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.
Just made these and the flavor is SO delicious! Mine are very, very moist- kind of gooey- but knife came out clean. Thinking maybe from the carrots having a little extra water on them? Next time I may cook them a bit longer but there will, definitely, be a next time.
Yes, definitely try to squeeze out those carrots before folding them in to the batter. I hope they turn out even better next time!
What a great recipe! A perfect breakfast muffin because it is not too sweet and has some protein from the yogurt. Looking forward to trying some of your other recipes. :-) Thanks so much!
You’re welcome, Erin! Glad it checked all your boxes. :)
I made these carrot muffins with einkorn whole wheat flour, and they were delicious! they are very light and moist. I will definitely make them again. Thanks
Oh, I’m so glad that worked out, Barbara! Thanks for this.
Well, this was a disaster. I don’t know what went wrong, I followed the recipe exactly but my mixture was super runny and liquid. They didn’t want to bake properly either. With the second batch, I tried mixing in some extra flour and baking powder, again with no luck. Maybe the grating of the carrots released a lot of extra moisture, but I am scared to try it again!
Hi, Lize– I’m so sorry it didn’t go so well for you! I’d definitely suggest draining the carrots before adding them in, and mixing the liquids in increments so you can monitor the consistency of the batter. I hope the third time’s a charm!
Will it work if I use honey instead of maple syrup?
Yes, that should work just as well, Dana!
Made these tonigh! Everyone loved them. So delicious, a healthy guilt free treat!
Wonderful! Thanks, Samantha.
This was such a yummy recipe! I just wanted to check though as mine took longer to bake than I thought – do you use American cups as the measure?
Hi, Meera! Yep, I’m writing from Kansas City, so these are all American measurements.
My muffins were undercooked in the middle. I tried to put them back in the oven multiple times and the outside would get darker but the inside stayed undercooked. I covered them with tin foil as well and had the same result. What would you suggest?
Hey, Vesna! Did you try squeezing out your carrots with a cloth or paper towel before adding them to the mixture? Depending on how fine you grate them, they’ll release some water, and if it isn’t squeezed out, they’ll add a lot of moisture to the mix. I’d suggest trying that first!
Great recipe! The muffins came out nice and moist. Made some modifications: used canola oil, no walnuts as it is not permitted at school , regular plain yogurt, and baked at 425 degrees for 16min as 13min was still a bit wet. I was just wondering if you grated the carrots using a finer grater, it normally produces some carrot liquid and whether that might explain why some people had to baked it much longer. The thickness of my shredded carrots is about the same as the pictures in the recipe.
Thanks, Manny! And yes, that’s usually the culprit for longer cooking times– giving those carrots a little squeeze before putting them in the batter will make sure it isn’t overly moist. So glad you liked them!
This is a great recipe! I did alter it some for my preferences,I used 1/2 a cube of butter (Kerrygold), 1/3 cup flax seeds instead of walnuts, added black raisins too, omitted the maple syrup, and added 1 tsp of organic sugar in the recipe instead of on the recipe. They turned out really good with lots of flavor, not bland. The cook time was longer than 13 min. The bottoms could have actually used a little more time, but tasty either way, would definitely do this again. I wanted to make something that had little to no sugar and your recipe was the perfect set up for this! Thank you!
Sorry what I meant to say was I used the butter instead of the oil.
Thanks, Ginny! Your version sounds delicious. And yes, depending on how finely you grate the carrots, they can release some additional moisture into the batter.
Enjoyed by everyone and my dad, famous carrot cake lover, approved. I will definitely be making these again. I made them with addapinch’s cream cheese frosting, making them a little more decadent but I will definitely try them plain next time.
Hie. I just discovered your website and I am enjoying your recipes so much. I wanted to find out what the calorie content is for one carrot muffin ☺
Hi, Patricia. Unfortunately, I don’t have nutritional info available for my recipes just yet. I’m looking for a solution, and will update about it once I find one. Thanks!
Yuuuuummy! I just made a batch of these and boy they taste good! My dad sneakily ate three before I even had time to wrap them up for the week.
I left out the sultana’s, but I do find they need something else. Just the carrots and walnuts is a bit bland for me, they need something else for some oomph. I’m planning on adding more cinnamon and some fruit next time! This will probably become my staple muffin recipe, I can see it working for a whole range of fruits and other sweet treats.
Merci!
De rien, Amélie! Delighted to hear that everyone loved them. I think cinnamon and fruit would be great mix-ins; this recipe is super customizable, so feel free to be creative!
