Healthy Carrot Muffins
Healthy carrot muffins made with whole wheat flour, coconut oil and maple syrup! They taste amazing, too. These muffins make a great, quick breakfast!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
My dog Cookie always comes running when I pull out the vegetable peeler. I swear, she can hear it slice through the air before it even touches a carrot. Then she starts jumping up and down for carrot scraps. She can be very demanding. I’ve created an entitled little carrot beast, and I’m not sorry in the slightest.
Cookie loved the development process for this carrot muffin recipe. It took me five tries to get them just right, so she got a lot of carrot scraps in the process. They’re based on one of my cookbook recipes (so good!!!).
These hearty muffins are packed with grated carrots, walnuts and raisins. They have lots of texture, yet they’re still light and fluffy.
Thanks to the nuts and whole grains, these muffins make a good grab-and-go breakfast! They also freeze and defrost well. I just microwave individual muffins for 30 to 60 seconds, until they’re gently warmed throughout.
Watch How to Make Carrot Muffins
What makes these carrot muffins healthy?
Granted, “healthy” is a subjective term, but here are a few reasons why I consider these muffins to be more nutritionally redeeming than most:
- Unlike standard carrot muffins made with refined all-purpose flour, these are made with white whole wheat flour. That means they’re made entirely with whole grains, but you can’t taste them because white whole wheat flour has such a mild flavor.
- Protein-rich Greek yogurt replaces sour cream.
- Coconut oil or olive oil replace butter (olive oil is composed of more monounsaturated fat, and is considered to be more heart-healthy)
- Real maple syrup replaces refined sugar, so these muffins are naturally sweetened.
- Combined, you end up with hearty muffins that taste like carrot cake. You can eat carrot cake for breakfast with these babies!
These muffins are easily adapted to vegan and gluten-free diets, too! See my recipe notes for details.
Please let me know how these muffins turn out for you in the comments! I’m always so eager for your feedback.
Craving more wholesome muffins? Here are a few more favorite muffin recipes on Cookie and Kate:
- Healthy Apple Muffins
- Healthy Banana Muffins
- Healthy Blueberry Muffins
- Healthy Raspberry Muffins
- Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
- Healthy Zucchini Muffins
If you’re baking for a special occasion, you’ll love my carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (it’s also naturally sweetened and made with whole wheat flour).
Healthy Carrot Muffins
Healthy carrot muffins made with whole wheat flour, coconut oil and maple syrup! They taste fantastic, too, of course. These muffins make a great, quick breakfast! Recipe yields 12 muffins.
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 cups peeled and grated carrots* (from ¾ pound carrots—about 3 large or up to 6 small/medium)
- ½ cup roughly chopped walnuts
- ½ cup raisins (I like golden raisins), tossed in 1 teaspoon flour
- ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil**
- ½ cup maple syrup or honey
- 2 eggs, preferably at room temperature
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt***
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar (also called raw sugar), for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. If necessary, grease all 12 cups on your muffin tin with butter or non-stick cooking spray (my pan is non-stick and doesn’t require any grease).
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger and nutmeg. Blend well with a whisk. In a separate, small bowl, toss the raisins with 1 teaspoon flour so they don’t stick together. Add the grated carrots, chopped walnuts and floured raisins to the other ingredients and stir to combine.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oil and maple syrup and beat together with a whisk. Add the eggs and beat well, then add the yogurt and vanilla and mix well. (If the coconut oil solidifies in contact with cold ingredients, gently warm the mixture in the microwave in 30 second bursts.)
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix with a big spoon, just until combined (a few lumps are ok). Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with turbinado sugar. Bake muffins for 13 to 16 minutes, or until the muffins are golden on top and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
- Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack to cool. If you have leftover muffins, store them, covered, at room temperature for two days, or in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Freeze leftover muffins for up to 3 months.
Notes
*Carrot grating tips: You can grate the carrots by hand, or for an easier option, use the grating attachment on your food processor.
