Carrot cake is my all time favorite food! If I could eat my mother’s carrot cake with cream cheese frosting paired with cheesy-scrambled, farm-fresh eggs, homemade breakfast sausage, and extra-strong, dark coffee with cream every morning, I would be in Heaven! This breakfast would result in the perfect day, every day! But not all of my ideal breakfast is SIBO legal or necessarily helpful for healing… Strong coffee, cream cheese frosting…
Several years ago, when my doctor recommended I go gluten free, through dozens of attempts, I converted my mother’s carrot cake from gluten-rich to gluten-free. Again, when we changed my diet to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, I worked quite diligently to convert my mother’s carrot cake recipe, but I failed miserably every. single. time.
A year later, I found a carrot muffin recipe at Elana’s Pantry that brought back lovely memories of some old friends, so I thought I would give the recipe a try. Not expecting much but a squishy carrot muffin, as I didn’t want to get my hopes up on what seemed to be the impossible- finding a converted form of my mother’s recipe. But as I was making the carrot muffin recipe, with almost two years of SCD cooking under my belt, I realized it was quite similar to what my mother’s carrot cake should be if converted from gluten-rich to gluten-free to SCD to SIBO specific. So I experimented with several conversions of the recipe I had found. And prayed. Yes, prayed. Carrot cake perfection was on the line… And a lovely carrot cake muffin recipe, reminiscent of my mother’s delightful carrot cake resulted!
Woohoo!
Carrot Cake Muffins
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 large eggs
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups shredded carrots
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
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Combine the eggs, coconut oil, honey and vanilla in a mixer and mix until smooth.
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In a separate bowl, place the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Pour the dry ingredients into your mixer with the wet ingredients and gently mix until a batter forms. Add the shredded carrots and mix until incorporated.
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Pour the thick batter into a lined muffin tray. (The batter will seem like there are too many carrots but it will come together nicely in the oven.)
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Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean or the muffins are springy to the touch.
Recipe Notes
This recipe makes 10-12 small muffins. If you tolerate all of the ingredients well you can try increasing the batter by half and making 12 large muffins. Please always stick to your individual tolerance levels!
If you enjoy this recipe, you may also like these Morning Glory Muffins which have a similar carrot base but a whole lot more flavor with pineapple, ginger, and currants.
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These muffins are the best thing I have eaten in 4 years. You have my eternal gratitude.
Honey is one of the worst things you can eat with SIBO… at least for me. Is there a good way to substitute something else?
Hi Emily! SIBO food tolerances vary for each individual so finding the right sweetener can take some trial and error to learn what works best for your needs. Pure Stevia, dextrose, and glucose are allowed on most SIBO diets.
I am new to the SIBO Diet (not by choice)and I have been searching for recipes, especially Desserts. I am so happy I found this muffin recipe they look delicious. I can’t wait to try them.
Hello,
I am struggling with this new SIBO diet and the muffins in the am really help so I wanted to get some variety. Can you clarify if its a 1/4 cup of coconut oil or 1/4 teaspoon/tablespoon?
Good catch Krista! It is 1/4 cup coconut oil. I have made the correction in the recipe too.
the picture looks great, but really only 1/4 cup of flour?
Yes. 1/4 cup coconut flour. Coconut flour is incredibly binding and dense. Too much will turn these into little bricks.
Thank you!
How many muffins does this make, I don’t see it.
Thank you.
This recipe makes 10-12 small muffins. Depending on your tolerance level of the different ingredients you can increase it by half in order to have large muffins.
Do you leave these in the fridge? I made them and love them but my carrots turned green and not sure why. I just got them same day I made the muffins. Not sure if this has happened to you?
Hi Tara,
Great question! It is common in carrot cake for tiny bits of carrots to turn green during baking but I have never had a whole batch turn green. Carrots change colors easily because they have a very temperamental pH- like when you grate or peel a carrot and part of it turns black. I suspect the baking soda did not mix properly with your batch. Try mixing the dry ingredients separately before adding it to the wet ingredients next time and see if that helps.
I always leave my muffins out on a pretty tray on my dining table for easy snacking for my family.
Thanks. I will try those suggestions.
Unfortunately, I cannot tolerate coconut well. Any suggestion how to substitute the coconut flour? (I suppose it would be fine to use i.e. rape oil instead of coconut oil)
Hi Gabi! Any cooking oil that you tolerate well will work in this recipe. I have not tried any flour substitutions that do not have at least some coconut flour for this recipe. The coconut flour is what binds the carrots together. However, my first try would be to substitute the coconut flour for 1 cup almond flour, and 1 cup pecan pieces (ground into a flour) like I use in my Banana Nut Muffin recipe.
I just made these muffins today and everyone in my family who don’t have sibo are obsessed with them! As well as the hamburger soup! I’m so happy to have found this page and for the delicious new sibo friendly recipes I’ll be trying.
Hello! This looks amazing. I’m still on the restricted phase of the diet (day 5) would this be ok if I just left out the vanilla and substituted honey for stevia? Thank you x
Hi Lena,
Yes, you can leave out the vanilla. I haven’t tried this recipe with stevia. Let us all know if you give it a go!
Amazing! My husband (the gluten-refugee) even thought this was amazing! We added an extra carrot, a bit of lemon juice and made it into a birthday cake. We then glazed it with coconut youghurt. It was so delicious that we are making it again!
These are so incredibly good, thank you for sharing! Finally able to satisfy my sweet tooth on a SIBO diet.
These are soooo delicious! I’ve been making them on a regular basis.
Thank you so much for these!!! My toddler has SIBO, and I feel horrible when he sees other kids enjoying treats that he can’t have. I’m slowly compiling a list of go-to treats for him, and these are one of his favorites! I’m actually going to make these for his birthday party tomorrow, but was wondering if I could make a cake instead? Would it be a good consistency for a cake or should I stick with muffins instead? Thanks so much!
Hi Jen,
I hope the party went well! I haven’t tried it as a cake yet but always thought the recipe would convert well. But I am not sure it would need minor modifications.. Did you try it?
Elena
I’ve made these three times. They are amazingly good. The third time I had a random inspiration and added 1/4 c of cocoa powder…next level fabulous! The carrot flavor gets a little lost, but they are as good as regular sugar flour brownies! And much healthier all around. Thank you for this recipe!!!
That is a wonderful idea! Thank you for sharing Paula!
I am looking forward to trying these. Do you think if I add 1/2 cup of walnuts or pecans they will still hold together just as well? I’m not experienced with baking with coconut flour so am not sure how to make modifications.
Hi Rebecca,
I don’t think these muffins would hold together well if you added chopped nuts.
Elena