High Protein Carrot Muffins

These muffins are a variation on a recipe I found at a great little blog called The Food I Cook. I encourage you to read Chris’s original recipe for a great discussion of the ingredients and, if you prefer to use Splenda and can take the higher flax content, you can try his recipe instead.

This recipe makes a nice big batch o’ muffins. They freeze well, and I have been taking one to work every morning for breakfast for the past 2 weeks. With a cup of coffee and a slice of non fat cheese or a half cup of yogurt, they hold me quite nicely till late lunchtime.

High Protein Carrot Muffins

I’ve listed specific brands in this recipe, not because I am endorsing them, but because my calorie count and nutritional analysis are specific for these brands. Protein powder brands vary a lot in protein and fat content, so read the label before you buy. The one I used has no fat.

As I’ve posted before, the key to great muffins is not over-mixing, so get your wet and dry ingredients all ready before incorporating them in as few strokes as possible before adding the carrots and such.

If you are going for an even lower fat content, use skim milk instead of low fat buttermilk and cut out half the oil and the nuts. If you use skim milk, change the leavening to 4 tsp baking powder and 2 tsp baking soda.

Dry Ingredients
1 cup Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup Spelt flour
1/2 cup Arrowhead Mill Soy Flour
1/2 cup Bob’s Mills Flax Seed Meal
1/2 cup Quaker Old fashioned rolled oats, dry
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp finely chopped crystallized ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
5 tsp baking soda

The Good Stuff
2 large granny smith apples
2 cups (just under 1 pound) Shredded Carrots
1/4 cup raisins

1/3 cup ground almonds

Wet Ingredients
2 cups low fat buttermilk
1 cup Jay Robb Whey Protein
4 large Egg Whites (1/2 cup)
2 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Very lightly grease non-stick muffin tins using a very little olive oil.

Whisk dry ingredients together is a large bowl. Set aside.

Peel and core apples and shred using food processor. Set aside in a medium size bowl. Peel carrots and shred using food processor. Add to apples in bowl along with the raisins and ground almonds. Combine them well so they are all distributed evenly in the mix.

Pour buttermilk into a medium size bowl. Whisk in protein powder until well dissolved. Add egg whites, olive oil and orange juice and whisk till foamy.

Add wet ingredients to dry, stirring just enough to incorporate the dry ingredients. DO NOT OVER MIX. Fold in the apple/carrot/raisin/nut mix in as few folds as possible.

Fill muffin tins almost to the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes till done. Let cool a bit in the muffin tin, loosen edges gently and turn out onto a plate to finish cooling.

Flash freeze muffins as soon as they are cool. Pop into the microwave for about 30 seconds to thaw before eating.

The nutritional analysis above is for the entire recipe – divide it by the number of muffins you make for the per muffin data. You’ll get between 18-24 muffins with this recipe, depending on how full you make the muffin cups. That’s 130 -170 calories per muffin, with 7.5-10 grams of protein in each. (For you folks on weight watchers, it’s about 3 points for a muffin.)