Carrot Cake Muffins
Published 2/11/2021
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Carrot Cake Muffins are truly delicious any time of year. Our carrot cake muffins recipe is made with whole-grain flour, grated carrots, warm spices, maple syrup and chopped walnuts.
If you’re a muffin lover like us, you’ll find many great healthy muffin recipes to choose from here on Fit Foodie Finds. From cinnamon pear muffins to super fluffy blueberry muffins to healthy chocolate muffins and everything in between.
Amazing Carrot Cake Muffins (that are healthy!)
These carrot cake muffins remind me a lot of our morning glory muffins in that they’re made with whole grains, fruit, veggies, and nuts.
They taste just like carrot cake, but are a better for you version…in muffin form!
why we love these muffins
As if the photos don’t give you enough reasons to want to make these carrot muffins, here’s why you need to make them!
Texture: first and foremost, there is something about a perfectly fluffy and moist muffin that you just can’t beat! These are just that.
Real ingredients: Freshly grated carrot, mashed banana, maple syrup, the list goes on! Real food rules.
Taste: If you LOVE carrot cake, you’re going to swoon over these muffins because they taste like the real deal.
Our carrot cake muffins taste just like carrot cake but in muffin form. And, because it’s Fit Foodie Finds, these muffins are jam-packed with the good stuff.
What You Need
Flour: the flour you need is white whole wheat flour. We love the King Arthur Brand.
Fat: this recipe only calls for 2 tablespoons of added fat (coconut oil) because we utilize both mashed banana and Greek yogurt for extra moisture.
Sweetener: To sweeten things up a bit, we’re using a combination of maple syrup and mashed banana, both all-natural sweeteners.
Add-Ins: the add-ins are really what make these healthy muffins –> carrot cake muffins! check it out:
- grated carrots: you need a whole cup of grated carrots. Make sure to remove as much moisture as possible after grating. Also, a cheese grater works great for grating carrots. We like to grate them medium so you can see them in the muffins.
- chopped walnuts: feel free to use either walnuts or pecans for this recipe.
- carrot cake spices: last but not least, the spices! To get that amazing warm, spicy carrot cake flavor you need ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cardamom, and salt.
CHeck it out!
6 Healthy Muffin Recipes – 1 Base Batter
Are you a muffin queen just like us? Here’s our favorite base recipe for healthy muffins + 6 different healthy muffin recipes you can make with it! Get all 6 healthy muffin recipes HERE!
How to Make Healthy Carrot Muffins
Here is a quick run down of how to make these carrot cake muffins recipe. For the full recipe, make sure to scroll down the recipe card!
- Preheat oven to 350ºF and line a muffin tin with muffin liners.
- Mix togehter all wet ingredients minus the coconut oil in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Mix together all dry ingredients in medium bowl.
- Slowly add dry ingredients to wet and mix to combine. Finally, add coconut oil and mix again.
- Fill each muffin well 3/4 of the way full and bake at 350ºF for 16-18 minutes.
- While muffins are cooling, combine ingredients for glaze in a small bowl. Once the muffins have cooled, drizzle on glaze and set aside to dry.
All About the Glaze
To glaze or not to glaze? We say, when in doubt make the glaze. It’s fun and fancy and truly does tie everything together.
You only need 2 simple ingredients: powdered sugar and water.
Simply mix them together in a bowl until smooth. If you feel like you want a thicker glaze, add a little bit more powdered sugar. If you want things thinner, add a little bit more water.
Top Tips for Perfect Healthy Muffins
Don’t over bake: our number 1 tip with all baked goods is don’t over bake! If you bake your muffins too long, they will dry out and be really cakey and hard to chew.
Don’t over mix: It’s easy to over mix, but don’t do it! You risk deflating the leavening agent and over scrambling the eggs.
Don’t use a different flour: whatever you do, do not swap for a different flour…especially coconut or almond! We’ve only tested this recipe with white whole wheat!
Storage
Let muffins cool completely and store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place for up to 3 days. Or, store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Can you freeze these muffins?
Freezing these muffins is super simple. We recommend holding off on glazing them until after you’ve frozen and thawed them, but otherwise follow the directions below.
- Let muffins cool completely.
- Wrap 2 or 3 muffins together with plastic wrap and then wrap them again with tin foil.
- Freeze for up to 3 months.
Carrot Cake Muffins
Ingredients
Wet
- 1 medium mashed banana, or ~1/2 cup applesauce
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
Dry
- 1.5 cups white whole wheat flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup packed medium-grated carrots, moisture-removed*
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
For the glaze
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 3 teaspoons water
Instructions
- First, preheat the oven to 350º and line a muffin tin with muffin liners. Set aside.
- Next combine wet ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, mash a medium banana until there are minimal to no lumps, then add the rest of the wet ingredients to the bowl (except for the coconut oil). Mix well. Set aside.
- In a separate mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet mix until smooth. Once combined, add the melted coconut oil and mix again.
- Transfer batter into muffin tin, filling each muffin about 3/4 of the way full (these are going to be big muffins!). You should get around 12-14 muffins.
- Bake muffins at 350ºF for 16-18 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes in the muffin tin before transferring muffins to a cooling rack.
- While muffins are cooling, combine ingredients for the glaze. Once muffins have fully cooled (this is important), either dip the muffin tops into the glaze or drizzle your muffin tips with glaze.
- Either eat immediately (because who can wait) or set aside to allow the glaze to dry.
Tips & Notes
- If your carrots are extremely moist, ring out the moisture with a paper towel before adding them to the batter.
- Muffins will last stored in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Nutrition Information is for 12 muffins.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Anyone try these with a gluten free flour blend?
I used King Arthur’s Gluten Free Flour in these and they came out great!
Good to know! Thanks for leaving a comment 🙂
I want to make these so much but we’ re fresh out of bananas. Do you think apple sauce would work as a substitute?
Hi! Yes, applesauce should do the trick. You may need to add a little bit more sweetener because the banana really helped with that.
Does anyone know nutritional values, calories, etc?
These muffins are perfect for what I need. Yes, I need to lift my muffin game! The ingredients in these make them exactly what I’m looking for. I’m so glad I found this recipe. I’m going to make lots and put some in the freezer. Thanks for sharing.
I have these cooking and absolutely can’t wait to bite into these! I was going to do half raisins, half walnuts but discovered I was out of nuts, but I love raisins so all good. Thanks for another great recipe Lee!
Is it possible to use brown sugar instead of maple syrup?
Hi Jenna! I haven’t tried this, but I would sub a liquid sweetener instead of granule!
Honey worked great!!
Hi! What are the nutrition facts? Thank you!
I have unsweetened cashew milk and non greek plain yogurt in my fridge. WIll those substitutions work?
Absolutely!
These were SO good! I make healthy muffins all the time, my boys love them. My husband Never eats them cause they taste “healthy”. He loved these too! He had 2 mini and one large! He wants them again!
YES!! I need to make some mini muffs. Those are always so fun 🙂
Mmmh nice recipe! I will make these for my birthday. I love carrot cake (with glaze, not frosting!), and it’s the perfect cake / muffin kind to make in April, spring, around Easter 🙂