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. Iโve created an entitled little carrot beast, and Iโm 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. Theyโre 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 theyโre 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 theyโre gently warmed throughout.
Watch How to Make Carrot Muffins
What makes these carrot muffins healthy?
Granted, โhealthyโ 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 theyโre made entirely with whole grains, but you canโt 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! Iโm 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 youโre baking for a special occasion, youโll love my carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (itโs 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 ยพ cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
- 1 ยฝ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ยฝ teaspoon baking soda
- ยฝ teaspoon salt
- ยฝ teaspoon ground ginger
- ยผ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 cups peeled and grated carrots* (from ยพ pound carrotsโabout 3 large or up to 6 small/medium)
- ยฝ cup roughly chopped walnuts
- ยฝ cup raisins (I like golden raisins), tossed in 1 teaspoon flour
- โ cup melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil**
- ยฝ 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 doesnโt 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 donโt 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 youโre 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: Iโve 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 โeggs.โ Replace the yogurt with a smaller amount of vegan buttermilkโjust mix โ 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. Bobโs 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 youโre 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 nutritionistโs advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
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Can I make a loaf of this recipe? Anything I should change?
Iโm not sure without trying it, sorry!
Can you use heavy milk instead of yogurt?
Unfortunately, Iโm not sure that would work as well and the batter to be too wet.
I just bought everything try and make these! So excited. Do you have suggestions for oven heat / cook time if Iโm looking to do 6 jumbo muffins instead?
Hi Brandee! I hope it turns out well for you. Unfortunately, I donโt. Iโm hesitant that they would cook correctly if the amount per muffin is increased.
I ended up dropping the oven temp to 400 degrees and cooking for 25-ish minutes. They turned out great! Will definitely have to try the original 12 muffin recipe sometime to truly compare but either way, thanks for much for this recipe โ its delish!
Mine did not get fluffy at all, inside they are like unbaked. I think the Greek yoghurt also needs to be at room temperature. Otherwise the taste is great.
Iโve made the recipe twice and the muffins are very flavorful and moist. I did however have to bake them longer than 13 minutes ( and they were still a little doughy). Would adding another 1/4 cup flour make a difference here? Not trying to change your great recipe- just looking for some suggestions to tone down the doughy texture.
Hi Bernard! Sounds like you might be over-measuring one of the liquid ingredients, or perhaps your carrots are extra moist! You might find that as little as 2 tablespoons additional flour does the trick.
I love these muffins! I also added a cup of chopped apples (because I couldnโt decide between making these or your apple muffins!) and the carrot + apple combo tastes so good!
Hi!
Do you think that the coconut oil could be replaced with butter? And how much? Can the maple syrup be replaced with honey?
Thanks!!
Hi Carmen! I think you could use 5 tablespoons melted butter in place of the oil. The maple syrup and honey are interchangeable, yes.
Thanks for this recipe Kate! I followed the recipe exactly but used Namaste gluten free flour instead which is one-to-one. The muffins are tasty but very wet. Iโm not sure if the flour caused that or whether I should have used less yoghurt. Iโm wondering if anyone else had that experience? Otherwise very tasty!
Sorry to hear it! Have you had good results with Namaste in other recipes? Iโve not tried that brand in particular, but that could be the issue. (And if you were to try the recipe again with Namaste, perhaps reduce the yogurt by 2 to 4 tablespoons.)
Can I use pureed carrots instead .My children have to be tricked to eat carrots
I made this for the first time, and came out a little gooey in the centerโฆ not sure what went wrong.I followed this recipe completely except for the raisins. Please advise.
Hi tried your carrot muffin recipe and it worked well the first time. But tried it again today and the muffins were under cooked in the centre.
I did use really fresh carrots the second time around, could it be that they were too moist ?
HI Melanie! Did you bake them a little longer to get them done? Were they over done then? Did you change the grated size of the carrots?
Delicious!! These came out perfect on my first attempt. I made them gluten free with a mix of a gluten free flour bend and oat flour I had on hand. Decided to make a cream cheese frosting to top them off and it was perfect! I will definitely be making these again :)
These are my new favorite muffins! So delicious and healthy. Have had many requests for your recipe!
Love your site โ I use your recipes all the time. Thank you!!!
Would like to share that I made these with almond flour and they did not turn out. Iโm not an avid baker so I donโt know the rules around substitutions. They smelled great but were concave and did not cook through. Iโm going to try again today with regular flour :).
Made these muffins this morning โ we had all of the ingredients at home, it was super easy and they taste great! Now I am trying not to eat them all right now!! I substituted chopped pecans for the walnuts and omitted the raisins (blech!).
Will definitely make them again! Thanks!!
Youโre welcome, Jennifer! Thank you for sharing.
Hello!
Iโve made a few batches of your muffins so far โ blueberry, banana, banana with strawberriesโฆ I love them! I am curious, would this recipe bake okay in a loaf pan rather than individual muffins?
Thanks!
