Yoga Daze: Raw Carrot Cake Muffins

Oh yes I said it, raw carrot cake. Sounds weird but it is so good! I found the recipe at Two Blue Lemons and adapted it to my liking.

Raw Carrot Cake

4 cups shredded carrot

1 cup dates

1 cup walnuts

3/4 cup dried apricots

1 - 1.5 cups unsweetened dried coconut

1/2 cup raisins

2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/5 teaspoon cloves

1) Grate the carrot in a food processor or by hand. It took me a while to figure out this attachment on my food processor because I had never used it before but once I got the hang of it, those carrots were grated in seconds.

2) Change the attachment in your food processor back to the S blade and chop up the dates, apricots, walnuts and raisins. Chop them until they are well blended but you don't want them to be mushy. Add the date mixture to your carrots and your spices. Feel free to add more cinnamon or nutmeg or omit whatever you don't like.

3) Mix the carrots, dried fruit, nuts and spices all together and transfer back into the food processor in batches. Process until well mixed. It will be mushy and you want it to stick together when you press it between your fingers.

4) Fold in the coconut. I nearly forgot this step and it is very important. The coconut adds flavor and helps the the muffins hold together.

5) Using a measuring cup, scoop the mixture out of the bowl and place on a cookie sheet. Give the measuring cups a good smack to get the carrot mix out.

6) This is where I decided to branch of from the original recipe. The carrot mix tasted great like this but I felt it was a little unfinished so I decided to experiment by some of the muffins in my dehydrator for 12 hours and I baked one lonely muffin at 200 degrees for about half hour. They both turned out great but I much prefer the dehydrated muffins. They are slightly chewy and the coconut flavour really shines through.