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carrot muffins
carrot muffins

CREAM CHEESE CARROT MUFFINS

Soft and moist Carrot Cake Muffins made in a blender in few minutes that hide an irresistible creamy Cream Cheese frosting inside for a stunning surprise!
These bakery-style muffins with a high domed top are made with the classic Carrot Cake ingredients *plus* a splash of orange juice and zest: if you've never tried carrot-orange combo you surely should try it!
The Carrot Cake Muffin batter is made in a food processor so it's very quick and easy - mostly if you don't like to hand grate your carrots! - but if you don't have a food processor, you can make it using a grater and a bowl+whisk for put together the batter.
The Cream Cheese filling is creamy and decadent and nobody could say there is a filling inside these muffins, so the wow effect is guaranteed!
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Prep Time 50 mins
Cook Time 18 mins
Total Time 1 hr 8 mins
Course Dessert, Treat
Cuisine American
Servings 12 Muffins
Calories 308 kcal

Ingredients
  

Cream Cheese Stuffing

  • 180 g (6,3 oz) cream cheese like Philadelphia, chilled
  • 60 g (1/2 cup) powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Carrot Muffin Batter

  • 150 g (5,2 oz) fresh carrot peeled
  • 2 eggs regular size, room temperature
  • 1+1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • The zest from 1 orange
  • 80 g (1/3 cup) fresh orange juice from 1 orange
  • 200 g (1 cup) brown sugar
  • 60 g (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
  • 40 g (3 tbsp) unsalted butter melted
  • 60 g (1/3 cup) milk room temperature
  • 360 g (3 cups) all purpose flour
  • 12 g (2+1/2 tsp) baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 55 g (1/2 cup) chopped pecans or walnuts
  • Granulated brown sugar for the top optional

Instructions
 

Cream Cheese Stuffing

  • In a medium size bowl mix together cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla until well combined.
  • Equally divide the mix into 12 large tsp onto a lied small tray.
  • Place in freezer until hard and completely frozen (at least 30 minutes).

Carrot Muffin Batter

  • In a food processor (or a blender) place chopped carrots and process until finely ground. If you don't have a food processor, grate your fresh carrots with a fine hand grater and place in a large bowl. You can make the Carrot Muffin Batter with a hand mixer or just with a wisk and a spatula.
  • Add eggs, vanilla extract, orange zest and orange juice, brown sugar, vegetable oil, butter, milk and process until combined.
  • In a medium size bowl sift together all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon powder and mix until well combined.
  • Add the flour mix into the carrot mix in the food processor and process until well combined: do not overmix, you can give a last mix using a spatula.
  • Add chopped pecans to the batter and mix using a spatula.
  • Fill half of 12 lined muffin molds (or 13 if you're using muffin molds slightly smaller than mine that are the American regular size) with the Carrot Muffin Batter.
  • Remove frozen Cream Cheese Stuffings from the freezer and quickly place one filling on top of each muffin, slightly press it down.
  • Divide the remaining Carrot Muffin Batter on top of the muffins to well cover the Cream Cheese Fillings and until the molds are full filled.
  • Sprinkle some granulated brown sugar on top of the muffins (optional).
  • Bake in preheated oven (no fan, upper+lower heat) at 210°C-410°F for 5 minutes: this helps to get higher muffins. Then turn down the heat and bake at 185°C-365°F for about 13 minutes. Do NOT overbake the muffins to get creamy Cream Cheese Fillings!
  • Cool down on a wire rack and serve it.

Video

Notes

Store at room temperature for 1 day.
Store in refrigerator for about 5 days; I suggest to bring at room temperature before serve it.
Store in freezer for up to 3 months.

Hello, I am Valentina! Welcome to How Tasty!

I am an Italian girl in love with baking and cooking. I’ve been raised in a cooking family, baking since I was a little girl and learning from my mom and my professional chef grandma.

I created the Youtube channel How Tasty in 2017 to share with you my passion.

You don’t need to be a professional cook to follow all my recipes thanks to the video tutorials and the tips & hints you can find here.

Let’s cook!

Don’t lose any recipe!

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How Tasty - Valentina

Tips:

carrot muffins

For this recipe I’m using a regular American size muffin molds; if you’re using a smaller muffin mold, you may get more muffins, about 13 or even 14.

To get Bakery-Style high domed top muffins remember to full fill the mold with the muffin batter.

carrot muffins

I always make my Carrot Muffins and Cakes using a food processor (a blender works great too) because I don’t like to hand grate my fresh carrots.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a food processor, it’s not mandatory: you should grate your carrots with a normal hand grater, then you can prepare your Carrot Muffin Batter using a bowl and a whisk (plus a spatula to gently fold the flour mix into the batter).

carrot muffins

As you can see in my recipe, I froze the Cream Cheese Stuffings, so it’s more easy to put them into the raw muffins and the fillings will also turn out more creamy after the baking time! So I suggest to NOT skip the freezing time of the stuffings.

For this reason I prepare the Cream Cheese Stuffing as the first step of the recipe, so while the stuffing is freezing, I prepare the muffin batter.

carrot muffins