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My Golden Pear: CARROT & COCONUT MUFFINS WITH CHOCOLATE TOPPING

Friday 25 January 2013

CARROT & COCONUT MUFFINS WITH CHOCOLATE TOPPING

I can hardly contain my excitement whilst writing this post. Why? you may ask. It looks like just any other muffin topped with the usual artery clogging butter and sugar frosting. Well guess what - there is no butter, no refined sugar and it is grain free. I have most definitely not turned over a new leaf and gone super-duper healthy but I have been following the progress of a lady over in New Zealand who is trying to alleviate some of her health issues by changing her diet. Suzanne's blog is over at Strands of My Life and is full of interesting information about using alternative products to change the way we eat. Suzanne is adamant that going gluten, dairy and refined sugar free should not mean that she cannot have her sweet treats and this gorgeous treat below and many others are as a result of her hard work to achieve this.

 
The muffin itself is made with coconut oil, coconut flour, honey, carrots, raisins, shredded coconut, eggs, bicarb and cinnamon. I found the first two products at Holland & Barrett and they are not cheap. £14.00 for the two products is a lot to pay but if you are plagued with food intolerances then you may have these items already. I was just curious and wanted to try them out for myself. The baked muffin is quite heavy and dense but not unpleasant. It is sweet and tasty and very moist. But the piece de resistance is the fabulous chocolate frosting. This is made from avocado, cocoa and honey. It is unbelievably thick and creamy and has absolutely no taste of avocado. Suzanne explains about the benefits of avocados so I will not repeat it here. If like me, you have children then you will know that it is usually the frosting on a cupcake that they go for, leaving the cupcake for someone else to finish off (me). Every time I watch my children devour all this butter and sugar I feel guilty but this would be so different. Yes, avocados contain fat but it is good fat and honey is so much better for you than all that refined sugar that makes up icing sugar.
 

I have just returned from picking my 6 y/o up from school and couldn't wait for him to try one of these muffins. I had placed the muffin so that he would see it as soon as he came into the kitchen and of course he begged to have it there and then. I was trying to act as normal as possible so as not to alert him to the fact that is was different. He took his first lick of icing, looked at me and said "did you make this?" Oh here we go, he's sussed me out, I thought. "Yes," I said, "why?" He walked over to me and gave me a big hug and said "this is so yummy, thanks." He didn't eat the muffin but that is not unusual.
Result!!

 
The next time I make chocolate cupcakes for the kids I will definitely use this frosting.  It is just so much healthier than the buttercream frosting I normally use.

For this fabulous recipe and more information on going grain, dairy and refined sugar free pop over to
 
 
 

Because these muffins are sugar free I am going to submit them to the We Should Cocoa challenge which is hosted by
 
 
 
 
and to the Calendar Cakes challenge which is hosted by
 
 
Written by : Angela Darroch

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28 Comments:

At 25 January 2013 at 08:39 , Anonymous Camilla @FabFood4All said...

These look & sound amazing, but don't think I'll be beating a path down to Holland & Barrett just yet at those prices:-) But as you say if you were intolerant or had deep pockets what a great idea!

 
At 25 January 2013 at 09:20 , Blogger Unknown said...

I agree - but the topping is still worth a try though.

 
At 25 January 2013 at 10:31 , Anonymous Suzanne Perazzini said...

Ang, thank you for featuring my muffins. It is very important to mix the dry with the wet ingredients only until they are just combined or they will toughen up. That could have been the issue. Also you will have noticed how little coconut flour you use compared to normal flour. Coconut flour is more expensive but a bag lasts me forever while I used to go through bags and bags of white flour in the same time. It probably works out not too different.
Your photo looks lovely as usual.

 
At 25 January 2013 at 12:18 , Blogger Choclette said...

I really must try avocado as an icing, I can imagine it would work as it has the right sort of texture. Yours look so pretty and what a great result. Coconut oil is expensive, I use it but not as often as I would if it was cheaper. Thanks for entering these into We Should Cocoa.

 
At 25 January 2013 at 12:35 , Blogger Unknown said...

It's a pleasure - I've wanted to try some of your recipes for ages now and I'm glad I did. I enjoyed the muffins and would probably make them as a healthy treat for myself. I think if people have made the choice to convert to a grain free diet then the cost works out as you say. It seemed expensive to me because I was buying them on top of my usual ingredients.

