Gingerbread Breakfast Muffins

I’ve been taking a cake decorating course and it’s required me to bake an assortment of delicious and not so nutritious goodies to decorate at the class. Last week we were told to bring cupcakes so I made Bobby Flay’s Gingerbread Cupcakes.  They were delightful.  I could have eaten the whole batch.  Instead I gave them away as quickly as I could.  Having them in the house would have been devastating to my healthy eating plan.

After enjoying a cupcake (I had to taste one, right?) I realized they might be even better in the form of a muffin so I went to work.   The Gingerbread Breakfast muffin was born from an introduction of whole wheat pastry flour, the addition of some vegetables and a reduction in fat.

While the icing might be missing, the flavor is not. These are a muffin you can feel good about eating.   I do desire to live a healthier life and making these kinds of substitutions allow me to enjoy the occasional treat without derailing my progress.  They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and these may make it the most enjoyable!

Gingerbread Breakfast Muffins
Makes 18 muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 C whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 6 tbsp molasses
• 1 c raisins
• 1 1/2 c shredded carrots
• 3/4 c water

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• Line the muffin tin with liners and lightly spray the liners with cooking spray
• Whisk together the oil, brown sugar, eggs, molasses and water.  Once well combined add the carrots and raisins. Set aside.
• Mix together the flour, baking power, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and cloves.
• Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until the batter is smooth.
• Fill each cup approximately halfway.
• Bake in the oven for 18 minutes or until cooked.
• Remove from the oven and let cool 5 minutes before removing from pan.

Extra Information:

• You don’t want to cook these too long.  They are finished when there are a few crumbs that cling to the toothpick.  If you cook them too long they may dry out and then you’ll miss the delicious moist texture these offer.
• The spice is delicious.  Absolutely reminiscent of a gingerbread cookie.  If you have old spices the flavor won’t be as strong.  If you’d like a full gingerbread flavor make sure your spices are fresh.
• I mixed the wet ingredients together first to allow the raisins a bit of time to soak in the liquid.  This helped them plump up a bit before the baking process and made for very nice juicy raisins in the muffins.
• This recipe makes nice loaves.  After I made the first 12 muffins I decided to use the rest of the batter to create 2 mini loaves.  I cooked the loaves for 30 minutes and they came out beautifully.  It would be a lovely hostess gift at Christmas.
• Muffins freeze well.  Make a couple of batches and freeze 4 at a time. Get them out the night before and you’ve got a tasty, homemade breakfast on the run.