Carrot spice muffins

Another Oh She Glows favorite of mine! These muffins are made with no oils and are full of yummy and good-for-you carrots. I made a batch last week and meant to blog about them but then I ate them all and got really busy and time kind of flew away from me. I made them again today, this time fixing what I did wrong last time and here they are. Angela got the recipe from Fat Free Vegan and I kind of did a combo of both versions, sticking to only the non-white sugar sweeteners. The first time I made them with vegan white sugar (did you know some white sugar is processed with animal bone char?!) the first time and they were lovely but since I recently purchased coconut sugar and have been meaning to experiment with that I went for it. The coconut sugar is so tasty here! It has a brown sugar kind of flavor and really makes this batch of muffins better than the last (even though the last was blog-worthy!).

Ingredients:
Dry:
1 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup natural sugar (again, I used coconut sugar)
1 Tbs ground flax seed
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt

Wet and mix-ins:
1/3 cup agave nectar (or maple syrup- add 2 Tbs)
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup soy vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated carrots (about 3 medium carrots)
1/2 cup raisins, soaked in water and drained (I omitted these because Michael and I aren't fans of raisins in baked goods
1/3 cup chopped and toasted walnuts (the toasting step is key!)

1. Toast the walnuts on a baking sheet for about 8 minutes at 300ºF. Remove and set aside. Pre-heat oven to 375ºF and line a muffin pan with liners. If using maple syrup instead of agave, pre-heat oven to 400ºF.

2. Whisk all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (agave nectar, applesauce, yogurt, water and vanilla). Add the wet to the dry and mix until just incorporated. The batter might be a bit thick.

3. Fold in the carrots, raisins (if using) and walnuts. Scoop batter into the muffin liners, filling batter to the top. Bake for about 18 minutes (but check after 15 to be sure they're not overcooked) until a toothpick or knife comes out clean. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

These freeze really well- I froze all but 4 of the ones I made today (this recipe makes 12 muffins). I plan on eating them throughout the week for breakfast with my green smoothie!