Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins with a Maple Walnut Streusel

For the Muffins

• 1 C whole wheat flour
• ½ C vanilla protein powder
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp salt
• ⅓ C unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or any milk)
• ⅓ C sugar-free maple syrup
• ¼ C nonfat vanilla greek yogurt
• 1 large egg
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 1 C shredded whole carrots*

For the Walnut Streusel

• ¼ C whole wheat flour
• ¼ C Stevia
• 2 Tbsp vanilla protein powder
• 1½ Tbsp Country Crock 8% Butter Spread (or softened butter of choice)
• 1 Tbsp sugar-free maple syrup
• ¼ C walnuts, chopped
• Cinnamon and nutmeg, to taste

For the Maple Cream Cheese Icing

• 2 oz fat-free cream cheese (room temperature)
• ¼ C Stevia
• 1 Tbsp sugar-free maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and set out a muffin tin. Spray each tin with cooking spray or line with muffin liners. Set aside.
2. Whisk together the flour, Stevia, protein powder, and spices until well combined. Use a fork to cut in the butter and maple syrup until the dry ingredients resemble wet sand. Mix in the chopped walnuts and store the streusel in the fridge until the muffin batter is ready.
3. Make the muffin batter. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients - the flour, protein powder, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt - until well combined.
4. In a large bowl, stir the almond milk, maple syrup, greek yogurt, egg, and vanilla together until smooth. Gradually fold in the dry ingredients until a few streaks of flour remain in the batter.
5. Lastly, fold in the shredded carrots until just combined. The batter should be just thick enough that it will slide off a spoon but not drip in a constant stream.
6. Add the carrot cake muffin batter to the prepared muffin tin. Each tin will need about 3 tablespoons of batter to be about 2/3 full. Remove the streusel from the fridge and crumble  it with your fingers over the muffin batter. Gently press into the batter to make sure none of the streusel spills out during baking.
7. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.*
8. To make the icing, whisk together all icing ingredients until smooth. (Add more milk if you like a really thin icing.)
9. Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack and drizzle with the icing. Enjoy!

*See blog post for more details.

Nutrition facts are a calculated estimate of one muffin, including the streusel and a drizzle of icing.