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
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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.
Made these twice in one week bc they were such a big hit with my husband and toddler! These are now officially part of my rotation. Made as directed, they were fantastic and fool proof.
Would you adjust the temperature or just bake time to make mini muffins?
Hi Tricia, I would just adjust the bake time.
Moist and delicious. I love that it’s not an overly sweet recipe.
I did sub out a few things for what I had on hand. full fat ricotta for yogurt, and I chopped up dates instead raisin.
The cooking time was off. Perhaps is my oven. After 16min at 425 still raw, cooked at 375 for an additional 15min.
My husband, loves them.
Thank for the recipe!
Hi Sarah, I’m glad you enjoyed them, but I’m puzzled by the issue you had with the cooking time. Have you tried testing your oven temperature with a thermometer? It does sound like something is off with the heating element.
Hi Kate. Can I replace with oat flour for gluten free version? Thanks
Hello, I haven’t tested that, but I do have a strawberry oat flour muffin recipe that I would use as the starting point for other fruit or vegetable varieties.
These perfectly took care of my carrot cake craving …. I may never make a carrot cake again! I made them exactly according to your recipe with the exception of using up the last of the season’s fresh blueberries instead of sultanas. Thanks so much for a delicious and reasonably healthy treat!,
so amazing! I am not a good Baker, and this recipe turned out amazing!! definitely keeping this forever!
Delicious! Made according to recipe. Your recipes are always so easy and nutritious. Thank you for making my Sunday morning shine!!
Would love to try these as mini muffins for my toddlers class what would your advice be on the time?
Hi Sarah, I would start checking them at 10 minutes.
Any recommendations to increase protein that isn’t a powder?
Hi Kelly, I would add nuts and/or serve with nut butter.
I loved carrot pineapple muffins as a kid and have been looking for a recipe for a while. I always love your muffin recipes so was wondering how could I modify this to add pineapple? Just remove some of the yogurt because of the extra liquid?
Thanks!
Hi Kristyn, I wouldn’t decrease the yogurt and add pineapple as a substitution. You need the fat from the yogurt in addition to the moisture. I would start experimenting by using dried pineapple instead of raisins.
I have been making these for years now and they are amazing!
I made these with oat flour and left out the raisins and nuts and they turned out great!! So moist and light. Thank you for a really great recipe!
Hi Can you freeze these, ?
Hi Linda, yes all my muffins are great to freeze.
I just made them AND THEY LOOK AWESOME!!! At 15 or so minutes they were still kind of raw for me so I toasted it a bit more till 20 minutes and that worked perfectly.
I found your website and the muffin recipe this morning when I was searching for a healthy carrot muffin recipe. I made these just as written in the recipe, except the raisins. My husband isn’t a fan of raisins. The muffins were perfect, delicious and just what I was looking for. I’m looking forward to exploring your site and trying other recipes. Thanks!
This recipe absolutely sucks. I followed it exactly with 425 which was insane now wonder why they burnt and were raw. I literally tried again at 350 and still raw on the inside. This recipe is such garbage.
I mean…if everyone else’s muffins in the comments came out perfectly, including myself, it sounds like it may have been a you problem lol
Here are some of the reasons that could happen: you used a convection oven, you added too much flour (common when you don’t measure out in grams), you used a dark pan and/or you used cold ingredients.
To the author: your recipes always come out amazing and you never miss thank you for another good one :)
Why do you feel the need to be so rude? The recipe’s are amazing – in particular this one!
Recipe looks great! I’m going to try making these. I’d like to reduce the sugar, if I half the sugar and do 1/4 cup honey or syrup should I compensate for the missing 1/4 cup fluid volume with something else or will it make that much difference?
Pls thx for your advice
Hi Lyndsay, I recommend the recipes as written.
Can you make these with Almond Flour?
So delicious! These were shockingly light and moist (I’m always skeptical when baking with all whole wheat flour!). Made exactly as written using olive oil, 100% organic einkorn whole wheat flour, and 2% Icelandic-style skyr (same consistency as Greek yogurt), and included the walnuts and golden raisins. I used my Vitamix to grate the carrots to a finer texture. Freezing the rest to enjoy on busy mornings.
This recipe sounds amazing and I just love your Banana bread recipe. Do you have a suggestion on oven temp and time for making this in a loaf pan instead of muffins?
Hi Sam, I would bake at 350F and I would check for a toothpick at 45 minutes.
Hopefully this reaches you in time. I have leftover carrots and wanted to make with all-purpose flour instead of wheat. Might you advise on the portion, as I know Whole wheat absorbs moisture a little faster.
Hi Tee, I would use the same amount of all-purpose flour. It should work fine in this recipe.
Absolutely delicious! Followed the recipe to a T and great results. I will say, however, that these are a meal in itself. Or an extremely, extremely filling snack. I have a pretty big appetite and decided to have these as a dessert after breakfast (overnight oats). It’s almost lunch time and I’m absolutely stuffed. Now that’s what you call fiber! Safe to say I will continue to eat these, but not as an addition to any meal Thanks for the recipe!