Sweet Potato Carrot Cake Muffins

“Sweet Potato Carrot Cake Muffins”

 

The inspiration for this recipe came on a Saturday morning as I was on my way to work teaching fitness.  I was craving something comforting like a blueberry muffin, but did not want to sabotage my whole day by starting with a sugar bomb that’s hard to digest.  I started to think about how I could make my own that I could maybe freeze and have on hand for just such a morning to satisfy my need for a treat, but not to throw me off track.

I LOVE blueberry muffins, but also know that it’s hard to digest fruit when it’s not eaten alone. (More on that later.)  So I kept pondering and thought what about a pumpkin muffin.  Not quite what I wanted at  this time.  But then, I thought what about a carrot muffin?  And what if it tasted like carrot cake?  And what if I could do it with the sweet potato I already had in the fridge at home?

Well…I could!  And I did!  And here is the result!

They came out pretty good and I can’t wait to have my sister in law taste them.  She LOVES carrot cake and even had it at her wedding.  I think this would be a great treat for her and the best part is she can share it with her kiddos without any guilt.  There is way less sugar in these guys than your traditional muffin or worse, slice of carrot cake.  I think I might even try less maple syrup next time and add raisins and walnuts.

Let me know what you think!

Will you travel with these for a quick, guilt free breakfast?

Will you eat is as a snack? Dessert? Kid snack?

 

Ingredients:

1 ½ Cups Almond Flour

1 tspn Sea Salt

½ teaspoon Baking Soda

1 tspn Cinnamon

½ tspn Nutmeg

¼ tspn Cloves

¼ Cup Maple Syrup

½ tspn Vanilla

2 TBSPNs Coconut Oil (melted)

3 Eggs

1 ½ Cups Carrots, about 5 large carrots, finely chopped (I used a food processor.)

½ Cup Sweet Potato Puree (I just mashed a cooked sweet potato, but I’m sure you could just buy the puree, or substitute canned pumpkin)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.  In a separate bowl, mix together maple syrup, vanilla, and oil. Then add beaten eggs to wet ingredients.  Also add sweet potato and carrots to wet ingredients.  This is easiest with a power mixer or KitchenAid stand mixer, but I just whisked it by hand. It only takes a little longer.  Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Fill 12 cupcake liners ¾ full and bake at 325 F for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry.

Happy snacking and break-fasting!