, microwave the cream cheese and sugar for 40 seconds. I don't own a microwave nor did the house come with one and even if we had one it wouldn't fit in my kitchen. I did it the pain-staking process of melting it over the stove. Awesome...
Stir the cream cheese until smooth

5) In a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. No Carrots yet!

Hang on, let me check my cream cheese

Some days I wish I had a microwave!

6) In a separate small bowl mix together the wet ingredients. No Carrots Yet!

Let's check on my cream cheese again...

We're getting there!

7) Grate your carrots. Since there aren't children in the house to hide veggies in food, I just did the largest hole on my box grater. Get as tiny as you need to hide them in the muffins. Run it through the food processor if needed!

*We usually buy carrots from Costco because we can get it in the 5 lb bag and we use it for piggy food. I grabbed a small bag from Wally World last night and I was super surprised at the size difference* 

O_o

 *If you have a dog... throw over the end of the carrot to them and let them play with it* 

Hang on, I have the check my cheese again

10 minutes... and this is as far as I've gotten. -_-

8) Since these are muffins, we are going to use the muffin method (huh... who would have guessed :D)  The muffin method is where we keep the wet and the dry separated until we are ready to mix. The next step is to combine the wet into the dry ingredients. Mix only for 10 seconds. I like to fold in the wet ingredients into the dry.

PS. This is how you fold if you need to know! Psst.. Right here!

9) Resist the urge to combine all the wet into the dry! Don't do it!! It will make tough muffins!

 10)  Fold in the grated carrots

 Ok one last check on the cheese, what ever it's at is what it's going to be. 

 I give up.. it isn't going to be smooth.. Slightly bumpy cream cheese! 

11) Next starts the layering process. I like to use the small ice cream looking cookie scoops for this. I think they are a tablespoon each??  Maybe?? 

 

Can you see me in the reflection?? 

12) Put two tablespoons or two scoops in the bottom of each well. I spread it out with my fingers or the back of the scoop. My batter is really thick so it was pretty easy. 

13) Place 1 tablespoon or 1 scoop of the filling on top of the bottom batter layer. Try to aim for the middle. I had some extra left over so I just divided it amongst all of the wells.

14) Place 1 tablespoon on the leftover batter on top of the filling. Again, I had leftovers so I divided it amount the wells. I smoothed out the tops again so the filling was sealed. The left has been smoothed and the right is just the batter placed on top.

15) Bake for 20 minutes.

Yumminess!!!

16) Let the muffins cool for a few minutes and then remove from the tin and cool on a cooling rack.

Once the muffins cool completely the muffins need to be refrigerated because of the cream cheese in the middle. These are great cold too.. but I like to heat them up in the microwave (at school) or use my toaster oven.

Delicious!!!

Justin also bought me a late birthday present... He got me my own chef jacket. I have been using his and well... it's nice to have one that fits me. I know.. I know.. it's morning.. and It doesn't look like me.

  These are the same person?? O_o

Anyway... Enjoy the muffins! I really like them because I get dairy, protein, veggies, and some carbs in the morning. I'm sure you can easily substitute applesauce for the oil and half of the AP flour for WW flour to make them more healthy.

 

Today I leave you with Baby! She's such a cutie!