Pumpkin and Carrot Muffins

What's better than carrot muffins? Try carrot and pumpkin muffins -yes,  yum!

I am a big fan of orange vegetables: pumpkin, butternut and orange sweet potato ❲not so much carrots, unless they're cooked or baked❳...

In fact, I ate butternut so regularly at one stage, that I turned a light shade of orange. 

Really. True story! 

That was back in the day when I was a little ...um... obsessive about what I ate. 

I'm a lot more balanced now. 

And a normal shade of peach. 

But don't let talk of carotenemia put you off these double-veg muffins! 

You don't really taste the carrots or the pumpkin; they add a lovely, subtle background flavour, and contribute a lot of moistness to the final product. 

I've included ground almonds in the recipe because these muffins are destined for school lunch-boxes, and I wanted to up their protein-content. You could replace it with normal cake flour, if you don't have almond flour.

Pumpkin and Carrot Muffins
Recipe by Tea, Cake & Create

Preheat the oven to 180'C
Prepare 2x 12 hole muffin trays with cupcake cases

Ingredients 
320g cake flour
50g almond flour / ground almonds
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp salt
50g pumpkin seeds

250g brown sugar
250ml canola oil
4 large eggs

250g finely grated carrots
150g mashed / pureed roast pumpkin


Sift together the dry ingredients ❲excl the sugar❳. Add in the pumpkin seeds.
In another bowl, whisk the sugar, eggs and oil together.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients, followed by the pumpkin and carrots. Mix until just combined.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin trays. Sprinkle the tops with a few extra pumpkin seeds, if desired.

Bake at 180'C for approx. 20min, or until the top of the muffin springs back when lightly pressed.

Remove from the muffin trays and cool on a wire rack.
Once cool, store in an airtight container.

I usually freeze half the batch, and thaw a couple at a time as needed for school lunches.

Happy baking!

xxM