Spiced up Carrot and Apple Muffins

Rishan’s school is now closed for Easter and I am looking forward to trying something healthy and include as much as fruits and vegetables into his diet. He is not a picky eater, but when he goes to school, he is quite concerned about what he carries in his lunch box -  No Indian Food, no cold food and but only couple of sandwiches that  he loves. So, it’s not always possible to make his diet wholesome and healthy.

 Here is a one of our favourite muffin recipes that I made quite a few times and he carries in his lunch box once in a while. These are great whilst warm and are packed with fruits, seeds and carrot without any pronounced taste of any. The seeds give a bite to the muffins which could easily be omitted if you dislike. These cup cakes are moist, healthy and simply delectable. As the muffin uses oil instead of butter, it stays soft and moist without going tough unlike many butter based cakes. The spices nutmeg and cinnamon works very well with carrot and apple and make a perfect combination. These are delicious plain and you wouldn’t want to laden yourself with calories by frosting it. You may use cream cheese frosting if need be. The recipe is adapted from the Gulf News cookery book that I possess so fondly. It was gifted to me by my dear uncle about 15 years back.

Spiced up Carrot and Apple Muffins

Serves 6-12

preparation time: 15-20 mins

Bake time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients:

75 g (1/2 cup  -1 tablespoon) Plain flour

½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp  ground cinnamon-
¼ tsp  freshly grated nutmeg

Pinch of salt
1 large organic egg

40ml, 4 tbsp olive oil/sunflower oil

70g caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence

55g- ½ cup grated carrot
50g grated apple, unpeeled

1 tbsp milk
25g raisins

25g sunflower seeds

For 12 muffins:

150g all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)
Pinch of salt
2 large organic eggs

80ml sunflower oil (I used olive oil)
140g castor sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

110g grated carrot

100g grated apple, unpeeled

1 Tbsp milk

50g raisins

50g sunflower seeds

Preparations:

1.Set oven to 175°C and preheat for 10 minutes. Line the muffin tin with individual muffin cases.
 

2. Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
 

3. Beat together eggs, oil, vanilla and castor sugar, and then mix in the grated carrot, grated apple, raisins and seeds.
 

4. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the liquid. Using a large spoon, stir just enough to moisten the mixture.
 

5. Don’t worry about lumps, these will bake in and are part of the muffin texture.
 

6. Spoon about 2/3^rd full into each muffin cases, and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the skewers/toothpick inserted in the middle of muffins comes out clean without being sticky.

Notes: You can add little chopped walnuts if you need that extra bite. You can also omit seeds ans raisins.