Carrot cake has always been a favorite of mine, so I decided to give it a healthier makeover today with these vegan and gluten-free carrot cake muffins. They’re made with gluten-free oat flour, which gives them a heartier texture than a traditional cupcake, but they’re also a bit more moist and chewy than your average muffin. These healthy muffins are loaded with nutrient rich ingredients, including fresh pineapple, shredded carrots, unsweetened coconut, coconut oil, and oat flour to leave you feeling satisfied all morning long. They’d make an excellent addition to your next brunch!
While many gluten-free recipes require that you mix multiple flours and starches to create a gluten-free flour blend, I prefer to work with only one flour in a recipe. Otherwise it just sounds too complicated and overwhelming to me! What I love about these carrot cake muffins is that they are:
Gluten-free, made with only one flour Nut-free Egg-free Naturally sweetened with coconut sugar Super moist and easy to prepare!
The result is a muffin that’s easy to whip together, but the trade-off is that the texture is a little different than you might expect. Oat flour has a slightly gummy and doughy texture, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (particularly since this recipe is egg-free, so you don’t have to worry about under-baking them), but it’s not the crumb you might expect when you bite into a traditional muffin. I’d recommend you make a batch to taste for yourself before baking them for crowd, just to make sure you like them as much as I do. Since these vegan carrot cake muffins aren’t as light and fluffy as a standard cupcake made with white flour and sugar, I felt that a crumble topping was more appropriate, but you can skip it and serve these on their own, or top them with your favorite frosting, if you prefer. Perhaps you might enjoy them with my Creamy Cashew Frosting or Coconut Whipped Cream?
I added a light drizzle of a quick lemon and cashew glaze to give these muffins a little extra zip, but it’s totally optional. Because the glaze won’t set the way one would if it were made with powdered sugar, be sure to only add it right before serving so that the muffins won’t get soggy.
As you can see, these muffins are not like the over-sized bakery muffins that you might have come to expect. Because they are so nutrient-dense, I’ve chosen to keep them on the smaller side, so they won’t rise over the tops of your baking cups much. I think the portion size is perfect this way, but feel free to experiment on your own if you’d prefer to make larger muffins. (You’ll probably need to adjust the amount of ingredients as well as extend the baking time.) As always, please leave a comment below if you make any substitutions. I haven’t tested this muffin recipe with any other flours or sweeteners, so you guess will be as good as mine. When you share your variations in the comments below, we will all benefit from your experience! — Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite cake flavor?
