This recipe for vegan sugar-free carrot cake muffins is for anyone who is cutting out added sugar as well as animal products this Veganuary.
They’re full of flavour and sweet enough that you would assume they contained some added sugar if no-one told you otherwise. All the sweetness comes naturally from carrots, dates and sultanas.
A healthy dose of spices and orange zest provides the layers of flavour you expect in a carrot cake. Using two-thirds wholemeal flour along with flaxseed improves the texture and makes this a really fibre-rich breakfast option.
The recipe will make twelve substantial muffins. They rise moderately, less than some other muffins (in fact, more like a carrot cake!), so you need to fill the cases more or less level with the top for a reasonable dome.
Out of curiosity, I looked online to see how much sugar is in a standard shop-bought muffin in the UK and discovered it’s generally between five and ten teaspoons. The recommended daily maximum for adults is seven teaspoons of added sugar.
The muffins pictured below were topped with a sprinkling of date sugar (dried, ground dates) before baking, which gives them an interesting ‘char-grilled’ kind of look – if you like your muffins to look distinctive!
Sugar-Free Carrot Cake Muffins…
Ingredients
- zest of an orange and 120 ml juice
- 1.5 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 190 g peeled, topped and tailed carrots
- 180 g ready-to-eat dates
- 130 g sultanas
- 100 ml light olive oil (or other mild-tasting oil)
- 250 ml oat (or other non-dairy) milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract or seeds scraped from 2/3 vanilla pod
- 200 g wholemeal self-raising flour
- 100 g white self-raising flour
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 2 generous tsp sweet cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp allspice
Method
- First zest and juice the oranges (it may take two medium oranges for 120 ml juice). Take three tablespoons of the juice and mix this with the ground flaxseed in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Set the oven to 200°C/395°F and line a twelve muffin tin or brush with oil if you’re not using muffin cases.
- Grate the carrots (I grate them finely, but either way will work) and place them in a separate bowl.
- Chop the dates into pieces smaller than 1cm across and add these to the grated carrot along with the sultanas, the orange zest and the rest of the orange juice. Toss lightly to combine.
- Add the oil to the flaxseed and whisk. Then whisk in the milk and vanilla. Most extracts contain a bit of sugar, so if you’re being strict about sugar you can scrape the seeds from two thirds of a vanilla pod and use that instead.
- Stir the carrot and fruit mixture into the milk and oil mixture.
- Sift the flours, baking powder and spices into the mixture and stir through to combine but don’t over-mix.
- Using two dessert spoons, transfer the mixture to the cases.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until they are a deep golden brown.
- Leave them to cool before removing from the tin.
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