**A note on oils: I love coconut oil here. I used unrefined coconut oil and can hardly taste it in the final product. Olive oil will lend an herbal note to the muffins, if you’re into that. Vegetable oil has a neutral flavor, but the average vegetable/canola oil is highly processed, so I recommend using cold-pressed sunflower oil or grapeseed oil if possible.
***Note on Greek yogurt: I’ve used a variety of fat percentages and the muffins have always turned out well. Higher fat yogurt will yield a somewhat more rich muffin. You can also substitute plain (not Greek) yogurt, but your muffins might not rise quite as high.
Make it vegan: You can replace the eggs with flax “eggs.” Replace the yogurt with a smaller amount of vegan buttermilk—just mix ⅔ cup non-dairy milk with 2 teaspoons vinegar. Let it rest for 5 minutes before adding it to the other liquid ingredients. Or, use 1 cup vegan yogurt.
Make it dairy free: See buttermilk option above.
Make it egg free: Substitute flax eggs for the regular eggs.
Make it gluten free: Substitute an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend for the whole wheat flour. Bob’s Red Mill makes a GF blend that works well.
Make it nut free: Skip the walnuts!
Make it lower in fat: I would argue that this bread contains a healthy amount of fat, but you can replace the oil with applesauce if you’re following a low-fat diet.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I made this recipe yesterday and they turned out absolutely DELICIOUS!! I haven’t baked anything in over a year (& have never been very into baking before), but I’m a new mom and it’s more tempting now! I mention this, because this recipe took me 3.5 hours start to finish. The carrot peeling took longer than expected (will use the food processor setting next time!), the coconut oil needed to melt, and same with my raw honey (which had mostly crystallized). I think I would start those steps in motion at the start of recipe next time. I found another reviewer’s recommendation of not over-mixing batter at the end to be very helpful. In addition to using coconut oil and honey, I also used 5% Fage Greek Yogurt, white whole wheat flour, and I realized only when writing this that I forgot to add the Turbinado Sugar I bought. I have a giant bag of craisins, so I used those instead of raisins. I made 1.5x the recipe and loaded in mini silicone muffin pans to make 65 mini muffins (425° cooked 13-15 minutes at low elevation). I think I’ll be able to trim the prep time down in the future, but either way, I will certainly make this recipe again! I’m glad I found this delicious, healthier alternative to the standard carrot cake!!
I made these today and because I used real maple syrup and the texture is so moist and soft, they totally taste like pancakes – so yummy =)
Kate, I really enjoy your blog. I’m always trying to incorporate more vegetarian meals into my routine, and healthier ones too. Your tasty recipes make that easy! I love this one, but I added a couple of tweaks. We keep honey around, (although, I would like to try out the maple syrup) so I used that, added a 1/4 tsp of cloves and substituted crushed pineapple for some of the carrot. Around 1 1/4 cup carrot and 3/4 cup pineapple. My daughter loves them!
Just about to make these muffins, but do I fine or coarse grate the carrots?
Hi! Use the small side of your grater. Look at the process shots for reference. I hope you love them!
I am making this recipe now. Your ingredients list does not mention eggs but the instructions do. I assume 2 eggs are needed?
Hi Robin! The eggs are right below the maple syrup/honey. I hope this helps!
Made these muffins and they turned out great!
My modifications: Replaced Coconut oil with Canola oil…. less fat.
Cranberries instead of raisins.. not a raisin fan
1 tsp grated ginger root instead of ground.
Greek vanilla Yogourt instead of plain… omitted the Vanilla extract.
Definitely make them again
We’ve been making these faithfully for a few months now. A complete hit! We often mix honey and maple syrup together and they taste great with seeds on top too. Thanks for this recipe
I made these for my 8 month old and he LOVES them. He ate almost an entire muffin after supper last night. To make it baby friendly I swapped the maple syrup for a mashed banana, added some freshly squeezed orange juice to thin it out a little (my batter was unbelievably thick) and did not add the salt nor the add-ins.
