Carrot Spice Muffins

While at my parents' house we made carrot muffins for breakfast one morning. The recipe is one that I have been working on for a while and finally gotten just right. The final touch was a bit of lemon juice, which complements the other flavors and helps the muffins to rise. These muffins take a bit more time for me to prepare than my other recipes because I have to grate the carrots by hand. However, if you're like my mom and have a food processor, the grating will take no time at all. My mom recommends using fat carrots, though, as the thin ones don't cooperate as well in the food processor.

Carrot Spice Muffins
makes 6 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 large egg
• 2 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 cup finely grated carrots, loosely packed into the measuring cup (about 3 or 4 medium-size carrots)
• 3/4 cup Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour
• 2 Tbsp. granulated white sugar
• 1/8 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. and 1/8 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease the muffin tin with Spectrum Organic shortening or canola oil. In a small bowl whisk together the egg, canola oil, applesauce, and lemon juice. Peel and finely grate the carrot; then add to the liquid ingredients. In a medium bowl stir together the flour, sugar, sea salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Make a hole in the middle of the dry ingredients and then pour the wet ingredients into the hole. Stir until you cannot see any more flour. Pour the batter into the muffin tin and bake for 15 minutes.