Carrot Muffins Extraordinaire

I never thought, in my 15 + years of advertising, that I would ever say this without even a hint of irony: good and good for you. I devised this recipe with an incredibly ambitious agenda: to provide my children with a full day's supply of every vitamin and mineral there is. On that front, I failed. But these are really moist, delicious, healthy muffins, and eating 4 or 5 in one day happens at my house all the time. Which is just fine with me. 

CARROT MUFFINS

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

pinch nutmeg

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

1 heaping Tbs. ground flax seed (optional)

generous handful of baby carrots or 2 large carrots, ground in the food processor

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray. 

In a small bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a larger bowl, whisk together the oil and eggs until combined. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the flour mixture to the eggs/oil/sugar mixture and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon. Stir in the carrots and optional flax seed. Combine thoroughly. Divide among the muffin cups. I use a large spoon for this. Place the tin on a cookie sheet (better yet, 2 cookie sheets which I call double sheeting, to avoid burning the bottoms). Bake in the middle of the oven for about 30 minutes. Be sure to rotate the pan 180 degrees after 20 minutes. Finished muffins will be lightly springy to the touch.  Let cool,  and then unmold. These will keep for several days if you wrap them well.