Help!! What am I doing wrong? I have made this recipe twice and both times it has been a soggy flop! I double and triple checked the recipe this time around and still they are so wet in the centre and over cooked on the outside. I did all of the proportions right. I do have to sub a gluten free flour, lactose free greek yogurt and chia eggs, but all were porpotional to the reg ingredients. And I regularly use these in recipes w great success. I find w my oven many recipes do need 5 extra minutes but with this one I ended up having them in for 30minutes total just to try and see if i could get the centres to bake. I love your recipes and recommend them to friends all the time and I see this one has great reviews at well so I’m just at a lose for what I’m doing wrong. Twice! TIA
Hi Erin, I’m so sorry to hear that. With those various substitutions, that may be your issue. What gluten free flour are you using?
Thanks for getting back to me. First flop was a mix of buckwheat and oat flour and this time was red mills gluten free all purpose baking flour. I’ve used both in other recipes no problem, but no luck this time.
Tried this recipe with honey instead of maple syrup, they are just perrrrfect! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
You’re welcome, Bauyen!
Just another five star review to add to the pile! These were amaaaaaazing. I skipped the sugar on top and made a little cream cheese frosting to drizzle over them; reading the recipe I thinking these weren’t going to be sweet enough for my sweet-toothed love-bugs but the frosting wasn’t necessary to make these delicious and I won’t bother with it next time. Yum! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
Thank you, Laurisa! I appreciate your review.
I’ve been making a variety of muffins over the years, but these are the best! They are incredibly light and moist and are full of the kind of ingredients I love. I used rich extra virgin olive oil both times. The only variation I made from the recipe is timing. I find I need quite a bit more than 16 minutes – that’s probably my oven…
Hooray! I’m excited you think these ones are the best, Anne. Thank you for your review.
Mine are taking far longer than 16 minutes
to bake through and I don’t have big muffin tins. Did anyone else find this? Maybe I need a new oven.
Thanks for the recipe! These came out great! I didn’t have any vanilla extract so used some anise extract instead. I was afraid the licorice taste would be overwhelming, but it’s subtle and goes well with the spices.
So yummy! i substituted the Greek yogurt for 1 cup of mashed ripe bananas and it was delicious! It also made more like 16 muffins for me.
Loved these muffins they taste wholesome and were so light and fluffy! I just replaced half the maple syrup with agave syrup as I’m on a low GI diet. They took much longer to cook than anticipated for some reason, but came out perfectly. Thank you!
I’m sorry they took so long, Lauren! I’m happy you enjoyed them.
just like every single one of your other recipes, these were perfect. used evoo, honey and oat milk “buttermilk”, omitted the raisins and they were delicious. thanks kate!!
Thank you for sharing, Reem! I’m delighted you are enjoying so many recipes.
Kate – once again, amazing recipe! Everything I make from your site is outstanding. I made these muffins pretty much following the recipe except I didn’t have any yogurt so substituted sour cream. I also used a little less maple syrup because its so sweet. Very delicious!
Thank you, Sandy! I’m happy you think so.
These were incredible! SO moist and just sweet enough :) I made a double recipe and turned one batch into “cupcakes” with cream cheese frosting. I live with several others and, needless to say, they were gone in a snap.
Thanks for another fantastic recipe, Kate!
I was looking for a recipe to use with a lot of extra grated butternut squash, so I subbed that for the carrots, used plain traditional yogurt instead of greek and canola oil for coconut/olive oil. Even with regular whole wheat flour, the muffins came out very light and not at all dense. Great recipe! I will definitely make this again.
Amazing recipe! I used a cup of all purpose flour and the rest whole wheat and instead of grated carrot I used carrot, ginger, pear, apple pulp from my juicer. My husband couldn’t even tell they were healthy.
I just made these healthy carrot muffins and they are fantastic! Very easy to make. They got so big during baking that I definitely could have made 14-16 muffins. After letting them cool for 30 min, they came out of the muffin tin perfectly. I used Pam, as the recipe states. I ate one and it was really delicious. I have one almost 2 year old granddaughter who won’t eat fruits and veggies. This is my attempt at getting carrots and raisins in her. This is such a healthy recipe, tomorrow I will make the healthy apple muffins and then zucchini bread. Thanks for this great recipe!!!!
