Gluten-free Carrot Cake Muffins

The holidays are coming and I couldn’t be more excited! Gorgeous decorations. Crisp & cozy weather. Parties with family & friends. And of course the wonderful food. I love healthy eating as much as the next gal, but when it comes to the holidays, comfort cooking is where it’s at! Which is why today I’m going to share with you the queen of all brunch recipes: carrot cake strudel muffins. I got the recipe from one of my favorite baking websites: spoonfulofflavor.com and modified them to be gluten-free. It can be hard to find good gluten-free baking recipes that aren’t super dry and crumbly, but that’s not the case at all with these muffins! I love to serve these for a crowd, and I can’t think of anything better to bake up on a cozy-comfy holiday morning.


For the Muffins:

• ½ cup pecans finely chopped
• ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups Pillsbury Gluten-free baking flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 10 tablespoons unsalted buttersoftened
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup loosely packed grated carrot patted dry

For the cream cheese drizzle:

• 2 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk plus more as needed
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

To make the muffins:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin-tin with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, combine chopped pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix well and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Cut 8 tablespoons of butter into ½ inch pieces and sprinkle evenly over flour mixture. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture until butter is oat-sized. Remove 1 cup of the flour-butter mixture and stir into reserved brown sugar mixture until combined to make streusel; set aside. Add baking powder and baking soda to remaining flour mixture and stir to combine.
4. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together sour cream, egg, and vanilla. Add liquids to flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add 3/4 cup of streusel mixture to flour mixture and stir until streusel is just distributed throughout batter. Melt the remaining butter and stir into remaining streusel mixture, until streusel resembles a crumble. Gently fold carrots into batter.
5. Divide batter among 12 muffin cups and sprinkle generously with streusel topping, crumbling with your hands to make some big chunks. Bake 22 to 24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of muffin comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the cream cheese drizzle:

1. Add the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla to a food processor. Pulse until blended together. Slowly add more milk until desired consistency is reached. Use a pastry bag to pipe the frosting onto the muffins. Serve immediately.