These muffins are amazing. They were distributed to one flight crew, my Zumba instructor, and of course, my belly. Everyone was happy. Regular raisins worked well here.
When I make your recipes I use avocado oil (which keeps its integrity at high temperatures)–I noticed they also take more time to bake than the recipe calls for. Thanks for another great recipe.
I’m so glad everyone loved them, Anne! Especially to the flight crew– what a sweet idea.
Simply wonderful!! Made a batch of these for Easter weekend. The texture is fluffy but chock full of goodness, subtle spice, and a light sweetness. The turbinado sugar gives them a professional bakery finish without restoring to icing. A recipe for keeping.
Such a kind comment, Erin! I’m so glad you enjoyed these. I hope you had a great Easter.
Hi Kate,
I’m gonna give this a try tomorrow with a few subs. Firstly I don’t have 2 cups of carrot, as Pretzel the dawg ate half a bag already. So gonna use 1 cup carrot, 1 cup apple. Sub the greek yoghurt with homemade kefir and the maple with agave syrup….let’s see if it works!
Cookie loves carrots, too! I hope this turns out well, Hsu Lin, let me know how it goes!
These are sensational. Made them this past Easter as a healthy alternative to all the traditional chocolate treats. I didn’t have maple syrup so I substituted 1/2 cup of organic golden sugar. The first time I made them I found it difficult to mix the dry ingredients with grated carrots so the next time I mixed the carrots with the liquid ingredients. Both times they turned out perfect! Sent kids back to university with some healthy snacks for exams.
Oh, you’re such a sweet mom! I loved bringing little care packages back with me to college. I’m so glad everyone enjoyed these!
Made Healthy Carrot Muffins this morning – absolutely wonderful! Moist, flavorful and delicious! I love that they’re not overly sweet. I used organic unbleached flour because that’s what I had. I added a bit more cinnamon too. I also sprayed my muffin tin with cooking spray, then melted 2 TB butter and brushed a little in each cup, before adding batter. I had a bit extra so I drizzled it over the muffins before sprinkling the raw sugar on them. Excellent recipe, thank you! Oh and your dog is adorable. My pooch loves carrots too
Sounds delicious, Marian! I love a little sugar sprinkle on top, too. Cookie says hello!
These were fantastic! It’s my new “go to” carrot muffin recipe. I substituted avocado oil for the coconut and used buttermilk in place of the yogurt, but other than that I remained true to the recipe and they came out great. Really fluffy and delicious.
That’s great, Heather! I’m glad those substitutions worked so well. Sounds delicious!
These are moist and delicious – not too sweet. I made them plain without raisins or nuts (had none). I only had 1/2 c of plain yogurt and no sour cream to substitute, so I used 1/2 c of almond milk to make up the full cup.
They turned out great! Thanks Kate!
Great to hear this, Heather!
These are fantastic, oh my goodness! I added a bit of orange zest and juice to see what would happen and it worked really well. It complimented the carrot and the ginger flavors quite nicely.
Ooh, orange zest sounds like a great addition.
Just made these. So good, thank you!
I just subbed the 1c. yogurt for 1c. apple sause :)
And added a little less baking soda / powder- just b/c i dont like the taste.
Your muffin recipees are the only ones that work with my toaster oven ^.^
That’s great! Thank you, Jess.
I made 6 in full size muffin tins and the rest as mini muffins. They are so moist, flavorful and just perfect!! Thanks!
You’re welcome, Ashley! Sounds delicious. :)
Loved them! I used local red fife whole wheat flour, local yogurt and eggs and they taste really good, not TOO sweet and have a nice texture. Highly recommend them.
Wonderful! I love how supportive you are of local products. They always, always make for a better result.
Could I use honey instead of maple syrup?
Yes, that should work well!
I googled healthy carrot muffins and found your site. I’m so happy I did! I followed the directions for the muffins except for I didn’t have golden raisins so I used the ones on hand and I sprinkled with organic brown sugar instead of the raw. Everyone LOVED them and asked for the recipe so I directed them to your site. Thanks for making delicious & nourishing food and for sharing :-)
Oh, I’m so glad you found my site, Laura! Thanks for sharing with your friends, too. The more, the merrier :)
Could i put a frosting on these? I’d like to make them for my 3 year old birthday party (the the bday cake) but want to make them a bit more celebratory
I don’t see why not, Alissa! I think a cream cheese frosting would go well with these.
