Carrot Coconut Muffins

A special family occasion always calls for something which warms the heart as well as the palate. And when we are talking about celebrating the joy that our little girl brings into our lives, her twinkling eyes and impish smile which make every day a new wonder - then it has to be something which screams "Sunshine"!


These carrot coconut muffins do just that - their warm orange colour seems to be a shade of happiness itself and their moist insides burst with the goodness of carrots and apples. I saw them first quite sometime back on the Joy of Baking website and later on Meeta's wonderful blog "Whats for Lunch, Honey".
These muffins are the easiest thing to bake and use ingredients which we usually have at hand. My daughter loved making it with me and couldn't wait for them to bake and then cool to see how they turned out - very much the way she pestered us that whole morning for mehendi and then as soon as it was on she wanted to take it off and see the colour "NOW"! :)

I didn't make the cream cheese frosting since I didn't think they were needed at all - warm them just a little in the oven and you're good to go. I used homemade unsalted butter instead of the oil in the original recipe and toned down the sugar a wee bit.These muffins are apparently also called "Morning Glory Muffins" - I can see why!

Carrot Coconut Muffins

1 1/2 cups maida
1/2 cup wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs

2 cups grated carrots
1 apple, peeled and grated (should be crisp and not the mushy kind)
1 cup grated coconut (I used fresh coconut)
1/2 cup walnuts, lightly toasted, peeled and chopped
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (For some reason everytime I combine cinnamon and salt, the dish seems to get over salted, so this time I did away with the salt in the original recipe,completely)

Method:
1. Sift the flours and the baking powder,cinnamon powder and soda together.
2. Beat the eggs and keep aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together till creamy.
3. Mix in the eggs and vanilla essence into the butter and sugar and then add the flour, grated carrots, apples, chopped walnuts and coconut mixing just until combined.
4. The key to spongy muffins is not to mix the ingredients too much but just till they come together.
5. Spoon the batter into lightly greased muffin pans or you can line the muffin pans with muffin papers and then spoon the batter into them.
6. Bake in a pre heated oven at 180C (350F) for 22-25 minutes till a skewer inserted comes out clean. Rest for 10 minutes and turn out of the muffin pan and let it cool completely.