Sourdough Carrot Cake Waffles with Cream Cheese Syrup #BreadBakers

What could be more perfect for Easter breakfast or brunch than sourdough carrot cake waffles with a drizzle of cream cheese syrup? Not a single thing!

This recipe idea came to me last month when I was baking the sourdough sweet carrot waffles for Muffin Monday. I made a little note for myself, as a reminder to try carrot cake waffles someday. 

When our Bread Bakers host for April decided on Easter breads as our theme, some day came sooner rather than later! Waffles are, after all, a quick bread. 

Sourdough Carrot Cake Waffles with Cream Cheese Syrup

This recipe makes 7 Belgian-style waffles. If you aren’t eating them at once pop them in the toaster to reheat and refrigerate the cream cheese syrup. It’s still quite spreadable, even cold.  

Ingredients  

For the waffle batter:

1 1/2 cups or 190g all purpose flour

1/4 cup, tightly packed, or 50g brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup or 210g fed sourdough

1/2 cup or 120g mashed cooked carrots 

2/3 cup or 160ml milk 

1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil, plus extra for greasing the waffle iron

2 eggs 

For about 2/3 cup or 156ml cream cheese syrup:

4 oz or 113g cream cheese, softened

6 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted

3 tablespoons milk, plus more to taste

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Make the cream cheese syrup by beating together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Whisk in the milk and vanilla. (Add a bit more milk if you prefer a thinner syrup.) Set aside while you make the waffles.

Preheat your waffle maker.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. 

In another smaller bowl, whisk together the sourdough starter, mashed carrot, milk, canola, and eggs until fully combined. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl and fold until just combined. Do not overmix. 

Grease your waffle iron, top and bottom, with a little canola oil.

Add the batter to the waffle maker. The size of your waffle iron will depend on how much batter you add but try not to overfill. That just makes a huge mess when it overflows. 

Cook according to manufacturer’s instructions until the first set of waffles are golden brown. Remove from the waffle iron and keep warm in a low oven. 

Continue cooking waffles until all the batter is used up. 

Serve with lashing of cream cheese syrup. 

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s time for Bread Bakers! As I mentioned above, we are sharing Easter breads. Check out the links below for inspiration. Many thanks to our host, Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen.

• Choreg-Armenian Easter Bread by Sneha’s Recipe
• Chocolate Bunny Bread by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Greek Tsoureki by A Messy Kitchen
• Sourdough Choreg-Armenian Easter Bread by Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Sourdough Carrot Cake Waffles with Cream Cheese Syrup by Food Lust People Love
• Orange Blueberry Hot Cross Buns by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Jidase by Magical Ingredients

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Sourdough Sweet Carrot Mini Muffins #MuffinMonday

These sourdough sweet carrot mini muffins are tender and delightful with a cinnamon sugar topping. They disappear in record time. Bake some today!

If you’ve been reading along here for a number of years, you might remember that my younger daughter’s favorite birthday cake is our friend Jacky’s divine carrot cake. Unlike many carrot cake recipes, it does not start with grated carrots but cooked mashed ones. The result is a tender crumb that has won over even professed carrot haters. 

When I decided to bake sourdough carrot muffins for this month’s Muffin Monday, I knew that cooked, mashed carrots were going to be featured but if you google carrot muffins, as I did, every single one that turned up had grated carrot. 

It suddenly occurred to me that my search was faulty. What I really needed was a squash or pumpkin muffin recipe so I could replace them with cooked carrot. And so I did. 

Sourdough Sweet Carrot Mini Muffins

This recipe is adapted from a pumpkin muffin recipe on Lynn’s Way of Life. You can bake these as 12 normal sized muffins but I just love the way that the mini ones disappear in my house. I mean, really, who doesn’t have room for a mini muffin? So tiny, so good. 

Ingredients for 24 mini muffins

For the muffin batter:

8 oz or 227g fresh carrots

1 cup or 125g all purpose flour

1/3 cup, firmly packed, or 66g brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil, plus extra for the pan, if necessary

1/4 cup or 57g sourdough discard

For the cinnamon sugar topping:

2 tablespoons, firmly packed, or 32g brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method

Trim the ends off of your carrots and peel them. Cut them into short lengths.

Boil the carrots in a small pot of water until tender, about 8-10 minutes. Drain the carrots and mash them with a potato masher or fork. I like to use a fork because it results in a finer mash than my potato masher. 

Put the mashed carrots in a mixing bowl to cool. 

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Prepare your 24-cup mini muffin pan (or 12-cup regular muffin pan) by greasing it or lining it with paper liners.

Add the egg, sourdough starter, and oil to the cooled carrot bowl. Whisk to combine.

In another mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredient bowl and fold until just combined. 

Divide the mixture into the cups in your prepared muffin pan.  I like to use a small cookie dough scoop. 

To make the cinnamon sugar topping, mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle the mixture over the muffins. 

Bake for about 14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy! 

It’s Muffin Monday, the last Monday of every month where we share delicious muffin recipes! Check them out below. 

