Gluten Free Carrot Cake Muffins
by: claire cary
Need a little pick me up?! These carrot cake muffins are moist, fluffy, and topped with a cinnamon streusel topping and maple cream cheese glaze. Made in just one bowl, gluten free, and bursting with fresh carrot cake flavor.
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12
Ingredients
Wet
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ⅓ cup oil avocado, vegetable etc.
- ¼ cup milk dairy or nondairy
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vinegar I used apple cider
- ⅓ cup apple sauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Dry:
- 1 ½ cup gluten free all purpose flour
- 1 cup blanched almond flour see notes for subs
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cup fresh grated carrots about 2 large carrots
- ½ cup finely chopped walnuts optional
Streusel:
- 3 tablespoons gluten free all purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 ½ tablespoons softened butter or refined coconut oil
Cream Cheese Glaze:
- 4 tablespoons plain cream cheese I used Kite Hill dairy free
- 2-3 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenehit.
- Add the peeled and chopped carrots to a food processor and process until broken up and completely shredded.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients until combined.
- Add in the dry ingredients aside from the nuts and carrots and mix well with a wooden spoon. Be sure to spoon and level the flour, don't scoop right from the bag.
- Fold in the chopped walnuts and carrots until everything is well incorporated. The batter should be pretty thick at this point, but that is key to a muffin with a nice round top!
- Use a spoon or cookie scoop and add the batter to a lined cupcake/muffin tray. Fill about 3/4 of the way up.
- To make the streusel topping, add the softened butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon to a small bowl.
- Use a fork, your hands or a pastry cutter to combine the ingredients. It should be crumbly and on the drier side. If it seems too wet, add in a bit more flour.
- Use your fingers to crumble the streusel on top of the muffins. Add more than you think you should, the streusel will separate as the muffins bake.
- Bake at 425 for 2 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 and bake for 16-20 more minutes.
- Careful not to over-bake, you don't want them to become dry. Test them at 16 minutes, a toothpick should come out clean, but add about 2 more minutes at a time as needed. 15 is usually perfect in my oven!
- Remove from the oven, let cool as is for 10 minutes, then remove the muffins from the tray and let finish cooling on a cooling rack.
- Once cool, whisk together the cream cheese and maple syrup and drizzle on top of the muffins.
Notes
You can use pre-shredded carrots from a bag if you prefer, but the texture and flavor is much better with fresh carrots, so I recommend this method.
You can sub the almond flour for oat flour, but cut back on the bake time by just 1-2 minutes since oat flour is more absorbent than almond.
Serving: 1muffin / Calories: 276kcal / Carbohydrates: 37g / Protein: 5.1g / Fat: 12.3g / Fiber: 2g / Sugar: 16.4g
