My friend's favorite dessert is carrot cake. So when I came across a recipe for Carrot Cake Muffins on the King Arthur Flour website, I couldn't resist trying them out.
The ingredients were really simple (and I happened to have most of them in my cupboard).
I started by making the cream cheese filling for the muffins (did I mention that the muffins have a cream cheese filling... I thought that was pretty cool!).
In a separate bowl I combined the dry ingredients...
Before adding the water, oil...
And eggs.
One the batter was mixed, I chopped up some carrots (thanks to the mini-food processor I inherited from my grandparents years ago)...
And folded them into the dough.
When the batter was ready to go, I turned my attention to the muffin cups. I picked these out of the $1 bin at Michael's earlier this spring...
(Leave it to Paula Deen to design the cutest muffin cups. And at $1, they're some of the most inexpensive I've purchased in a while!)
I greased the muffin cups (per the recipe, and I'm so glad I did) and got ready to assemble the muffins.
I used a batter scoop and added a dollop of batter to the bottom of the muffin cup. Using a smaller scoop I added some of the cream cheese filling, before adding more muffin batter to cover the filling.
After I did that 12 times, I was ready to place the muffin pan into a pre-heated, 400 degree oven!
And in just under 20 minutes, the muffins were finished!
Don't they look delish?
When they had cooled to a point where I could touch them, I flipped them all on their sides so the steam could escape (at least I think that's why I was supposed to flip them...).
And when they had cooled even more, it was time to try one!
(By the way, I'm totally in love with those muffin cups!)
(And since I had greased them, they pulled right off the muffin... so cool!)
But the best part of these muffins comes when you break them open: the cream cheese filling is the perfect addition to the hearty muffins!
If you'd like to make these muffins for the Easter Bunny this weekend (or anybody in your family), here's the recipe:
Carrot Cake Muffins
Adapted from the King Arthur Flour recipe
Filling
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Muffins
2 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
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, lightly packed; about 2 medium-large carrots
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a muffin pan with paper muffin cups, and grease the cups. To make the filling, place the cream cheese in a microwave-safe bowl, and heat on low power for 40 seconds. Stir in the sugar and flavor. Set aside. To make the muffin batter, in a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Fold in the grated carrots, stirring to combine. Drop about 2 tablespoons of the batter (a tablespoon cookie scoop works well here) into each muffin cup, spreading it to cover the bottom. Dollop on a heaping tablespoon of filling; a level tablespoon cookie scoop works well here. Cover with enough batter to fill the muffin cups quite full. Bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted into the cake part of one (not into the cream cheese filling) comes out clean, about 20 minutes. The tops of the muffins will feel firm to the touch. Remove the muffins from the oven, and as soon as you're able to handle them, transfer them to a rack. If you serve the muffins warm, the filling will be molten. If you wait for them to cool, it'll firm up.
And while I don't even like carrot cake, I must admit that these muffins are quite tasty... and I definitely took Paula Deen's advice and enjoyed one of these treats! Oh- and my friend really enjoyed them, too!