• Blueberry Granola Whole Wheat Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cashew Yogurt and Potato Muffins from Magical Ingredients
• Mini Chocolate Chip Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pineapple Upside Down Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Sourdough Sweet Carrot Mini Muffins from Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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Duck-fat Roasted Carrots and Parsnips

Duck-fat Roasted Carrots and Parsnips are simple yet flavorful. The duck fat adds richness and roasting brings out the natural sweetness of the vegetables. 

This dish can be made, in fact, with a wide variety of vegetables and lends itself particularly to those in the root vegetable category. I’ve made it with potatoes, onions, carrots, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes and sweet potatoes, just to name a few.

I’ve also been known to throw in some non-root veggies towards the middle of the cooking time, like cauliflower, broccoli or Brussels sprouts and even wedges of cabbage. 

I would say to you in all sincerity that duck-fat, like bacon, makes everything better. 

Duck-fat Roasted Carrots and Parsnips

If you’d prefer to use all carrots or all parsnips, by all means do. Not a fan of fresh thyme? Switch it out for your favorite herb. Rosemary would also be nice. The weight of the carrots and parsnips is approximate. You want to throw a couple more in and your pan is big enough? Go for it. 

Ingredients

About 2 lbs or 907g mix of carrots and parsnips

3 tablespoons duck fat

fine sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

fresh thyme

Method

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C. Put half of the duck fat in your roasting pan and pop it in the oven until it melts. Keep an eye on it because this doesn’t take long. 

Peel your carrots and parsnips and cut them into manageable lengths for your pan. Add them to the pan and roll them around in the melted duck fat. 

Distribute the rest of the duck fat around on top of the vegetables and sprinkle with salt, pepper and fresh thyme leaves. 

Roast in your preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until the vegetables are lovely and golden and a fork pokes into them easily. You might want to give them a shake halfway through if your oven doesn't heat evenly all round. 

Give them another toss in the pan and garnish with extra thyme leaves, if desired. 

Enjoy! 

This month’s Foodie Extravaganza party celebrates International Carrot Day which happens to be April 4th. Many thanks to our host Sneha of Sneha's Recipe. 

• Carrot Fries from Magical Ingredients
• Carrot Salad with Feta and Pistachios from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Duck-fat Roasted Carrots and Parsnips from Food Lust People Love
• French Carrot Slaw From Palatable Pastime
• Gajar Halwa With Khoya/Mawa from Sneha's Recipe
• Pasta Salad with Roasted Carrots and Kale from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Roasted Carrots with Vinaigrette from Making Miracles
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Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board.

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Mustard Honey Buttered Carrots #FoodieExtravaganza

Mustard Honey Buttered Carrots are slightly sweet with a lovely sharpness and, of course, shiny with just the right amount rich butter. They make a beautiful side dish, served hot or at room temperature. 

I love putting carrots in things – like soups or stews or even cakes and muffins – but rarely make them a star in their own right. I think of them more as an ingredient in mirepoix than something to fill a whole bowl with.

Maybe it’s because my younger daughter is not such a fan of cooked carrots. On the odd day that I did prepare carrots as a side dish when she was little, I served her portion raw and she was happy to munch them that way. 

All that changed when I started buying baby carrots. They are always sweet, always tender and they also look beautiful. What more can one ask of a side dish? 

Mustard Honey Buttered Carrots

If you aren’t lucky enough to be able to find baby carrots in your local market, by all means use whatever sweet carrots you can buy. Cut them into sticks or coins but make sure not to overcook them.

Ingredients

1 lb or 450g baby carrots

1 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to season, if needed

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon whole grain mustard

Chopped parsley for garnish, optional

Method

Scrub the baby carrots and trim the green stems, leaving a few inches on for color. Put them in a pot and cover them with water. Add the teaspoon of salt.

Bring the water to the boil and cook the carrots for 5-7 mins or until just tender. Drain, and discard any stems that have detached themselves. 

While the carrots are cooking, warm the butter, honey and mustard and whisk them together. (I used the microwave, a few short zaps will do it, but you can also use a small pot on the stove.) 

Drain the carrots and transfer them to a bowl. Immediately pour the mustard honey butter over them and toss gently to coat.

Sprinkle with a little salt, if desired but I find that the saltiness of the whole-grained mustard is sufficient for our taste. 

Transfer the carrots to a serving plate and make sure to pour any dressing left behind in the bowl over the top. 

Sprinkle with some chopped parsley for garnish, if using. Serve the carrots immediately hot, or at room temperature. 

Enjoy! 

This month's Foodie Extravaganza theme is honey to celebrate National Honey Month which is September. Many thanks to our host, Rebekah of Making Miracles. Check out all the honey recipes we are sharing:

• Honey Chicken Wings In Potato Baskets by Sneha's Recipe
• Honey Roasted Figs by Palatable Pastime
• Honey Soy Baked Chicken Thighs by Making Miracles
• Hot Honey Chicken Wings by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Mustard Honey Buttered Carrots by Food Lust People Love
• Sticky Soy Spare Ribs by Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board.

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