Carrot & Turmeric Buttermilk Muffins
I love these muffins. They’re like a ray of sunshine on a dreary fall morning. They’re light, fluffy, and full of warming spices that will make you want to cuddle up with a big cup of coffee and a good book. It’s definitely the time of year where I’m craving slow mornings. After the hustle and bustle of farm season we’re starting to wind down and the dark mornings make it extra nice to stay in pjs a little longer and savor a hot beverage and a warm muffin.
These muffins are made with a combination of spelt and buckwheat flour (from one of my favorite local grain mills in Southern Oregon–Camas Country Mill). Their flours are outstanding and incredibly fresh. Another place I love to order flour from is healthyflour.com for all of my sprouted flour needs! Anyhow, you can of course use flour from your favorite company and these muffins will turn out great! If you’re avoiding gluten you can replace the spelt flour in the recipe with equal parts millet and amaranth flour to make up the difference. See my recipe notes below.
Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy these tasty muffins as much as we do. Remember to plan ahead with these muffins as the batter needs to soak overnight in the buttermilk. Aside from that, these are on the breakfast table in 25 minutes!
Cheers to cozy mornings!
Carrot & Turmeric Buttermilk Muffins
Prep Time: overnight Cook Time: 25 minutes Serves: 12 muffins
- 1 cup buckwheat flour
- 1 cup spelt flour (see recipe note)
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 1 heaping cup of shredded carrots
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds for topping (optional)
Preparation
- The evening before baking, mix your flours with the buttermilk and place in a warm spot in your kitchen. Cover with a towel. (see recipe note)
- The next morning preheat your oven to 350F. Grease a standard 12 cup muffin tin and set it aside.
- Add the baking soda, salt, and spices to the bowl with the dough. Add the vanilla, maple syrup, eggs, and melted butter. Fold in the carrots until just combined.
- Fill the muffin tins and sprinkle with the seeds (if using) bake in the oven until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of a muffin. About 25 minutes. Start checking the muffins around the 22 minute mark. Cooking times will vary depending on your oven.
- Store cooled muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Then place in the fridge for up to 4 days. Gently reheat in the oven for a warm treat.
Notes
It's important to soak the flour in the buttermilk the evening before to help break down the phtyic acid in the grains. This step helps to make the grains more easily digested and nutritious. If you don't have spelt flour on hand, all purpose flour will work just fine. If you want to make this recipe gluten free- you can replace the spelt flour with 1/2 cup millet flour and 1/2 cup amaranth flour.
Love these. Made this morning. Didn’t have spelt flour so used wholemeal plain flour. No butter, so used 1/3 cups yoghurt. Was a bit dubious after soaking the flour overnight – didn’t seem to be anywhere like enough buttermilk for soaking, and the mix was quite gluey this morning, but it mixed up a treat! Lovely mix of spices. Thanks for sharing.
So happy these turned out for you!
If I want to use all-purpose or bread flour instead of buckwheat and spelt, do you think they’d turn out the same way? Would I need to make any alterations?
I think you’d be fine substituting equal parts all purpose or bread flour for the buckwheat and spelt! The texture and taste will be slightly different but I think it’ll work just fine!
These came out amazing! I too was so skeptical about the soaked flours because it was like a gluey pile of pizza dough at first, but once the other wet ingredients went in, it transformed! They are perfectly spiced, subtly sweet and satisfying. Love!
I’m so happy to hear! And yes, working with soaked flours is definitely a different experience but it always comes together in the end! Yay!!!
Delicious. The soaking step is to address the physic acid in spelt flour. Buckwheat has almost none. Regular flour very little as well. So, no need to soak if not using spelt. Thanks again for a unique and delicious treat!
Bend, OR
I’ve been working on a zero-waste cooking and came across this recipe when I had leftover buttermilk and carrots. Very tasty muffin! I used AP instead of buckwheat. The soaking method is interesting, I enjoyed the texture of the muffin but missed the earthiness of the spelt (not sure if the soaking method impacted that). I flash baked the muffins at 425 for 6 minutes to get some height, I learned this method from @RainbowPlantLife and now do it for all my muffins, then reduced to 350 for 18 minutes – they came out beautifully tall and fluffy. I personally like a little more depth of flavor in my muffins and I’m a little obsessed with cinnamon and nutmeg so I could be biased. Next time I will increase the cinnamon and nutmeg and perhaps try almond flour to add more layers to the flavor profile. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve been working on zero-waste cooking and came across this recipe when I had leftover buttermilk and carrots. Very tasty muffin! I used AP instead of buckwheat. The soaking method was interesting, I enjoyed the texture of the muffin but missed the earthiness of the spelt (not sure if the soaking method had an impact on that. Personally I prefer more depth of spice in my muffins, and I’m a little obsessed with cinnamon and nutmeg so might be biased. Next time I will increase cinnamon and nutmeg and perhaps use almond flour in place of AP/buckwheat to add some layers in the flavor profile. Great recipe, thanks for sharing!