Carrot, orange and ginger muffins

I think these are my favourite recipe that I have experimented with so far. Originally I had planned a carrot and apple muffin as I knew I had some apples to use up but when I got them from the fruit bowl I found they were a little too far gone. I had plenty of lovely big oranges so decided to do something with them instead.

I made mini muffins and this recipe made about 15 of those but would maybe make 8ish normal sized muffins.

Ingredients

3 medium carrots

Juice and zest of 2 large oranges

2 mashed bananas

2 tbs blackstrap molasses (information about blackstrap molasses below the post)

2 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ginger powder

Method

Grate the carrots finely into your mixing bowl then add the orange juice, zest and bananas and mix well. Then stir in the molasses. Sift in the remaining ingredients and stir well. There is no need for sugar in this recipe as the molasses and banana sweeten it enough and the banana also acts as a binding agent. Spoon into your muffin cases or greased muffin tins and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celcius. mine took around 15 minutes to cook (when a knife comes out clean) but larger ones may take longer and shallower ones may take less time.
I was going to try and freeze some of these but they were very popular with all of these so they are disappearing to fast. They were a big hit with Little Miss and are great for breakfast or as snacks. 

Blackstrap molasses

Blackstrap molasses are a byproduct of the refinement of cane sugar. It contains magnesium, potassium, iron, vitamin B6, calcium and other minerals so makes a healthy sweetener to your foods. I put a tablespoon in my porridge most mornings (and drink a glass of orange juice) to boost my iron. At first I wasn't at all keen on the taste and had to add in naughty golden syrup too but now I enjoy it with just the molasses. It really complements the ginger in this recipe and gives it a rich flavour and just enough sweetness.

Enjoy,

Jules XOXO