Katie posted this awhile back, but since I am making them today I wanted to re-post them so you could all enjoy them too! If you have never made these muffins, you absolutely have to…. today.  They are sweet, moist and healthy! The combo of apples and carrots may sound strange to you (they did for me too!), but seriously, amazing!!!!  Perfect fall muffin!  Bake some, bake a lot- stick them in your freezer and pull them out for snack or breakfast time!  It’s baking day for me!  
                                         
                                        

Do you ever have just a couple of carrots in your fridge, lingering, peering up at you wanting to be used, and you just keep ignoring them? I do!
So, if you happen to be like me then stop whatever you are doing and make these muffins now!

What you will need:

One apple
3-4 carrots (uncooked)
Pecans (about 1/2 cup) *optional
2 cups whole wheat flour (or white… whatever you have on hand!)
1 1/4 cup of sugar
3/4 Tsp baking soda
1 1/2 Tsp baking powder
1 cup of unsweetened coconut*optional
Pinch of salt
Couple shakes of cinnamon
3 Eggs
3/4 cup oil (i use yogurt or applesauce as as substitute)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup flax seed(optional)

What to do:

Step one: Peel your apple and carrots. Grate them. I used my great grandmothers grater. As I did this I wondered if she knew that someday it would be a staple in my kitchen and I would be using it to make muffins for her great-great grandsons. It made me think of her hands busy in her kitchen, which smelled permanently of pecan pie. It made me think of all the things that we don’t need to buy new, but can use time and again for generations. But, if you don’t have great-grannie’s grater handy you can use a food processor. 🙂
Set aside when finished.

Step two: Place your pecans into a pan and cook them over the stove. Let them toast until a nice fresh aroma fills your kitchen. Cool and chop them up.

Step three: In a big bowl mix all your dry ingredients together. That would be your flour, baking powder, baking soda, coconut, sugar and toasted pecans.

Step four: In another bowl mix your oil, flax, egg, and vanilla together.

Step five: Add your apple/carrot shavings together with the wet ingredients. Stir. Now, add this to your dry ingredients. Stir.

TIP: Don’t overmix your muffins. This will make them hard. Stir them just enough to have a decently blended batter.

Scoop the lumpy batter into muffin cups and bake at 350. I used the small muffin cups, cooked them for about 8 minutes (about 12 min. for regular size muffins) This recipe made 100 little muffins perfect for eating in the moment, sharing with friends, and freezing for later!

We found a special treat in putting a little dab of butter, followed by heap of peanut butter onto the piping hot muffin. MMMM, yummy!