Hi Jackie, Iโm not sure. Sometimes muffin recipes donโt work the best in a bread style. You could try my carrot cake and not do the frosting :) https://sooka.info/best-carrot-cake-recipe/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Was really looking forward to this recipe but donโt think Iโll be making it again sadly :( Followed all instructions and baked for 13 min per recipe, but muffins turned out very wet. Returned to oven for further 5 minutesโฆstill wetโฆ.further 10 minutesโฆstill slightly wet, however had to remove as tops starting to err on the side of burnt brown. I had a feeling it could the quantity of yogurt? Anyway, not one to repeat.
Iโm really sorry to hear that! Did your carrots seem rather wet?
Hi!,
I have some all purpose flour that needs using up. Can I substitute 1:1?
Thank you :)
Hi Hannah! Yes, all-purpose flour should work well here.
My boyfriend requested carrot muffins to have on hand for breakfasts or snacks. I knew right away to check on the C&K website for a recipe. This one didnโt disappoint one bit! Easy to make, wholesome and protein rich (thanks to the eggs and Greek yogurt) my boyfriend couldnโt resist a fresh muffin a few minutes after they emerged from the oven!
We donโt do dairy, so what could I substitute the yogurt for.
Hi there! Youโll find suggested alternatives in the recipe notes. Hope you love the muffins!
Very tasty, turned out perfectly. Only changes I made were 1/4 c golden syrup and 1/4 c honey. And I used dates instead of raisins.
Thank you for a delicious recipe that uses HALF the amount of sugar and 1/3 the amount of oil of any other recipe I found, and the muffins came out AMAZING! My mother in law and 2.5 years old both LOVED them!
Such a detailed foolproof recipe, AND the ingredients are listed in the order you put them in! Thank you for making my life easier!
Youโre very welcome, Anat! Iโm happy they were enjoyed.
Iโm looking forward to trying your recipe for carrot muffins. I wondered if I could use cold pressed avocado oil since I have it on hand?
Sure, as long as it has a mild flavor.
Hello! I followed this recipe, its good but I got very small muffins, more like small bites. I guess i got confused with the cups. Do you have on your blog the equivalent of the cups in grams? Thanks!
Hi Aurore! Iโm sorry to hear that. Here is a great chart from King Arthur Flour.
These sound great but i donโt have any yogurt. Could you substitute buttermilk or something else?
Hi Leah! Yes, you can. See the vegan recipe note for an option that uses milk instead (any kind of milk will work).
Just made them โ wow! Absolutely lovely, not very sweet but the raisins give it enough sweetness. Will definitely make them again. I added zest of half an orange which was divine.
Thanks Cookie + Kate!
Thank you for sharing, Stephanie! The orange zest sounds interesting.
Delicious recipe! I halved the recipe to only make six large muffins, since there are only two of us. I used King Arthur Sprouted Wheat Flour and walnut oil instead of coconut oil. Other than that, just halved all the ingredients. I needed to bake twice as long โ baked them for about 30 minutes. They were still delicious.
I havenโt made the muffins yet but I know we will love them. A daily muffin helps with our blues. I want to know if your dog is an Australian Shepherd with a long tail and a haircut โ thatโs what our Daisy was, and thatโs just how she looked.
Just made these muffins. Fantastic! I doubled the recipe and use 3/4 cup of coconut flour and 3/4 cup of oatmeal wizzed into a flour. Also used a mix of raisins and dried cranberries. I had to bake them an extra 10 minutes. They make a good early am bite before a long cycle ride or afternoon pick-me-up. Yum.
I made these this morning. Made a double batch. I ran out of ground ginger so I substituted fresh and used raw honey, Amazing!!! Thank you this is be a regular for my home.
Hi! Can i use plain flour if i dont have wheat flour? Do i need to adjust the amount of plain flour? Thanks a lot in advance!
Hi! This should work well with all purpose flour too, without other adjustments.
I made these and I loved them! I donโt care for muffins that are overly sweet so these were perfect for me! They were very moist and delicious. I will definitely make these again. I just subscribed to your email newsletter so I wonโt miss any of your new recipes! I love your website, too!
The worst recipe ever. And Iโve been baking for over 20 years. After 30 minutes they were still raw inside. If you decide to make this โ just dump all the ingredients in the trash. Youโll save electricity/gas and your time.
I made the carrot muffins this morning. Delicious! I would
note however that I left the muffins in for 18 minutes and came out perfect. However, I might have overfilled them as I only had
enough dough for 10 muffins.
This recipe is awesome, love all of the healthy ingredients! I was missing 1 out of the 2 eggs so I added a bit of chia with water/ mashed banana and they came out great!
However, I had to lower the oven temp from 425 to 380 after about 10 minutes, and bake for an extra 10 minutes. Maybe if my oven was better, or without the bananaโฆ the temp and time would have been great! But I think a lot of people suffering from the โburnt outside, wet insideโ muffin, lowering the temp halfway through and baking a few extra minutes could help!
