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Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins made with less sugar than most muffin recipes! These are also loaded with tons of shredded carrots, coconut, and juicy raisins. So easy, healthy, and delicious!
HEALTHY carrot cake muffins!
The perfect sweet treat when you need breakfast dessert or a afternoon snack.
I absolutely love the smell of something warm and cinnamon-y wafting from the kitchen in the morning. The sweet scent of bread, muffins, or pancakes just puts a spring in my step. The way the heat radiates out of the muffin liners from a warm banana nut or carrot muffin just makes my whole day better.
The grated carrots are the star of the show but we also have a ton of supporting actors – enter raisins, crunchy walnuts, and shredded coconut to add lots of flavor and texture.
One thing I love doing is sprinkling a handful of rolled oats on the bottom of my muffin cups before pouring in the batter and then topping them with another pinch of oats. This provides a nice added crunch to the muffin tops plus it makes them look so much prettier.
And let’s face it, this is practically carrot cake in muffin form, minus the cream cheese frosting.
I absolutely love this recipe. I have made it three times in the past six weeks and shared the muffins with friends. They love them also. This will be a staple at our house. The oatmeal on top adds to the taste and the look. Super good!!!
Ingredients for homemade carrot cake muffins
- Flour: I use all-purpose flour for this recipe. You can replace some with whole wheat flour as well. I haven’t tested the recipe with all whole wheat but I do think the muffins may be too dense
- Baking Soda: I don’t use baking powder, just baking soda
- Spices: You’ll need kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger to add warmth. You’ll also need two heaping teaspoons of cinnamon.
- Oil: I love using coconut oil for these muffins because it enhances the coconut flavor and makes the muffins much lighter than if you were to use butter. You can also use canola oil or vegetable oil
- Brown Sugar: is partially responsible for adding sweetness to the recipe as well as moisture
- Unsweetened Applesauce: Apple sauce provides a deeper flavor and cuts down on the refined sugars
- Greek yogurt: adds protein and reacts with the baking soda to help the muffins rise a bit. To make these dairy-free I suggest using coconut yogurt or something similar.
- Large Eggs: Adds structure and stability to baked goods
- Vanilla: 2 teaspoons vanilla extract is the perfect amount of vanilla. It shines beautifully in the recipe.
- Shredded carrots: You’ll need two cups of shredded carrots. Carrots and moisture and fiber to the muffins. Simply shred them on a box grater once peeled
- Mix-ins: I use shredded sweetened coconut, raisins, and walnuts. These add, color, and texture to the muffins. They pair beautifully with the cinnamon and ginger in the recipe. The other ingredient that you won’t find in other carrot cake muffin recipes – oats! The rolled oats – not oat flour. I sprinkle them in the muffin tin and on top of the muffins to add a nutty taste and some texture.
FAQs about this recipe
I know a lot of recipes call for honey or maple syrup. The truth is, I’ve never tested this recipe with a liquid sweetener to I’m unsure if that will work.
Some people like using ground cloves or a little grating of nutmeg, feel free to spruce these as you’d like!
I keep them in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature. If it’s particularly warm where you live, I’d store them in the refrigerator and then reheat a muffin for a few seconds in the microwave or just bring it to room temperature on the counter before enjoying! For longer storage, placed cooled muffins into a freezer-safe bag and keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Other muffin recipes to try:
- Outrageous Blueberry Muffins (Gluten-Free or Not!)
- Warm Lemon Zucchini Muffins
- Spiced Chai Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins
- Lighter Double Chocolate Banana Muffins
- French Toast Cups with Coconut Almond Streusel
Super Moist and Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour I use 50:50 whole wheat and all purpose
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ⅔ cup melted coconut oil see notes
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup unsweetened apple sauce
- ¼ cup greek yogurt
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups carrots finely shredded
- ½ cup shredded coconut sweetened
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup walnuts chopped
- ¼ cup rolled oats divided
Instructions
- PREP: Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ºF. If you want, you can line your cupcake pan with paper liners. Or spray the insides with cooking spray. Sprinkle half the oats on the liners, set aside.
- DRY INGREDIENTS: In a medium bowl, sift together the flour(s), baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt, set aside.
- WET INGREDIENTS: In a large bowl with a whisk, hand mixer, or stand mixer, on medium speed, combine the brown sugar and oil. Beat in the yogurt and apple sauce until fully combined – about 1 minute. Mixture will be gritty and thin. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla.
- BATTER: With a spatula, manually stir the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until just combined and all flour pockets are gone – do not overmix. Fold in the finely shredded carrots, shredded coconut, raisins, and walnuts. The muffin mixture will be thick. Pour into prepared cupcake pans. Sprinkle the remaining oats on top and shaved coconut too if you'd like.
- BAKE: for 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs. Let cool for several minutes before devouring!
Notes
- After making these muffins more than a dozen times after originally posting the recipe back in 2014, i've found that I prefer them with ⅔ cup of oil rather than the originally stated amount of '¾ cup'. However either amount will work.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
Super Moist is exactly the right name. These muffins aren’t in the least bit dry, plus it is made with healthy fats that are good for you. Omg I love this recipe, the base recipe you can use to make any other kind of muffins. I can say however, that I can cut back on the sugar next time, personal preference. Quick on the go breakfast or a afternoon snack with my coffee! Thank you so much! Would you mind coming up with a gluten free muffin too?