I made these this morning and just had two warm muffins for breakfast with coffee, yum. I have a major sweet tooth so am aiming to reduce sugar this year without fully cutting out sweets. Healthy muffins are a fair compromise especially when they are so yummy.
Substitutions:
-spelt flour for whole wheat
-pepitas for raisins
-added a few tablespoons of ground flax
Thank you!
Hi Kate! I have made you muffin recipes so many times now, but this time I made these carrot muffins with some variations. For anyone who needs to make changes here is what I used: 1 cup shredded apples (1 apple), 1/2 cup shredded carrots (2 small carrots), added in a 1/4 cup blueberries, and decreased the maple syrup to 1/3 cup. Also, I didn’t have yogurt so I used 1/3 cup sour cream + 1/3 cup milk. I like large muffins, so I made 10. I love how adaptable this recipe is. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing your changes! I’m happy to hear it worked out well for you.
Hi Kate.. I’ve enjoyed making your banana muffins with and wanted to try something new.. 425f seems high? Your other muffins are much lower? Could it be a typo? I panicked over what temp to do them and started high then lowered… they were not a success… could you please confirm the temp and further explain why it needs to be much higher?
Merci Jo in Switzerland
Hi Jo! It’s accurate. It took some playing with to get right. The carrots are part of the reason for the temperature increase. I hope that helps some!
Many thanks Kate for responding
Love these!! I’m so happy to have another go-to muffin recipe (along with your healthy banana muffins). Changes I made: left out nuts and raisins (since these are mostly for my 1 year old), subbed 1/2 cup zucchini for some of the carrots, applesauce instead of oil, bob’s red mill egg replacer, almond milk vanilla yogurt. I didn’t find them very sweet but just enough to entice my son to get some veggies! Also, I always make my muffins a little smaller so I end up with 18 so 12-13 minutes cook time is perfect for me.
Wonderful! Thank you for your review, Aubree.
These were a huge hit!!! I used two containers of Chobani low sugar Madagascar vanilla yogurt (which was just over a cup) and I replaced some of the flour with ground up flaxseed (1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup) and 1/8 cup of Cacao powder and finished off the rest with regular flour. I used maple syrup and coconut oil. Everything else was per the recipe. I was told I could market & sell (I won’t) them they were delicious. Thanks.
Thank you for sharing, Laurie! I’m happy you loved this recipe.
Wow I never thought muffins this ‘healthy’ could taste this good! I would’ve believed you if you gave me this and said it was just normal carrot cake in a muffin shape.
It’s also very easy and fun to make and great to put in your freezer and enjoy one every morning (after heating it up in an air fryer). Will be making this for sure during the rest of the winter-season and lockdown.
Also, I’m from the Netherlands and every ingredient was very easy accessible which is nice because sometimes these kind of recipes require specific ingredients. I also bought pre-grated carrots which made making the muffins even easier and faster.
Thank you for this amazing recipe!
I like that these muffins are so healthy, but what am I doing wrong that mine are not tender and moist at all? Rather dry, really. I love the taste so I don’t want to abandon the recipe. What can I add for more moisture??
Thanks so much
Monica
Hi! You can add butter or something when you serve so they aren’t so dry. Seems like you may have added too much flour/ not enough liquid or over baked.
These muffins are INCREDIBLE. So tasty. They’re the perfect carrot muffins. Thank you so much! Taste like a quintessential, classic carrot muffin, but healthier. Love the addition of the Greek yogurt. They’re very moist!!!
Hi could I use soy milk instead of yogurt?
Hi! Please see the vegan alternative if needing to substitute.
SO delicious! I did make a couple of changes (cranberries instead of raisins, apple sauce instead of greek yogurt, pecans instead of walnuts) just because I didn’t have all of the ingredients and they are still delicious. Thank you!
Hello, I made these muffins today. Although very delicious, after almost 25 mins in the oven, still not thoroughly cooked. Had to take them out as they were burning. Maybe I put too much batter in my tin. And my oven is working just fine. Not sure what I could have done wrong.