 
At 25 January 2013 at 12:39 , Blogger Unknown said...

I think the key to the icing is making sure the avocados are nice and ripe which in this country is not always easy. Mine were the Sainsburys organic ones and they were ready to eat unlike so many others I've bought before from other supermarkets.

 
At 26 January 2013 at 06:28 , Blogger Unknown said...

This muffin looks healthy and delicious. That chocolate icing is super tempting!

 
At 26 January 2013 at 07:01 , Blogger Angie's Recipes said...

Coconut flour and oil..the muffin alone without frosting sound already fantastic. I have to try the avocado frosting too.

 
At 27 January 2013 at 10:05 , Blogger cupcake girl said...

Hi, that muffin looks devine....and its good for you = dangerous!The photos on your blog are gorgeous! :)

 
At 27 January 2013 at 13:16 , Blogger Unknown said...

I would never have thought to put avocados on a cake but it worked really well.

 
At 27 January 2013 at 13:18 , Blogger Unknown said...

Definitely worth trying at least once. I will be using it again for sure.

 
At 27 January 2013 at 13:25 , Blogger Unknown said...

Who would have thought avocado, cocoa and honey would be so tasty. Thanks for the lovely comment about my photos - it means a lot to me.

 
At 27 January 2013 at 20:02 , Blogger The Happy Whisk said...

I love coconut. Makes me so happy.

 
At 27 January 2013 at 22:46 , Blogger Unknown said...

And I love that coconut makes The Happy Whisk so happy :-) hope you are feeling better.

 
At 28 January 2013 at 01:29 , Anonymous thelittleloaf said...

These look and sound fabulous. Do you get your coconut oil from H&B? Last time I was in there I couldn't find any, but maybe it was too small a store...?

 
At 28 January 2013 at 01:50 , Anonymous My Golden Pear said...

Thanks - yes I did get from H&B but I had to ask them for it as I also couldn't find any on the shelves. It was in a small tub which is why I probably missed it.

 
At 29 January 2013 at 09:41 , Anonymous Deb said...

What a lovely after school treat! It brings so much joy to share our baking with others! The pairing of chocolate and coconut is scrumptious!

 
At 29 January 2013 at 12:41 , Blogger Elizabeth said...

Fantastic! I agree about the prohibitive cost of the coconut oil/flour but I am definitely trying out that frosting. My youngest only eats the frosting too!

 
At 29 January 2013 at 14:25 , Blogger Unknown said...

Suzanne did make a good point about the cost - you only use a small amount of coconut flour compared to cake flour so it is not as expensive as it seems. I hope you enjoy the frosting as much as we did.

 
At 29 January 2013 at 14:31 , Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks Deb - I did get a bit excited about these. It is just so unusual to find something which is healthy and which the kids love. Thanks for the visit.

 
At 30 January 2013 at 20:01 , Blogger Zoe said...

Sugar-free! I love to bookmark this recipe to bake for my colleagues.

 
At 31 January 2013 at 02:17 , Anonymous Kath said...

I love the idea of this frosting and I am definitely going to try it out on my children too. I know what you mean about the difficulty of finding a good avocado - just when you think they are ripe you find they are actually black.

 
At 31 January 2013 at 09:58 , Anonymous Ang said...

It's always good to find a guilt free treat especially at this time of year.

 
At 31 January 2013 at 10:01 , Blogger Unknown said...

I hope they like it. My son saw an avocado in the fridge today and went 'yuck. If he only he knew :-)

 
At 31 January 2013 at 13:29 , Blogger Hazel said...

Wow! That frosting looks simply divine! So yummy...

Hopped on over for the calendar cakes round up! *waves hello* from a new follower, Hazel x

 
At 1 February 2013 at 12:09 , Blogger Ruth Ellis said...

Avocados are amazing! I've not used them in icing, but I have made a pretty divine avocado chocolate mousse, and used them mashed instead of butter in muffins. So versatile and delicious - and these look beautiful

 
At 3 February 2013 at 14:47 , Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Hazel. Tks for the follow - will be over to visit you shortly.

 
At 3 February 2013 at 14:51 , Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks Ruth - the chocolate mousse sounds interesting and I can believe that it would be delicious.

 

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