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Everybody knows lemon curd but did you know you can make curd from vegetables also? I tried out carrot curd which, in combination with cream cheese, is the topping for these moist carrot muffins. We have carrots in abundance all year round, either fresh from the garden or sand storage, so I can make this treat whenever I like. And with this easy recipe, you can, too!

Carrots and hazelnuts complement each other wonderfully and the fresh and slightly salty taste of the cream cheese is a marvellous addition to the sweet and earthy carrot curd.

Carrot muffins with cream cheese – carrot curd topping

Yield: 14 muffins

Ingredients

For the carrot curd:

125 ml carrot juice, freshly juiced

150 g sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

45 g butter in cubes

2 egg yolks

1 whole egg

¼ tsp cinnamon

For the carrot muffins:

180 g grated carrots (you can take the leftovers from the juice-maker and grate some fresh carrots additionally if it’s not enough)

4 eggs

130 g brown sugar

60 g flour

200 g ground hazelnuts

1 tbsp baking powder

For the Topping:

150 g carrot curd

150 g cream cheese

Instructions

Carrot curd

1. Mix the carrot juice, sugar and cornstarch in a bowl. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat while constantly stirring until it thickens.

2. Take the pot off the heat and stir in the butter until it has melted. Afterwards, add the egg yolks and the whole egg.

3. Put the pot back on the heat and stir for 5 – 6 minutes until the mixture has thickened considerably and falls heavily from the spoon. Put it aside, cover it with cling film so that it won’t form a skin and let it cool down.

Carrot muffins

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F)

2. Separate the eggs. Whisk the egg whites with half the amount of sugar until it’s solid.

3. Beat and froth the egg yolks with the remaining sugar.

4. Sieve the flour and baking powder and mix both with the ground hazelnuts.

5. Mix the flour and nuts, as well as the grated carrots under the egg yolk mass. Carefully fold in the whipped egg whites.

6. Fill the mixture into a muffin form and let the muffins bake for about 25 minutes. Insert a chopstick into a muffin to see if it’s done. When you pull the stick out there should be no dough sticking to it.

7. Take the muffins out of the oven, remove them from the muffin form and let them cool down.

Assembly

1. Mix the cream cheese with the carrot curd until homogenously combined.

2. Either spread or pipe the topping onto the muffins.

Enjoy!