Spelt Carrot Muffins

No book review would be complete without trying one of the recipes. For the Good to the Grain cookbook we selected the Carrot Muffin as the first one to try. This recipe is from the chapter on Spelt flour that Boyce said was one of the easiest flours to use. To keep you reading I will tell you the muffins were excellent. The mixture of Spelt and AP flour keep this light in texture and the carrots contributed to a moist muffin. The streusel on the top added some additional texture and sweetness.

Boyce recommends filling alternating wells in your muffin pan and this is well advised. The muffins spread out and I alternated most but left a few together so I only had to clean one pan. Next time I will use two. We devoured a few of these and then froze some for another day. If this recipe is a reflection of all the goodness in this book I am sure we will be sharing a lot more. When you eat one, save the calories on the butter as these are delicious without the extra fat.

Recipe

For the streusel topping
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons spelt flour
2 tablespoons oat bran
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
⅛ tablespoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch pieces

For the muffins
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup spelt flour
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup oat bran
⅓ cup packed dark brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2-3 medium carrots, peeled and grated (1½ cups)
1 cup regular or low-fat buttermilk
1 large egg

For the streusel topping: Mix the spelt flour, oat bran, sugars and salt in a medium bowl. Add the butter, and use your fingers to work the mixture to the consistency of coarse cornmeal. The faster you work, the more solid the butter will remain. You can use a pastry blender to assist but the clumps will be smaller.

For the wet muffin mix: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use a little butter or cooking spray to grease alternating muffin wells in a 12-muffin pan. Sift together the flours, oat bran, sugars, allspice, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. Brown sugar may be hard to sift so just break up the clumps and mix throughly if desired. Add the carrots and stir to until coated.

Whisk together the melted butter, buttermilk and egg in a separate bowl until thoroughly combined. Use a spatula to incorporate the butter mixture into the flour mixture. Use a spoon or steel ice cream scoop
to distribute the batter evenly among the 8 prepared muffin wells. The batter should be slightly mounded. Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the mounds of batter and press it into the batter slightly.

Bake on the middle rack for 32 to 35 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown (twist one out carefully to check). Place the muffin pan on top of the stove and gently twist out the muffins, letting them cool on their sides halfway out of their individual wells. Boyce note that will help keep them from becoming soggy. It is unclear if this is for most muffins or just these. All I can say is that it worked.

Source: Good to the Grain Cookbook, Boyce

Other Spelt Flour muffins worth trying:

mini-blueberry-spelt-muffins