Carrot Muffins with California Prunes, Pecans and Sunflower Seeds
These carrot muffins are a great way to start your day and even better pick-me-up midday snack. These muffins aren’t too sweet and are packed with shredded carrots, apples, chopped pecans, sunflower seeds and California Prunes. Note that I use white whole wheat flour in this recipe, which is a variant of whole wheat flour made from a soft wheat grain. It can be found at well stocked grocery stores, but you can substitute regular whole wheat flour, or plain all-purpose flour and the muffins will still come out great! Feel free to leave off the final sprinkling of Turbinado sugar (sometimes called Sugar in the Raw). I added it for an additional hint of sweetness and crunch on top but the muffins are also great without it.
1 1/2cupshredded carrots150 g or about 4 medium carrots
1cupgrated firm apple150 g or about 1 medium apple
3/4cupchopped pecans90 g divided
1/2cupraw sunflower seeds60 g divided
1cupchopped California Prunes190 g divided
2tablespoonsTurbinado Sugaror granulated white sugar (optional)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners or spray with cooking oil.
Place both flours, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl. Using a balloon whisk, stir vigorously until the dry ingredients are evenly mixed and uniform in color.
Place the milk, brown sugar, eggs, olive oil and vanilla extra in a different bowl and beat together with a balloon whisk.
Stir in the carrots and apple to the bowl with the wet ingredients, as well as half the pecans, sunflower seeds and prunes, reserving the other half for the top of the muffins.
Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl. Stir and fold the ingredients together with a large spatula, making sure not to overmix. You want the batter to just get wet. The more you mix it, the tougher and heavier the muffin will be.
Portion out the batter into the muffin tin. The batter will fill up each muffin cup fairly close to the top. Don’t worry about it, as these muffins don’t rise a huge amount. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with a little bit of the reserve pecans, sunflower seeds and prunes. Then sprinkle a little bit of Turbinado sugar on top as well (if you’re using it).
Bake in the oven for 23 to 27 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the muffin cleanly. If you have an instant read thermometer, the internal temperature of the muffin should be 210°F.
Let cool in the muffin tin for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.