Paleo Carrot Cake Muffins

Moist paleo carrot cake muffins topped with a sweet pineapple glaze and a nice pop of bright lemon. Packed with good for you ingredients that are gluten free, grain free and refined sugar free.

So you're craving a sweet breakfast or treat that also gets your kids to eat veggies without their "this is so disgusting" face?

A) My kids ate ALL of these B) These muffins are so delicious and sweet they remind me of a glazed cake donut.

Your answer to a sweet craveable paleo breakfast that even your kids will eat, comes in the form of a carrot cake muffin.

This muffin is moist, not too dense, and it even comes with a pineapple glaze. A lot of carrot cake recipes have loads of nuts and pineapple in them. I knew "chunks" of anything would be a no go for my kids so I decided to add the pineapple flavor to the glaze.

What I did add, is lemon juice and lemon zest. And you guys please, please don't leave out lemon zest. I admit 90 percent of the time I used to ignore zest of any kind when I saw it on an ingredient list. But over the last few months I have been using it, and wowza, it makes such a huge difference. I promise you will love the pops of lemon taste when you bite into these muffins.

These carrot cake muffins don't even take that long to make, which is also a good thing when you are constantly short on time like most of you out there. It may take a tad longer if you don't have a food processor and have to grate the carrots by hand though. In that case, I am sorry. But at least you will get your arm workout in for the day.

Speaking of food processors, do you have one? I just got a new one for Christmas and I really like it for the price range. My old one that I used, half broken, for years was only 20 bucks. The new one is only around $40 and boy it is a huge difference on how much nicer it is! This is the one I am using just in case you need a cheap-ish food processor. They are definitely worth it to have on hand.

about the glaze

Let's chat about the glaze. For these pictures I used organic powdered sugar to make the pineapple glaze. Nope, powdered sugar is not paleo. But don't fret, you can make your own paleo powdered sugar if you would like. Here's a recipe for paleo powdered sugar. Just know that paleo powdered sugar won't turn out pure white so your glaze will also not be white. But it will still taste delightful.

Ingredients for paleo carrot cake muffins

Here's what we are working with for these paleo carrot cake muffins. I know the list looks long, but I promise there isn't a lot of effort that goes into any of the ingredients except for the carrots. Don't let the number of ingredients scare you.

• Almond flour- be sure you are using a finely ground flour, not an almond meal
• Coconut flour
• Eggs
• Vanilla
• baking essentials- baking powder, baking soda, salt
• Avocado oil
• Lemon juice and lemon zest
• Carrots (duh)
• Coconut sugar
• Spices- cinnamon and nutmeg

Step by step

1. Shred your carrot by hand or a food processor.
2. In a large bowl whisk together your egg, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Once whisked completely fold in your shredded carrot.
3. In a separate large bowl mix until well combined your almond flour, coconut flour, coconut sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg.
4. Combine your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and mix by hand with a wooden spoon until just combined and everything is incorporated. 
5. Evenly divide all of the batter into each muffin wells. They will be full.
6. Bake at 350°F for 22-24 minutes. Muffins will be slightly firm to touch in the center, and a toothpick will come out clean with the exception of a crumb or two. 
7. Let muffins cool in muffin tin for 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool the reminder of the way. 
8. While the muffins are cooling make the glaze by whisking together 1 tablespoon of the pineapple juice with ½ cup of the powdered sugar. Add 1 tablespoon at a time until it is the desired consistency you would like. 2 tablespoons will make it a thicker glaze where you can see the white on the muffin. The more you add the runnier it will be. 
9. Store these in the fridge up to 4 days in a sealed container. 

Substitutions

I have not tested this recipe with any substitutions so the only substitution I am confident will work without testing it is subbing the avocado oil for another oil you have on hand. I would recommend a light tasting olive oil or even a coconut oil would work. If you use refined coconut oil it won't have a coconut taste.

As far as subbing any of the flours, I wouldn't. Coconut flour is so hard to sub out because of how much liquid it absorbs. If you swap that out the liquid levels need to change. The coconut flour also gives it nice structure.

Baking Tips

Fun fact! So the first time I tested this recipe I only used baking soda. Turns out if you use too much baking soda it can have a chemical reaction with the carrots when baked and the carrots turn green! While they still tasted fine and it doesn't hurt the muffins, it caused a brief moment of alarm when I thought my cake had gone bad in one day! This didn't happen when I halved the baking soda and added baking powder.

Paleo and baking powder- baking powder isn't exactly paleo if you are super strict. It is made from a grain. You can make your own paleo baking powder if you would like. I don't bother with that because I am not that strict. I do make sure to buy an aluminum free baking powder that is also non gmo.

How to Store your Paleo Carrot Cake Muffins

After baking you can store these in the fridge up to four days in a sealed container. You can also freeze these once cooled and thaw at room temperature. If you freeze you could wait to add the pineapple glaze.

It is now time for you to set forth and go get some carrot cake back in your life!

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Looking for more muffin recipes? Check out this recipe

Cranberry Orange Paleo Muffins