Carrot raisin muffins are single-serving baked cakes or breads that contain carrots and raisins baked inside. They are generally soft, sweet and somewhat sticky on the outside, with visible raisins and carrot pieces in the muffin. These muffins can be hearty health foods, or they can be dessert treats resembling carrot cake, though muffins are not usually frosted. Like other types of muffins, carrot raisin muffins are baked in muffin tins, which have round depressions in the pan that give muffins their characteristic shape.
Often simply called carrot muffins despite their containing other ingredients, carrot raisin muffins, a type of fruit muffin, can be eaten for breakfast, as a midday snack, or as dessert. They can be made with white flour for a muffin that is sweet, doughy and cake-like, or they can be made with other ingredients, like bran, which raises the fiber content of the muffin and makes the texture more course. Carrot raisin muffins are generally made by folding carrots and raisins into a base of muffin batter, which often contains flour, leavening and salt mixed with liquids like buttermilk, water, or applesauce. They often contain popular dessert spices like nutmeg and cinnamon.
The carrot used in carrot raisin muffins is almost always shredded into thin, tiny pieces to allow the carrot to cook fully enough to soften its texture in the muffin. Since carrot tends to be moist when it is shredded, draining and drying the carrot shreds is an important step because it helps control the moisture level of the muffins. Too-wet carrots can cause the muffin batter to be uneven, and the wet carrots may sometimes create steamed holes in the finished carrot raisin muffins. An easy way to dry the shreds is to roll them up tightly in a paper towel or clean cloth towel to squeeze the moisture out. Raisins, being a dried fruit, do not need to be dried before they are added to the mixture, and attempts to further dry the fruits will likely squash them.
Fruit muffins come in many types, and can contain a single fruit, a mixture or fruits, or a mixture of fruits and muffin-friendly vegetables. Raisin bran muffins are common breakfast muffins. One of the most well-known types of muffin is the blueberry muffin. Other types of fruits used in muffins include cherries, pineapples and passion fruit. The fruit used in muffins can be fresh, canned or dried when it is added to the muffin batter.