Glad to hear you enjoyed them Anu! I’ve been meaning to dabble with GF flour for some time now but just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ll definitely see what I can do about that! 🙂
These are very good muffins. I used apple/blueberry unsweetened applesauce as I did not have any regular applesauce. I also used canola oil in place of coconut oil as suggested. Thank you!
Excellent recipe Marzia! My muffins turned out great. Thank you so much.
I love this recipe, but it seems to have disappeared from the page. Where did it go?
Hi Karen, it’s back! We’re just moving recipes over into a new format!
Thank you for a GREAT recipe! Made them again today. People LOVED them. Amazing! Used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup oatmeal flour. Did not have enough carrots, so used also a banana and an apple. Used only honey (less then 1 cup) and no sugar. Also, some maple syrup on top when they were ready, because I saw they needed a bit more “sweetness” and were a bit dry on the outside.
I’ve been searching for a healthy carrot cake-like muffin recipe. I came across this recipe and noticed it was 225 calories for a muffin. That was way too high for me so printed off the recipe, made some changes, plugged the info in to a calorie calculator and came up with a muffin for 110 calories !!! I am very much looking forward to making the muffin with the base of your recipe and my changes 🙂
What changes did you make?
Would love to see the changes! The original is great but way too high in calories for a little muffin.
These are just so so good! I cut flour back to 1.5 c and used 1/2 c rolled oats in batter. Also added chopped dates and cut sugar back to 2/3 c. I’ll be making these again and again! Thank you!
I just made these with sunflower oil, cranberries instead of raisins and chic chips instead of the nuts as they are for my daughter’s classmates for her birthday tomorrow. They are delicious! Thanks for the recipe, I’ll be making it again.
One thing, the mixture made a lot more muffins than I was expecting, I’d doubled the mix and in fact I made small loaf cake from it as well as 24 cup-cake muffins and 6 mini muffins. Maybe English tins are smaller than in the US…
I’m eating one right now
Still warm
I stubled upon thin recipe while searching for a healthier version of carrot cake
I looooved it
Tastes great
just made these and they are too delicious and full of goodness !!!! love this recipe
Oh my, such a great recipe!!! Thanks!! Used the homemade Japanese Plum sauce instead of apple & extra carrots. Made a few extra because of the bulk so will share w/ neighbor who gave me the plums.
Can i replace eggs with something else?
I haven’t tested this recipe with anything other than eggs so I wouldn’t feel comfortable in suggesting replacements.
You Might try flax eggs as a substitute for the eggs. It’s flax seeds with a little water and let it sit for several minutes to conjeal. You can look it up on the internet to get the exact measurments. Many vegan recipes call for flax eggs.
These are my go to carrot muffins. My kids love them. Thanks for a great recipe!
Love hearing that they’re kid-approved! Thanks Carla!
Just found and made these muffins today after googling for carrot cake muffins…. So delicious and moist! I made using 1 and 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour, and added an extra 2 tablespoons of apple sauce / yoghurt to ensure the WW flour didn’t dry them out too much. Also reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup as I don’t like muffins to be too sweet, and they have come out perfect. Highly recommended!
I just made these muffins for my kids and husband and they LOVED them! My kids don’t like nuts or raisins in baking so I substituted with mini-semi-sweet chocolate chips and WOW! a healthy treat that meets the needs of even picky little eaters! thanks for this great recipe! btw, my little guy loved sprinkling the oats on the bottom of tops of the muffins….lovely touch!
These are awesome! For the commenter whose carrots turned green-mine did too. It’s from the baking soda. I’m a lazy baker and I don’t sift my dry ingredients, so I have patches where carrots have turned green. It could be that there is more baking soda than required-I can taste it, myself, so I’ll try it with less next time. 🙂
Just made these, halved the sugar and they are only delicious! I grated in a half cup of apple instead of the applesauce as had none and cooked for 18 minutes. Couldn’t wait for them tho come out of the oven! I wonder if you put some oats in instead of some of the flour say 1/2 cup blended oats would it be nice? Going to share these, thank you so much!
Hi Marzia,
I just finished baking these muffins today and they turned out to be super moist & delicious like you mentioned. I decided to omit apple sauce and used home made yogurt. Best muffins I’ve ever tasted.
Thank you for sharing this receipe!
Just tried the recipe, tastes great but every muffin hole has a puddle of coconut oil in it when I took them out of the pan. What a waste of an expensive ingredient. I’m going to try again some other time with less coconut oil.
I put the coconut oil in the food processor with the other directed ingredients because I saw it wasn’t mixing well and I didn’t have any problems, they turned out really good!
Did you forget to put the oatmeal in the bottom of each first? That happened to me, once, because I forgot it. I think the kernels of oatmeal help soak up any extra oil.
Wow…. I found this recipe off a simple google search for muffins, and I am beyond pleased. These turned out AMAZING. I seriously underestimated how deliciously moist these cupcakes would really turn out to be without the use of butter. Now I wanna try the other recipes on your blog since this one turned out so well. Thank you so much!!!