These carrot cake muffins are one of my most made recipes. They are SO good. I almost always make them as mini muffins. One of my favorite kitchen purchases have I ever made was my mini muffin pan. I have used it so much over the years while the kids were growing up. Mini muffins are the perfect size to pack into snack containers and lunch boxes. They are a great portion size too for little kids who lose interest in their snack after 2 minutes. 🙂 I have this pan:
My kids are all teens/adults now, but my youngest still needs to pack her lunch for school and also just likes to have something around to snack on. The cool thing about mini muffins is that they store great in the freezer. You can grab one out anytime and put into the microwave for 15 seconds and it is ready to eat.
These muffins have a carrot cake base and they are filled with a cream cheese filling in the center for a tasty surprise. I do something a little strange with these, but it works. We aren’t a big fan of raisins in our baked goods, but I like the flavor and moisture that raisins lend. So my trick for these is to puree the raisins with a little water (or one of the eggs), and use the puree. You get great moisture and flavor but without the big hunk of raisin. Of course you can just mix in the raisins normally if you are a fan of them.
In order to create the cream cheese center in these, you fill just the bottom of the greased muffin tin (I use Baker’s Joy). Then put a small scoop of the filling and then top it off. It takes a little work, but the result is so worth it. You can make these as full sized muffins as well, but we love them as minis.
I use a medium and small cookie scoop to help me portion these out. Like these:
Carrot Cake Muffins
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup AP flour
- 1/2 cup white wheat flour (or more AP)
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 cup finely shredded carrot
- 1/4 cup raisins whole, chopped or pureed
- 1 tsp vanilla
For the filling:
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 1 large egg yolk
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350.
- In a small bowl, make the filing by mixing the ingredients and whisking until smooth.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, brown sugar, oil and vanilla. Shred the carrots in a food processor and puree the raisins if you are going to. Add the carrots and raisins.
- Whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt in another bowl. Gently fold this mixture into the wet ingredients and mix just until combined.
- Grease your muffin tins (I use baker's joy) and place a small amount of batter in the bottom. Then add a dollop of filling, and top with more batter. Do not overfill the wells. There should still be some space at the top.
- Bake for about 10 minutes for mini and 14 for large muffins or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. You should not see any wet batter on it. Allow to cool for 10 min in the pan then remove. You can store in an air tight container for a few days, or freeze.