Spelt Carrot Muffins

Recipe yields 24 mini muffins.

Flax Mixture:

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly ground flax

1/3 cup unsweetened apple juice

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup whole spelt flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 (heap) teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup walnuts

2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut (adds a nice texture, but you can leave it out)

Wet Ingredients:

2 tablespoons oil

4 tablespoons agave nectar

4 tablespoons unsweetened apple butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup finely grated carrot (about 2 medium carrots)

Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly coat 24 mini muffin tins with nonstick spray or oil and set aside.

Combine apple juice and ground flax. Let mixture sit while grating carrots and preparing remaining ingredients.

Add all dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl. (I stir the flour before adding it to the measuring cup to ensure it is not compacted.)

Add wet ingredients to a separate mixing bowl. Stir in flax mixture. Add wet ingedients to dry mixture. Mix just to combine.

Divide batter into prepared muffin tins. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Remove pans from oven. Allow muffins to cool in the pans for 3-4 minutes. Transfer individual muffins to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store at room temperature in a sealed container to keep them soft and moist. (They're even better the next day!)

Optional demerara topping: Use a pastry brush to very lightly brush melted vegan margarine on top of cooled muffin. Immediately dip muffin top into a small dish of demerara sugar. Repeat process until all muffins are topped with sugar. 2-3 teaspoons of margarine and about 2-3 tablespoons demerara (all of which will not end up on the muffins) is plenty for all 24 mini muffins.

Tip: You can substitute applesauce for apple butter as Courtney wrote in the comments. It's a very good and useful tip and the muffins come out just as nice and even less sweet. If I'm topping with the sugar anyway I might even prefer to use the applesauce instead.