Carrot Muffins

I really love muffins that are packed with delicious items -- apples, blueberries, raisins, carrots.  What I don't like is the insane calorie count that comes with many of these muffins.  I typically replace half of the oil in any recipe with unsweetened applesauce (homemade, of course).

This past week I have been craving carrot cake.  Probably due to the fact that little j got a piece from a local bakery on Monday and shared a tiny little bite with me.  But I can't really justify making a whole cake for 3 people, even though I have an amazing secret recipe.  So I decided to do the next best thing: muffins.

I searched and searched for a low-fat, low-sugar recipe and finally decided to take a few different recipes and add my own twist.  I got the calories down to 270 with 11 grams of fat per muffin* (still a bit high).  In retrospect, I probably should have made smaller muffins.  But I'll see how they turn out and possibly make a few tweaks again.  They are in the oven right now and I can't wait!

UPDATE: They are good, but I have a couple ideas that will cut the sugar and fat: reduce the eggs to 2 whole and 1 egg white, increase the carrots to 12 oz., add 1/2 cup drained crushed pineapple -- and, of course, make 18 muffins instead of 12.

That Girl's Carrot Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
8 oz carrot, coarsely shredded
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
3 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 apple, peeled, cored and coarsely grated

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.  Prepare a muffin 12 (12 muffins) with either liners or light oil.

Into a large bowl sift together flours, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice and salt.  Whisk in sugars.  Mix in carrot, raisins and coconut.

In a separate smaller bowl, mix together eggs, oil, applesauce, and grated apple.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring until just incorporated.

Divide batter between muffin cups (they will be quite full).  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes; check with a tester.

Cool muffin tin on wire rack for 5 minutes, then turn out muffins on rack to cool at least 5 minutes more.

*I like to use this recipe analyzer to check nutritional values.