Carrot and Courgette (Zucchini) Muffins

Its World Vegan Month in November.  Why not try these wee vegan cakes? No-one will believe that they are egg and dairy free!

Yum

We've had a huge amount of courgettes (we use the term courgette in the UK instead of zucchini) growing in our garden this year which has left me searching for new recipes to use them up. My favourites have been this lovely recipe from Alexx Stuart for Roast Zucchini and Basil Rosettes. And these amazing wee carrot and courgette muffins. The kids prefer the cakes! I've adapted Chloe Coscarelli's recipe for Maple Glazed Carrot Cupcakes from Chloe's Vegan Desserts, so they work beautifully as just carrot cupcakes (use 2 cups of grated carrots).

I've also made these as gluten free versions, and they work really well.  You may want to add a tiny bit more orange juice to make them as moist, as gluten free flour tends to absorb a little more liquid.

I make a batch of these every few weeks as they are so quick and moreish!

Carrot and Courgette (Zucchini) Muffins
(Egg free, dairy free, vegan and can be gluten free)

Ingredients


1 cup sultanas
1 cup fresh orange juice
2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
1 cup peeled grated carrot
1 cup grated courgette (peel if old but if young leave on the skin)
1/2 cup oil
1 tablespoon cider apple vinegar


Method

Makes 18

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4.

1. Measure out the orange juice and sultanas using the easy read measuring cups.  Place both in a small batter bowl to allow the sultanas to soak up some of the orange and become nice and plump and juicy.

2.  In a Classic batter bowl, add the plain flour and sugar. Then measure out the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and mixed spice using the adjustable measuring spoons and add to the classic batter bowl.  Use a stainless whisk to mix them together well and aerate the flour.

3. Peel and grate the carrot and courgette using a microplane course grater and add to the wet ingredients in the small batter bowl.

4. Measure out the oil and cider apple vinegar and add to the wet ingredients.  Stir with a mix n scraper.

5.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry in the classic batter bowl and mix with the mix n scraper until everything is combined.

6. Use the large scoop to measure out the mixture evenly into 18 cupcake wrappers in a stoneware 12 cup muffin pan or muffin pan.

7. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

8. Cool on a stackable cooling rack. Then watch them disappear in super quick time.

If you want to ice them a basic "butter" icing made with Pure spread and icing sugar and a few drops of lemon juice.  It tastes amazingly like cream cheese icing when added to the cakes.

One year on......

I launched this blog a year ago as a way of documenting some of my kitchen experiments with my Pampered Chef kit and  putting some of my discoveries out there.  I have had views from all over the World in the last year and a whole lot of folks visiting from Pinterest, facebook and allergyuk.  Thanks for visiting!  It makes me feel like I'm not just talking away to myself here!  The comments people have left have been great and its nice to hear from you too.

Most of my recipes are egg and dairy free due to my youngest daughter's allergies and I've been asked so many times by people when they eat my food, in particular the cakes, "How do you do it without eggs?".  So here is a quick guide to what to use in place of eggs in baking and cooking:

I have to say I am not keen on egg replacers and very seldom use them - they really are just a mix of extra bicarbonate of soda and some other bulkers such as potato starch to make everything stick together.  I bought one box of it three and a half years ago when we first discovered that eggs were a no go area in our house, and I only ever used about a quarter of it!

So if you have a favourite eggy recipe and want to convert it to an egg free version, try the egg replacer powder if you like, but it may not work (I had several disappointments which put me right off).  You might have to play with your favourite recipes and try adding other things...

1 egg can be replaced by:

1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce - babyfood jars are great for this - in cookies and biscuits.  Such as these choc chip cookies.

Choc chip cookies with baby apple sauce!

(I've also found I can just grate apple straight into the mix if I'm being lazy!  For example in my fruit cake.)

Mrs Mac's Fruitcake, made with apple, not egg!

1/2 mashed banana in cakes, although this does flavour it.

Chocolate and Banana Zebra bread - no egg here either, just banana!

1 tablespoon ground flax seed with 3 tablespoons of water and left to go gloopy for cakes too.

2 tablespoons water + 1 tablespoon oil + 2 tsp baking powder for cakes that need a rise.


1/2 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar replaces about 2 eggs in cakes and makes them rise beautifully! See this chocolate cake for example. The taste of the vinegar disappears with the chemical reaction that takes place to create the bubbles and make the cake rise.

Chocolate cake with vinegar!  You don't taste it honest!

Its often trial and error and I've had loads of disasters, but always have found better alternatives to the egg replacer.  Have fun trying!

My big cake secret! (dairy free, egg free and vegan cake)

This is my big secret!  Don't tell anyone will you?  I have a basic sponge recipe that is egg free, dairy free and is so simple its ridiculous!  And it doesn't contain any odd egg replacers, which I have a real aversion to.

Plain sponge with choc chips added

Ingredients
90g     Sugar
90g     Dairy free spread (I use Pure Spread)
180g   Self Raising Flour
160ml Soya milk (or other non dairy milk)

Thats it!!

Method

You can use a mixer for this but I don't have one at the moment so its all by hand here! (Good for my right arm though.)


Preheat the oven to 180°C

1. Measure the sugar and Pure spread into a classic batter bowl and mix with a bamboo spoon until nicely fluffy.

2. Add the flour and milk and mix until combined well and looking like a normal cake batter.  If its too solid add a little more soya milk.

3.  Spoon into 12 cupcake liners or leave your stoneware muffin pan naked and bake in the oven for about 12-15 mins till golden brown. (You could use the deluxe mini-muffin pan and make 24 small ones!)

4. Remove to a stackable cooling rack and cool completely before icing.

Tip:  Fancy blueberry muffins or raspberry muffins, or any other fruit for that matter?

Then bung in a good handful of fruit once the cake batter is mixed, stir them through and bake as above - YUM!  I quite often use frozen fruit - chuck them into the batter while still frozen and just increase the cooking time by a couple more minutes.

Or what about choc chip?  Chop up about 80g vegan chocolate into chunks and chuck it in.



Basic cupcakes with added British Flags by my six year old daughter for @sundaybakeclub on twitter

I've also used this to make large birthday cakes such as the Princess castle below!  Just use the above recipe in a 20cm cake tin for each layer, and bake for about 22 minutes. I added muffins and ice cream cones to this one to make the shapes.