Easter Bunny-Approved Muffins

I don't know why carrot cake muffins make me think of spring. After all, carrots are a root vegetable and aren't in season here until mid/late summer. However, I remember requesting this as my birthday treat multiple times as a child. Carrot cake muffins with cream cheese frosting made my heart sing.

I haven't tried these with frosting (yet), but they're adapted from an Elena's Pantry recipe and I'm very pleased with the results. In keeping with tradition, I served these for dessert in Omaha a few weeks ago while celebrating my birthday along with Ross' and I was pleased to note that almost everyone at the table tried one!

Gluten-Free Carrot Cake Muffins
makes 12 muffins

1½ cups blanched almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
dash of cloves
3 eggs
2 Tbs canola or coconut oil
1/4 cup agave nectar or honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups carrots, grated
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup fresh pineapple, diced (optional)

(Look at the difference between the "cage-free" eggs from the store and the true free-range eggs!)

In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, and spices.
In a separate bowl mix together eggs, oil, agave, vanilla, and pineapple if using.
Stir carrots and walnuts into wet ingredients.
Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well.
Scoop a heaping ¼ cup batter into paper-lined muffin pans. Bake at 325° for 18 to 22 minutes.

I'm working all weekend, but Easter is coming! This good Friday was appropriately cold and drizzly all morning, but the sun came out later in the afternoon and gave me chills thinking about how it may have happened 2011 years ago.

"So shall we join the disciples of our Lord, keeping faith in Him in spite of the crucifixion, and making ready, by our loyalty to Him in the days of His darkness, for the time when we shall enter into His triumph in the days of His light."   -Phillips Brooks