Vegan Carrot Coconut Muffins

I've been on a deep dive into vegetable cookery, and a cookbook I've really been enjoying is is The Vegetable Butcher by Cara Mangini. I could go on about how awesome this book is, but instead I'll share the first thing I've made from it -- Vegan Carrot Coconut Muffins.

Extremely Moist Carrot Muffins

Cara, aka The Vegetable Butcher, got the recipe from the chef at the Bumble & Bumble company cafeteria where she worked before transitioning to a career as a vegetable expert. The muffins are large, moist, egg-free with pureed carrots, vegetable oil, coconut milk, coconut and just the right amounts of flour, sugar and spices. And while they are called Carrot Coconut Muffins, they're not overly coconut-y tasting even with the shredded coconut, which you should not omit.

Loads of Carrots

The recipe calls for 1 ½ pounds of carrots. Once trimmed this is about 1 ¼ pounds. If you're starting with already trimmed carrots (or baby carrots) that's all you need. You then cook the carrots, puree, and end up with about 2 ½ cups. That's around 600 grams carrot puree for the muffins. I'm mentioning this in case you want to make the carrot puree ahead of time or scale down the recipe a bit. Or maybe you don't want to puree carrots and are considering a small batch carrot baby food version. That's the first place my mind went when I saw pureed carrots as an ingredient.

Carrot Muffin Batch Size

The recipe yield is 24 muffins that come in at a little under 3 oz each. Since this recipe is vegan and doesn't have egg-free, it's easy to scale. You can make a half batch of 12, a quarter batch of 6 or even a little baby batch of 3! It's a nice way to use up any extra coconut milk hanging out in the fridge.

Using 5-Inch Parchment Squares

Using 5-inch parchment squares instead of traditional muffin paper liners has become a popular way to line muffin pans. Parchment squares pressed into muffin tins allow each cavity to hold more batter and gives you taller, bakery-style muffins. The 5-inch pre-cut squares are super convenient, but of course you can just cut your own.

That being said, if you are into less paper, you can skip the liners altogether and use a good coating of coconut oil, cooking spray or your favorite fat. While the muffins are heavy and sticky, the batter is thick and the muffins rise upward so you can still pile the batter even without parchment.

Vegan Carrot Coconut Muffin Tips

• Carrots vary in size, but 1 ½ pounds is about 10 large carrots. Once trimmed that's about 1 ¼ pounds.
• If you have a food processor, you can make the recipe in the food processor. Just puree the carrots and add the coconut milk, oil and vanilla to the processor. Mix dry ingredients separately and fold everything together.
• I like to start muffins at 400F and reduce the heat to 350F. If you'd rather just bake at an even 350F, that's fine too. Err on the side of overbaking rather than underbaking these because there is so much puree the moisture needs to be cooked out. If underbaked, the muffins will be mushy.
• The muffins are fairly sweet, so I recommend sticking with unsweetened coconut which absorbs some of the moisture.
• Let the muffins cool. Texture improves as they cool, so they're good prepared in advance.
• The original version did not call for raisins, but if you like them throw some in. The walnuts are important for textural contrast, so I don't recommend omitting.

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Recipe