Carrot Coconut Muffins with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
These muffins are super quick to whip up on a Sunday morning and will make your breakfast extra special. They are also great to throw in your lunch box and bring to work/school. The lemon cream cheese frosting is optional, but it is KILLER and if you like tangy sweets like I do, you will agree that it is a party in your mouth.
Coconut Flour: My 3 Secrets to Success
Coconut flour is a tricky beast for sure. I find some coconut flour recipes to have a (gross) spongy, moist quality to them. Coconut flour is so absorbent that you have to add a bunch of eggs to prevent your recipe from being dry, which can give them a spongy and weird texture. I have 3 secrets to achieving a great texture when baking with coconut flour, which I have learned through lots of trial and error and experimenting in the kitchen!
Coconut Flour Trick #1: Use a blend of coconut flour and almond flour
The texture of almond flour is the exact opposite of coconut flour (delicate and crumbly) so they balance each other out in the texture department and you are left with deliciousness. Exhibit A: the pastry for my Pumpkin Pie Tarts, which has 1 cup coconut flour and 1/2 cup almond flour. They are not as crumbly and delicate as recipes with only almond flour, but they also don’t have the weird spongy thing going on. Perfectly balanced!
Coconut Flour Trick #2: Use in recipes with dates or coconut oil
The texture is not an issue in recipes that have lots of dates or lots of coconut oil, like the brownie base on my Cheesecake Brownie Bars, which have 1/2 cup coconut oil. This really helps with the texture.
Coconut Flour Trick #3: Use in recipes with a forgiving texture
Coconut flour works great in recipes with lots of texture already, like these muffins with shredded coconut and shredded carrots. It’s also good to use for zucchini muffins or cake or my Cheddar Cheese Scones (coming soon!) that have lots of cheese in them to counter the coconut flour texture.
Carrot Coconut Muffins with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting: Recipe Tips and Variations
- You can make these muffins paleo if you omit the cream cheese frosting and sweeten them with coconut sugar.
- Instead of carrot, use shredded zucchini, sweet potato, apple or pear.
- You can put a dollop of lemon cream cheese frosting inside the muffins, instead of smearing it on top. Just put half the batter in the muffin cavity, add a tablespoon of frosting and then top it with the rest of the batter. Delicious!
- You can add a little bit of lemon zest to the batter for some extra lemony tang and flavour.
PLEASE COMMENT BELOW
What is your favourite muffin recipe? Do you love sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting as much as I do? Please comment below, I love hearing from you!
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Carrot Coconut Muffins with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
For Carrot Coconut Muffins
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup soft butter
- 1 cup shredded carrots (about 2 small carrots)
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 cup sugar or sweetener
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
For Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1/2 package cream cheese
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp sugar or sweetener
- 2 tsp lemon juice
Instructions
For Carrot Coconut Muffins
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Mix ingredients together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined.
- Divide batter into 8 to 12 muffin tins (depends on how big you like them!).
- Bake for 30 minutes.
For Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Combine everything well and taste for sweetness. (I like it tart, but you might want to add more sugar if you like it sweeter.)
- Smear a big dollop of frosting on each muffin.