Oatmeal-Carrot Cake Muffins with (or without) Nuts

Update on the moving: putting a house on the market is a p.i.t.a. Seriously. Normally, I keep a very neat and orderly home, but when you’re trying to sell your house, it has to be neat and orderly on 100. Meanwhile, I’m trying to use up all of the food in my pantry so I don’t have to move with any of it. I made these Oatmeal Carrot Cake Muffins to use up a few pantry hangers-on. Surprisingly enough, they were better than recipes I’ve not made out of desperation.

Use Up Your Pantry Ingredients

Let’s be real- most of us have ingredients in our pantry that we purchased months ago. They’re going to go to waste if we don’t use them soon, too. This was the case when I developed these oatmeal carrot cake beauties.

Grab that canister of old-fashioned rolled oatmeal you bought when you just knew you were turning over a new healthy-eating leaf. You’ll need the oatmeal, as well as, crushed pineapple, all-purpose flour, spices, salt, leavening agents, coconut flakes, sugar, carrots, eggs, and oil.

To begin, preheat your oven to 375°F and lightly grease a muffin tin, then line it with parchment baking cups.

The Best Way to Grate Carrots

I hate eating carrot cake that has big, obnoxious chunks of carrot in it. Big chunks in carrot cake is “bleh”, but can you imagine how much more “bleh” they would be in a smaller muffin? BLEH-erer. Because of that, I recommend using a small grater to shred your carrots.

Shred your peeled and trimmed carrots and set them aside.

Combine the Oatmeal-Flour-Spice Mixture

The culinary student in me refuses to add dry ingredients all willy-nilly. I blend them together in a separate bowl for adding later to the wet ingredients.

But, before we do that, we must first make oatmeal flour from the old-fashioned oats. This step is as easy as pulsing them in your blender or food processor until you have oatmeal powder. You don’t need superfine powder, it’s okay if there are larger grains of oatmeal. The goal is to have a mixture that looks like the oatmeal in the image above.

Combine the oatmeal, flour, salt, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom (this spice is optional) in a mixing bowl. Set this bowl to the side while you whip up the wet ingredients.

Combine the Wet Ingredients

Use your whisk to combine the eggs, sugar, vegetable oil, and vanilla. You don’t need to beat the eggs like crazy- just whisk the two together until they look light and airy.

Add the shredded carrots and the drained, crushed pineapple to the egg-sugar mixture and fold them in using a rubber spatula.

Now, add the nuts (if you choose to use any) and the coconut flakes to the bowl and fold them in.

Blend, then Bake

Add your dry ingredients to the bowl and blend everything together just until the flour has been absorbed. Don’t overmix the batter because it will result in tough, chewy muffins.

After you have mixed the batter, use a portion scoop to fill your prepared muffin cups 2/3rds full.

Bake the muffins in the pre-heated oven for 18-22 minutes. The tops of the fully-baked muffins should spring back quickly when you press them with your fingers. You can also do the toothpick test: insert a toothpick into the center of the muffin. The toothpick should come out clean.

Cool and Enjoy

Once the muffins are fully-baked, remove the pan from the oven and allow them to cool on the counter for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, you can transfer the muffins to a cooling rack and let them cool completely, or you can just serve them straight from the pan.

You can obviously see what I opted to do.

It makes for less dishes to clean in case someone wants to come view the house.

Keep us in your thoughts as we get this ball rolling downhill. I’m hoping our home FLIES off of the market!!

Be sure to pin and share this recipe for those quick, easy-to-make meals you’ll need in the future- even if you’re not selling your home.

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Oatmeal Carrot Cake Muffins

Marta Rivera at Sense & Edibility

5 from 4 votes

Old-fashioned rolled oats are blended to create a healthier, easy-to-make carrot cake muffin.

Servings: 1 dozen

Print Pin Recipe SaveSaved!

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking oats)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom, optional
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large carrots, peeled with ends trimmed, then shredded
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut flakes
• 1/3 cup crushed pineapple, drained

Instructions 

• Preheat your oven to 375°F.

  Lightly grease a muffin tin and line it with parchment baking cups.
• Pulse the rolled oats in a blender or food processor until it's the consistency of coarse cornmeal. You don't need superfine powder, it's okay if there are larger grains of oatmeal. Allow this oatmeal to cool for a little while as you measure out the remaining ingredients.
• Combine the flour, oat flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder and soda, ginger, and cardamom in a mixing bowl.

  Set this bowl aside. 
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, oil, and until they look light and airy.

  Add the shredded carrots, chopped nuts, coconut flakes, and drained pineapple to the egg-sugar mixture and fold them in using a rubber spatula.
• Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and blend everything together just until the flour has been absorbed. Don't overmix the batter. At this point the batter should be thick.
• After you have mixed the batter, use a portion scoop to fill your prepared muffin cups 2/3rds full.

  Bake the muffins in the pre-heated oven for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick, inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
• Once the muffins are fully-baked, remove the pan from the oven and allow them to cool on the counter for 5 minutes before de-panning and allowing the muffins to cool completely on a cooling rack.

Notes

These muffins are great for freezing. Just bag the cool muffins in freezer storage bags and freeze for up to two months. 

Recommended nuts: walnut, pecans, pistachios, macadamia, or peanuts. 

Course Mornings

Cuisine North American

Keyword carrot cake, muffins, oatmeal

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Check out these other oatmeal favorites:

Guava Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Shake

Overnight Apple Pie Oatmeal