Carrot Muffins (Bouchon)

It’s rare that I come across a muffin that really impresses me, but these carrot muffins from Bouchon Bakery were outstanding.

Like every muffin in the cookbook, the recipe yields half a dozen muffins. It made more sense to me to double it up, to avoid awkward portioning of half an egg, etc. My wife is Head of Orange Root Vegetable Procurement in our house, so I did follow Keller’s advice in the headnote, and used slender carrots with their tops still on them.

The batter is oil-based, and doesn’t require any softening or creaming of butter. Instead of busting out a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, I just used a whisk attached to my arm.

After an overnight rest, I portioned out the batter into a mini-panettone mold, using about 130g per muffin, topping each with streusel. I realized my mistake a little too late: since I did not use the exact amount of carrots, I ended up being short about 50g on the last muffin, but it was too late to redistribute the batter. A smarter baker than I would have divided the batter first, ensuring each cup was filled, before topping them with streusel.

These carrot muffins were very moist and delicious. Despite lacking any additions like nuts or raisins, they didn’t taste plain to me. The cinnamon, carrots and oat streusel were enough to make it very satisfying.