Hi! I’m sorry to hear that. How full did you fill them? Are you sure you didn’t miss an ingredient or put too much in?
This recipe is amazing with the perfect amount of sweetness! I have made it three times so far and I’ve loved it every time.
Loved this recipe! I skipped walnuts and perfect for school lunch-my kid loved it. Thank you!
Thank you for your review, Prachi!
I want to make this recipe work because so healthy and the taste is great but mushy inside even after 25 minutes. If have any clue what I’m doing wrong please advise. I used Bob’s red mill gf flour, honey, no nuts and silicone muffin tin in my countertop oven. If you think any of those things might be problematic I’ll try again. Determined to get my toddler to eat a vegetable and I love how much carrot you managed to work in here. Thanks!
This recipe is fantastic! The muffins are flavorful, dense, and moist. Highly recommend this healthy recipe!
This was pretty darn good. My toddler devoured a whole muffin which makes me so happy! I didn’t have enough golden raisins which is probably why I wish they were a tad sweeter. Next time I won’t skimp on the raisins. I think these would be amazing with some shredded apple and some dates!
I used sour cream in place of yogurt, canola oil in place of coconut oil, maple syrup instead of honey and 2 flax eggs. The texture was very moist. I like that it isnt too sweet for my children but it is in need of more sweetness. Maybe honey and coconut oil will make it sweeter?
Hi Bri, changing the ingredients as you did will impact the overall flavor. Adding more sweetener could impact the recipe turning out. If you want it sweeter, you could always top with some honey.
Hi there! Recipe looks great I’m going to make without nuts for my sons school snack!
Do u think it would cook well as a loaf?
Also do you have anything with both zucchini and carrot?
Thanks again!
Hi, I’m not sure about making this as a loaf, sorry!
Really good! Didn’t have raisins or walnuts, but it was still delicious. I used coconut oil, and in this recipe the flavor is especially good. Weirdly enough, one of my favorite parts was the batter. I took a lick from the bowl after I distributed the batter into a muffin pan, and I couldn’t stop!
Hi, Kate and Cookie!
I made my first batch—about to making my second—and I have to say that my husband and son had no idea about the extra nutrition included! Thanks for a great adapted recipe. Oh, I also added some dried ginger pieces I had in the cupboard. Yum.
You’re welcome, KC! Thank you for your review.
These muffins are really good, but they actually get better with age. A couple of days later they were moister and more flavorful!!
I use this recipe as a muffin base of sorts, adding in coconut, shredded apple and various nuts. Always delish!
Just want to let you know that I’ve made these and your ‘healthy banana bread’ (as muffins) and they are AMAZING! Love this recipe, exactly what I was looking for EXCEPT we need gluten free. So I sub 1 cup rice based GF flour blend, 1/2 cup chickpea based GF flour blend and 1/4 c quinoa flour. Delicious, every time. Thanks!
Excellent recipe. They were delicious. More than I expected.
Thanks for sharing.
Hello Kate, can I substitute Sour Cream for Greek Yogurt in this recipe?
It can work sometimes, although I haven’t tried it in this recipe.
These are delicious! I made a few slight changes and to be honest they still turned out amazing! I replaced the regular flour with brown rice flour and you wouldn’t even know! I also omitted the sugar topping at the end but I didn’t notice a difference. I absolutely love the greek yogurt idea and would’ve never thought of it!
I’m happy you enjoyed them, Celine!
I have made these several times. I always double the recipe. I use 0% yoghurt and have cut the honey down by 25%. My husband doesn’t like raisins so I put in unsweetened coconut but not as much as raisins quantity. Now I will try your healthy blueberry muffins. Thankyou!
My six year old, who refuses to eat vegetables, LOVES these muffins. I’ve had to make three batches in the past two weeks because my kids go through them so quickly. My own change is to add about a tablespoon of sugar to make them a little sweeter. Also, this recipe makes about 15 muffins for me- not 12. Thank you kate for another awesome recipe!!!
Hooray! I would think that is winning. Thank you for your comment and review, Lisa.