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.
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
- Author:
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 13 mins
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
- Category: Baked goods
- Method: By hand
- Cuisine: American
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 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 Information
Vegetable enthusiast. Dog lover. I'm probably making a big mess in my Kansas City kitchen right now. 
InsatiablyMegan
I made these the other day and they are great! I left out the nuts and raisins because my family doesn’t much care for them. The muffins are tender, moist and slightly sweet from the honey! They have a bit more of a dense texture than traditional muffins. Even my husband who isn’t a fan of healthy baked goods has been enjoying them!
★★★★
Pari
It is seriously good. I have done this twice in the last month. Delicious! Great job Kate and Cookie
Vita
I made the carrot muffins and they turned out delicious
★★★★★
Kate
I’m glad you loved them, Vita! Thank you for sharing.
James
I’ve made these muffins twice in the last week and they’ve been a hit! Perfect recipe and perfect muffins. Thanks a lot :-)
Jenny
My daughter and I just made these and they are fab! Neither of us are a fan of raisins and nuts in baked goods so I left them out; and I used tahini in place of the oil. They are light, moist, and not too sweet. The kind of muffin you can feel good about eating for breakfast!
★★★★★
Melissa Olvera
Can I use oat flour in this or coconut flour?
Kate
Hi Melissa! See my oat flour post, and that should help guide you! Coconut flour isn’t a great flour substitute.
Stephanie
I made these with the pulp leftover from juicing carrots! Yummy!
★★★★★
Anjali
How would one add bananas to this recipe? Or should I add carrots to your banana muffin recipe to get the combo of banana with carrots?
Kate
Hi! Unfortunately, I can’t say for sure without testing it myself. Add/changing ingredients can impact the entire recipe.
Rebekah Baylus
I made these this morning, and they were such a hit! I’m the nanny to children aged 3, 4, and 6, and they each gobbled up two for morning snack. I had some blueberries that needed to be used, so I threw those in; otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly and they were delicious! (We got 15 muffins) Filing this recipe under “Make again soon”.
★★★★★
Jamie Jones
Kate- if we have some family members with big sweet tooths, and want to make it a little sweeter, what would be the best way to accomplish this? Thanks!
Kate
Hi Jamie! You could sprinkle a little turbinado sugar on the top. Let me know what you think!
LL
Delicious! I didn’t have walnuts and don’t like raisins so I added 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds and they are so moist and savoury.
★★★★★
Kate
Thanks for sharing how you made these fit your taste, LL.
Sarah
These and your apple muffins are the best I have ever made. Sooooo hard to make healthy muffins for kids and adults that actually taste good. Can’t wait to try your zucchini ones too. I used buckwheat flour and flax eggs and they turned out so well!
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you for your feedback, Sarah! I hope you love my zucchini ones too.
Mb
I tried these today.. swapped about 2tb flour for corn starch, walnuts for an equal amount of ground pumpkin seeds (my family can’t eat walnuts) and about 2.5 C carrots. I skipped the raisins. They came out delicious!! Definitely making them again! Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
★★★★★
Meadow
These were so good, a little bit addictive even. I love carrot cake, and the muffins were like a healthier version of that. I used the vegan options for the eggs and buttermilk. I made it gluten free by using an equal amount of oat flour (I did not use the oat flour conversion method as mentioned on this blog). I was a little short on carrots; I only had 1 3/4 cups of carrots. I added 1/4 cup of shredded coconut to make up the difference; that worked great. Also, I used zante currants instead of raisins. My muffins took 17 minutes to cook, but they were very moist. If I make these again, I will reduce the amount of sweetner by half and use coconut sugar instead. The maple syrup was a little too sweet for me to want to eat this for breakfast. Five stars for a recipe that works well even when not made as written.
★★★★★