These Coffee Cake Carrot Muffins taste so rich, you might very well mistake them for their glamorous cupcake cousins. But these are not just delicious and cake-like, they are also whole grain and low fat. Which makes them perfect breakfast eats for the young, the old, and everyone in between.

There's just something about this season that calls for cooking orange things that grow close to the ground, and carrots-- although something of an all-season vegetable in our world--seem particularly appropriate as the weather cools down and the trees and the critters get ready for a good, long nap.

One of my favorite things in the world to do with carrots -- sweet things, that is -- is to make this dairyfree Carrot Halwa. But these Carrot Coffee Cake Muffins come a close second because they are just as easy, if not easier. They are also rather cake-y and crumbly and very, very moist.

To give my carrot muffins some extra zip, I added some nutmeg and some ginger. Carrots and ginger are a match made in food heaven, and ginger is a particularly great addition to the diet in fall and winter because it warms up the body. In India, ginger -- a perennial favorite in most dishes, as you know -- is also added to tea in winter months. Try it. It doesn't just taste amazing, but ginger tea (black tea with some ginger grated into it, strained, and with vanilla soymilk added) is one of the most refreshing drinks you can ask for when the cold makes it hard to wake up in the mornings.

And to go with that ginger tea, or with some coffee if you must, make these Carrot Coffee Cake Muffins.

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Vegan Carrot Coffee Cake Muffins Vaishali · Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes 0 from 0 votes Print Recipe Pin Recipe Prep Time 20 mins Cook Time 25 mins Total Time 45 mins Course Breakfast Servings 12 muffins Calories 259 kcal Ingredients 1x 2x 3x Dry ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

1 cup walnuts, chopped and lightly toasted

1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

2 tbsp flaxmeal whisked with 6 tbsp water

1 cup applesauce

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 cup raw cane sugar or turbinado sugar (can substitute with brown sugar)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots, about three medium carrots Instructions Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients and whisk well together.

In a larger bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, place all of the wet ingredients and use a whisk or the stand mixer's whisk attachment to beat the mixture for 2 minutes or until well-integrated.

Add half the flour mixture, mix well, using a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and then add the remaining half. Mix well but don't overmix.

Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with oil, or line it with cupcake liners.

Using an ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, divide the batter equally into the 12 cups.

Bake in the preheated oven 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs sticking to it.

Let the muffins cool in the tin on a rack for five minutes, then unmold them and let them continue cooling on the rack.

Enjoy! Nutrition Calories: 259 kcal Protein: 4.9 g Fiber: 3.7 g Tried this recipe? Let us know ! Or post a photo on Instagram and tag @HolyCowVegan