Parsnip Muffins

Parsnips- kind of strange thing to add to muffins I know. I bought a bag of parsnips a couple of weeks ago to make a recipe from Around My French Table. That was really my first exposure to them and the rest have just been sitting in the refrigerator. I was planning on roasting them, but this morning I was flipping through a magazine and in it was a recipe for parsnip muffins. I decided to try it, but my recipe is loosely adapted from the one I found. I manipulated the recipe quite a bit to make the muffins higher in fiber and lower in fat. 

While I was doing this, it reminded me of my days working at Billings Clinic as a research dietitian. I spent hours making wheat, oat, and sugar beat fiber muffins for a cholesterol study. We had to make the muffins low in fat and calories plus flavorful and tasty so the test subjects would really eat them. I was so tired of baking and muffins by the time the study was done. I promise these parsnip muffins are very edible even with all of my tweaking. Actually they turned out very moist and surprisingly good. They are not very sweet, but the currents give a little bite of sweetness and the walnuts add a pleasant crunch. If you happen to have some parsnips, these are a delicious way to use them! Enjoy!

Parsnip Muffins

Inspired and adapted from Fine Cooking

yield: 16 muffins

1 tbsp Canola oil

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1/4 cup ground  flax seed

1/4 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup light sour cream or plain non-fat yogurt

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 1/2 cups grated parsnips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup currents or raisins

9 oz whole wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

pinch of salt

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a standard 12-cup muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. 

2. Beat together the oil, sugar, yogurt/sour cream, applesauce, vanilla, flaxseed, egg, and water until combined. 

3. Stir in the parsnips, walnuts, and currents. 

4. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the moist ingredients and stir to combine. 

5. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean- about 20 minutes. Cool pans on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before turning them out onto the rack to cool.