Carrot Banana Muffins {with honey cream cheese}

Last week’s spring break at home with the kids unintentionally resulted in a lot more baking and a lot less cooking.  Not quite sure how it ended up that way, but the days passed by quickly and I have no regrets of how we spent our time together.  One of the things my daughter looked forward to most over the break was being able to host a tea party for her grandparents.  According to her, it was to be a tea party featuring her scrambled eggs.  Scrambled eggs are her specialty; she loves to cook them for anyone who will eat them.  She has such a sense of accomplishment after she’s cracked her own eggs, whisked in the milk, sprinkled in the salt and pepper, and scrambled it together on the stove.  Although it may sound simple, to her it is not, and she is proud of being able to do everything on her own.  She couldn’t have been more excited about being able to cook for her grandparents.  It gives me great joy to see her taking initiative in bringing others together, to share good company and delicious food .

Along with Evelyn’s scrambled eggs, we served a bowl of fresh berries and arranged a tiered tray of cardamom vanilla breakfast cookies, mini-jars of soaked muesli with chia jam, and these carrot banana muffins.  I don’t know what else to say about these muffins besides that they are incredible.  They are sweetened almost entirely with dates, only a touch of honey, and made with a spelt and almond flour blend.  They are wonderful for breakfast, as a snack, or even as a healthy dessert.  The texture is fairly dense, but also very soft and moist. The honey cream cheese is a fun surprise in the middle and makes these taste like carrot cake without all of the added sugars.  Carrot cake for breakfast?  Oh yes, I can always be on board with that.

Carrot Banana Muffins {with honey cream cheese}

• Yield: makes 16 muffins

Ingredients

• 5 ounces cream cheese
• 3 1/2 tablespoons honey, divided
• 1 cup spelt flour
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 1/2 cups mashed banana, (about 3-4 ripe bananas)
• 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup pitted medjool dates, chopped (about 9-10 dates)
• 2 medium carrots, grated
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the cream cheese and 1 1/2 tablespoons honey until creamy and smooth. (Using a stand or hand mixer here is helpful.) Place in the refrigerator to chill while making the muffin batter.
2. Preheat oven to 325. Lightly butter a 12-cup muffin tin and 4 cups of an additional muffin tin.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and coconut.
4. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, butter, banana, vinegar, and remaining 2 tablespoons of honey. Stir in the dates. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Gently fold in the carrots and chopped walnuts.
5. Place about 1 slightly heaped tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup. Transfer honey cream cheese to a piping bag. Cut the tip off and pipe a small amount of cream cheese in the middle of each muffin cup, dividing evenly among the 16 muffin cups. Divide the rest of the batter among the muffin cups, gently placing on top of the cream cheese.
6. Bake 27-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling. These taste delicious both at room temperature or chilled. Store remaining leftover muffins in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Notes

adapted from Andrew Weil’s True Food