Absolutely loved it! Itโs was super moist and tasty
My LO has an egg allergy,, so I subbed one flax egg and 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce for the two eggs. It turned out delicious and super moist (maybe just a tad too moist), but it was happily gobbled up. Thanks for a yummy recipe!
Made these, cooked them over the recommenced time and they still came out mushy in the middle. Golden brown on top/bottom. Double checked and I added all the right amount of ingredients. Thoughts on what went wrong?
Hi Jorie! Iโm sorry to hear that. You may have wanted to add a few more minutes. Did you add anymore time? Sometimes ovens can vary.
I added 5 more minutes and still mushy. I would have kept them in but the tops were getting too brown. I must have done something wrong, just canโt figure out what! Iโll have to try again.
Thanks!
I was expecting something different. Not sweet and kind of mushy and blah. Like the idea of a healthy muffin but I ended up throwing them in the trash after one bite. Sorry for the negative review, just not what I expected.
Hi Kate,
I just wanted to say that I have recently found you and I have made at least 10 of your recipes โ and every single one has been totally approved by my family of 7. Thank you for all the work that you do making all this possible.
I love it that you have made so many recipes and that your family is loving them. Thanks for sharing, Denise!
I made them, using olive oil and whole wheat flour, not white whole wheat flour. No raisins. I grated baby carrots in food processor. I used nonfat Greek yogurt. Baking time was too short. I added about 5 minutes. Consistency was very soft, almost like a bread pudding. Tasted good.
Very tasty recipe. I wanted to bake something that I could without guilty offer my toddler, and this was the recipe.. a family pleaser!!
I used spelt flour, olive oil, honey and plain yogurt.
Thank you for the recipe
I have literally been making these once a week for the past month! They taste amazing, are โhealthyโ and really moist.
I have tweaked the recipe only slightly,
Using less ginger -1/4 tsp
Less maple syrup โ 1/3 cup
And more yogurt โ add an extra 1/3 cup
I donโt have raw sugar so I sprinkle a little bit of brown sugar on top!
Love them! Perfect in the morning and a great snack during the day.
Iโve also tried your healthy banana muffin recipe and it was just as good!
Thank you for sharing!
AMAZING recipe!! I made it with 1 1/4 cup spelt flour + 1/2 c oat flour, decreased the maple syrup to 1/3 cup and it turned out incredible. Thank you so much for this recipe :)
Just tasted a cooled muffin and I thought it was delicious! Crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside, not too sweet. Very good! When the batter was all mixed, I was concerned because it seemed dry โ perhaps that was from the coconut oil congealing but they came out great. I followed directions explicitly โ baked at 425 for approximately 14 min. I had some batter leftover that I put in a mini loaf pan. So in reality I could have made 14-15 muffins with this recipe. Very healthy!
After skimming the web for a carrot muffin recipe yours popped up first ( great SEO ranking) and I liked all the healthy ingredients listed. I made it and it was good. I would like to make it a little more sweeter but not compromise the consistency of the end product. Can I Add sugar? If so how much?
Hi Cheryl! Iโm happy you loved them. I would suggest sprinkling turbinado sugar on top before baking. That should do the trick!
You know what Kateโฆ Itโs perfect as is. The sweetness sets in the day after baked. Plus we did the sprinkled sugar. I wouldnโt change a thing. You obviously know what youโre doing!!! cheers and hugs to Cookie
I made these this morning. Used maple syrup, grape seed oil, dates, plain yogurt(not Greek)and pecans. Mine had to bake for 18 minutes. Great results, great recipe. Will definitely make these again.
Thanks
Hi I made these (I also love the healthy blueberry muffin recipe and often make those and they turn out great). But this time with this recipe the mixture turned out really wet and my muffins didnโt cook inside no matter how long I left it in the oven. Is it because of the water in apple or carrot? Any tips?
Hi Rachel! Iโm glad you love my blueberry ones too. Iโm sorry you didnโt have a perfect result with this one. You added apples to this recipe? That is likely why they came out wet due to the addition of apples. You may want to try the superhero muffins if you would like a combination.
I have made all the other healthy muffin recipes and they are all fantastic. First time making this carrot muffins recipe, and while they taste fantastic, the muffin tops seem to sink. Do you know why that is? Just curious! They still taste delicious.
Hi Alyssa! Iโm not sure why that happened, to be honest. Carrots can be heavy. You might double-check that your baking powder and soda are still fresh, too.
I just made these and they were perfect! I threw in fresh ginger instead of powdered ginger, and it gave the muffins a delicious kick on the front end that balanced out a nice deep finish. Fluffy, delicious, and not too sweet at all โ perfectly balanced. Great recipe.
My son is allergic to egg and dairy so I will be making the vegan version with flax eggs and dairy-free buttermilk. Do I need to squeeze the liquid out of the grated carrot before adding to the mixture?
Hi! I hope you love it. No need to squeeze the carrots.
Wonderful with lots of accolades from friends who tasted them.
Iโm happy to hear that!