I wasn’t sure what kind of muffins to make today, so I looked in my fridge for inspiration. The jar of sour beets caught my attention.
I texted my sister and told her I was thinking about making beet muffins. She texted back, “That sounds kind of gross. But good luck anyway!”
She’s right. It does sound kind of gross. But it’s actually not. Carrots and zucchini work in sweet muffins, and so can beets.
Until today, I was among the masses who had never made a beet-based baked good, and I’d only tasted one once. A friend of mine had planned to make carrot cake for a potluck, but then realized he had no carrots, so he substituted beets in their place. He made the mistake of telling the other potluckers what was in it, so most of them refused to go near it. Their loss was my win, because it meant I got to have seconds – and thirds!
That was years ago, and even though I enjoyed the beet cake, I found myself unable to break the habit of reserving my beets for breakfast (sauteed beets with lemon juice), lunch (beet salad), and dinner (roasted beet pizza).
It was time to take the plunge.
Most of the beet muffin recipes I found online had enough sugar for two cakes and a side of Jell-O. I decided to use a more moderate amount of sweetener, and opted for xylitol – a non-sugar sweetener that occurs naturally in birch trees (though you can use an equivalent amount of sugar, honey or syrup if that’s your preference). The resulting muffins have a light, moist texture without being overly sweet – and they don’t taste like beets. Some eaters might detect a certain je ne sais quois, but they’re more likely attribute it to the spices than guess at the vegetable inside.
If you don’t have sour beets on hand, use cooked beets with ½ teaspoon salt instead. And if beets scare you – there are always carrots.
Supplies
- measuring cups and spoons
- 1 or 2 mixing bowls
- electric mixer or blender
- muffin tin with 12 2 ½-inch cups
- cooling rack
Ingredients
[mpprecipe-recipe:16]
I’ve somehow never made anything with beets either, nevermind fermented beets! Need to remedy that. These sound amazing and am adding them to by (long) list of desserts to make. Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks! If you are you are you are used to more sweetness, you could increase the sugar to half or two-thirds of a cup, but I like them this way! I forgot to mention in the post that these muffins are better cool and hot out of the oven – the flavor seem to blend of it more as the muffins cool.
Awesome thanks. I don’t like things super sweet either so will prob follow the recipe as you have it 🙂
These look wonderful 🙂
thanks! They taste even better the second day 🙂
I’m still with the masses on using beets in sweet treats but you’ve persuaded me to give it a go – thanks!
I honestly can’t taste the beets at all in the final product. It’s almost disappointing 🙂