Spiced Carrot Muffins

Chinese people have a very different idea of what breakfast should be. Basically, they eat the same meal as lunch and dinner, or if you go the baked route, you'll find some kind of pastry with dried meat on it (blech). I don't know about you, but that just doesn't sound good to me, and noodles and dumplings don't do it for me so early in the day. We travel a lot for this job, and are in fact leaving today for another trip. Sometimes the travel isn't so bad, other times (like today) we have to take a 15-20 hour train to get to our final destination! Usually the trains are overnight, so we can sleep through a large chunk of the time, however, when I wake up I don't want the questionable blue egg or soy tofu something. So, for these trips I almost always bake a batch of muffins because they're easy, delicious, and travel well (speaking of traveling, I will be in America two weeks from today! I couldn't be more excited to visit with family and friends). 

These muffins were very tasty. I love using yogurt (or sour cream) in my muffins, as it replaces the oil, and helps keep the muffins super moist. These muffins are also not at all too sweet, which I prefer in a breakfast muffin. Next time I make these I think I will try adding raisins and use brown sugar instead of granulated, so it will be a little closer to carrot cake. You can also freeze the batter in the muffin cups, for up to three months. Keep in mind the baking time will be closer to 30 minutes.

Spiced Carrot Muffins

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice*

2 teaspoons baking powder 

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cups plain yogurt

4 tablespoons melted butter

1 large egg

2 cups peeled, finely shredded carrots (about 5 medium)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375˚F. Grease 12 cups of a standard muffin tin or line with paper liners; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, pumpkin-pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together yogurt, butter, and egg. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add yogurt mixture, stirring just until combined. Fold in carrots. 

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake muffins until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*You can make your own pumpkin pie spice by combining 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon each of ground ginger and nutmeg.