Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Yield: 6 servings (2 pancakes and about 2 teaspoons honey butter per serving)

Ingredients

Pancakes

• 1/3 cup walnuts
• 2 cups finely grated carrots (about 1 pound)

Dry ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 1 dash ground cloves
• 1 dash ground ginger

Wet ingredients

• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Honey-Butter

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons honey

Instructions

To make Pancakes

1. Preheat an oven or toaster oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the walnuts into an even layer on a baking sheet, allowing space between the nuts for even browning.
2. Bake the nuts in the preheated oven for about 8 minutes, or until toasted and fragrant. (Watch carefully the last few minutes to prevent over browning). Remove the pan from the oven and set aside until the nuts are cool enough to handle.

Dry ingredients

1. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients until well mixed.

Wet ingredients

1. In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla extract together until smooth. Stir in the brown sugar until dissolved. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until the dry ingredients are moistened (some lumps can remain).
2. Chop the cooled, toasted walnuts. Gently stir the walnuts and grated carrots into the pancake batter.
3. Spray a large, flat-bottomed skillet or electric griddle generously with no-stick cooking spray, heat to medium (about 300 to 325 degrees on an electric griddle).
4. Using a large spoon, drop approximately 1/4 cup batter per pancake on to the heated skillet or griddle, spreading mounds slightly with the back of the spoon into rounds. Cook pancakes on the first side until the tops are covered with bubbles and the bottoms are lightly browned, then use a spatula to carefully flip the pancakes over and cook for another minute or two or until the second sides are browned. Repeat with any remaining batter. Meanwhile, make Honey-Butter.

To make Honey-Butter

1. In a small bowl, stir the softened butter and honey together until smooth.
2. Serve hot pancakes with Honey-Butter.

Attribution

Adapted from Cooking Light magazine, January, 2010, by LuAnn B., a.k.a. "Tofu Queen."