Carrot Tahini Muffins

These muffins are the result of two of my favorite toddler keto tricks: (1) adapting recipes from Smitten Kitchen and (2) hiding vegetables in muffins. I came across this Smitten Kitchen recipe and the original is more of a "treat" with tahini frosting, but I ditched the frosting and went for a little more of a savory muffin version. I also increase the ratio on these by including ground Brazil nut in the batter, which has the added benefit of providing selenium, which is a mineral that's good to supplement on medical keto. If you need to accommodate a nut allergy, those could be eliminated and you could make up the difference with a syringe of oil on the side or a drink of cream.

This recipe is generous about your carrot method. I often try to grate the carrots, but I recently made a batch using some carrots I'd peeled and frozen last summer, and they fell apart too easily to grate - so I just chopped them finely, and that seems to have come out just fine.

Below are the ingredients for M's new 2.75:1 ratio. Play around with the amount of carrot, Brazil nut, or MCT powder to adjust for your ratio!

Ingredients for 2.75:1 muffins:

65g olive oil

37g tahini

60g Swerve brown "sugar" sweetener

45g raw egg, mixed well (~1 egg)

7g flaxseed meal

160g 40% heavy cream

5g apple cider vinegar

5g imitation vanilla extract

10g baking powder

3g baking soda

1.5g salt

70g coconut flour

95g KetoCuisine

10g mct powder

35g Brazil nuts, ground in a food processor

pinch of xanthan gum

125g raw carrot, grated or finely chopped

Directions:

Heat oven to 425 deg F.

Measure out the heavy cream and add the apple cider vinegar. Allow to sit. (This is a substitution for buttermilk - it will thicken and clump. This is what you want.) Also measure out the flaxseed meal in a small bowl and add 2T water. Stir briefly and allow to sit and thicken.

Mix olive oil, tahini, and sweetener in a bowl and whisk well to combine. Add egg, flaxseed/water mixture, and whisk to combine. Add your "buttermilk" cream mixture and vanilla extract, whisking again. Whisk in baking powder, baking soda, and salt until entire mixture is smooth and well combined. Then add coconut flour, KetoCuisine, MCT powder, ground Brazil nuts, and carrot, mixing with a spatula, scraping down the sides as needed to ensure everything is evenly distributed. Add the xanthum gum and stir with spatula one more time.

Fill muffin tin with silicon liners. This recipe makes about 14 ~200 calorie muffins, so you may need more than one tin for the entire batch depending on your per-muffin target. Distribute batter evenly among the liners and bake on middle rack around 15 minutes. You will see the tops begin to brown as they reach doneness. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before allowing to cool completely on a wire rack.