carbo-load muffins

As I taper for Chicago [only 10 days til the BIG RACE], my body has been CRAving carbs.  Breads, scones, muffins, rolls… you name it, I want to devour a loaf or baker’s dozen!

Last night, I decided to try a new-to-me restaurant, Sweet Tomatoes.

Sweet Tomatoes is a salad, soup, and bakery buffet – basically, my ideal restaurant!  I swoon when it comes to salads, soups, and breads!  However, I did feel it was a bit pricey for someone like me, who isn’t going to take advantage of the all-you-can-eat buffet.  But, I definitely enjoyed my massive veggie salad and variety of breads I tried.

The one thing that took the cake though was the Mango Tropical Muffin with Coconut.  At first I thought it was a Pina Colada muffin, but after doing some research, I discovered I was actually tasting mango?!  [It is still my opinion that this particular Sweet Tomatoes was actually using pineapple instead of mango in these particular muffins.]  Regardless, these muffins totally satisfied my sweet tooth + carb craving.

So, what did I decide to do on a boring Friday night?  Bake my own version of the tasty treats!

Vegan Mango Coconut Muffins

Adapted from the recipe by Dairy Goodness

1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen mango, thawed + drained (I used frozen)
1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
1 flax egg (1 tablespoon flaxmeal + 4 tablespoons water)
1 cup vanilla soymilk
1/4 cup Earth Balance buttery spread, melted (I used the tub version because I can’t find the sticks anywhere!)
1/3 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Directions: 
1.  Preheat over to 375 degrees.  Spray muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2.  In a small bowl, combine flaxmeal + water and set aside.

3.  Add mango to a food processor or blender and pulse until pureed.  You can leave a few chunks if you want it a bit chunky.  Set aside.

4.  Combine both flours, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl.

5.  Combine pureed mango, sucanat/brown sugar, flax egg, soymilk, and melted butter into a medium bowl.

6.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and fold until combined.

7.  Scoop batter into muffin tins until they are almost all the way full.  I use an ice cream scoop to do this and it is almost always the perfect amount.

8.  Sprinkle coconut to the tops of each muffin.

9.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes.  Then remove from pan and place muffins on a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Makes 12-14 muffins, 180 calories each.  (Mine really could’ve made 14 but I wasn’t about to dirty another pan, so I ate most of the leftover batter instead.)

[This is what happens when you take a long time taking pictures on the floor…]

These weren’t quite as sweet as the ones at Sweet Tomatoes.  I’m not sure if the sucanat made a difference (which is just dehydrated sugar cane that can act as a replacement for brown sugar), but they definitely weren’t very sweet.  The sweetened coconut definitely helps with the sweetness though.  I think next time I might do half sucanat/half granulated sugar to sweeten it up a bit more.  I also still think that the ones I had were pineapple, since these definitely had a different taste to them.  I’ll do that next time too!

They were a little underbaked (I only baked them 20 minutes), but I would rather eat them that way anyway!

Definitely a winner in my book, and will definitely help fuel my glycogen stores to get me ready for the marathon!  Only 10 more days…

Lots of fun fall/pumpkin stuff in store this weekend!

[PS – You can track my race progress on 10.10.10 by going here.]