These looked delicious and I had about all the ingredients on hand! Used reduced fat Greek yogurt and a gluten flour substitute blend from Costco along with maple/EVOO. Unfortunately they were not baked in the center after 20 minutes of baking and hoping another 15 min @ 350 will get these baked. Also packed my carrots so it may be more than 2 C. Anyone else had this happen as well?
Yep, this has happened before. It’s definitely because the carrots release water while they bake–I recommend you use a cheesecloth or paper towel to squeeze some of that out beforehand, or reduce some of the liquid. I hope they turn out better next time!
Thanks for the reply! I will definitely try these again keeping the moisture levels in mind.
I cannot wait to try! Thankyou for posting!
You’re welcome!
So… these were great. Next time I make them I will grate the carrots smaller. With the short baking time they came out a little too crunchy for me. Also, it was my first baking recipe using coconut oil & I didn’t realize it would solidify when I added the eggs. My bad. Overall, healthy & delicious. Thanks!
Hey, Linda! I’m glad your first stab at this went well. In the future, leave the eggs out for a bit so they are at room temperature when you add them. Or, you can gently warm the bowl over a pot of boiling water to melt the coconut oil melt again. :)
Hello!
I was wondering if I can add some orange zest and a table spoon of orange juice. Plus replace walnuts by pecans and raisins by blueberries?
Do you think it will work well? It’s like my second muffins recepie and I really don’t want to spoil their texture…
Hi Egor, I think those substitutions will be fine! Good luck!
Another delicious recipe. For the flour: I ground up 1 1/4 cups of hard white wheat berries in my vitamin to make the 1 3/4 cup flour. I used my small ninja master prep to grate the carrots. After I took the muffins out of the oven and let them cool a bit, I tasted one and thought it was okay but not great. I put them away in the refrigerator and had one about 4 hours later, what a difference, the flavors improved and no bitterness whatsoever and were moist and very tasty. They are absolutely delicious and is definitely a winner with my family. The only thing I may change is to add a tad more cinnamon. I cannot wait to try the apple muffins. Thank you for another healthy delicious recipe.
Oh, good–I’m glad the flavor came together better once they sat for a while. I hope you try the apple muffins, too! Let me know how they turn out.
WOW! Absolutely delicious. My family loves these muffins. I used a generous 1 1/4 cup hard white wheat berries in vitamix to make the flour and used my small ninja master prep to grate the carrots. I followed the recipe exactly. I refrigerated my muffins and they tasted even better after about 6 hours. I cannot wait to try the apple muffins. I am so impressed with this and the banana muffin recipe that I just put the cookbook in my cart at Amazon. Thank you! Cookie is very lucky that you adopted her.
Extra points for grinding your own wheat, Deb! I’m glad these turned out great. I hope you love the cookbook!
I rarely give 5 stars to something that seems so healthy but these muffins are just delicious! I have two 20 something aged college kids here right now and they just LOVE these muffins. Thanks Kate.
Thanks, Robin! I’m so glad everyone enjoys these. Thanks for the kind comment.
Could I use gluten free flour? I have the garbanzo bean gf flour…
Ps love the apple oat pancakes. It was trial and error a few times but I realized in the blender they didn’t mix through. So I do the wet ingredients first then add the dry in a bowl. Also helps to get the griddle really hot so they set. :)
Hey, Nicole! I’m not sure about the chickpea flour. I usually recommend GF readers use Bob’s Red Mill GF Flour Blend– it’s a 1:1 replacement ratio for regular flour, so swapping it out is super easy.
I have made these 3 times in two weeks. Clean and delicious, kids and grandkids heartily approved!
Perfect! Thanks, Irene!
I loved this recipe, the muffins wre delicious!!
Do you know what the average nutrition is for each muffin?
I used olive oil and included the walnuts
I’m so glad you loved these, Abbie! Unfortunately, I don’t have nutritional info available for my recipes just yet. I’m looking for a solution, and will update about it once I find one. In the meantime, here’s a nutrition calculator that might come in handy.
These muffins are delicious! And I wasn’t the only one who loved them: my kitty is obsessed with them! It was funny to see him munching, although I made sure not to let him have more than a couple crumbs for his own health. :)
Haha! That’s so cute that your kitty loved them, too.
Best carrot muffins I ever ate!. I substituted honey for mapple syrup, without changing the temperature nor the time ( total oven time at 425: 16 minutes) Also, I used fat free greek yogurt and olive oil. Basically, I used all that I had available at home this morning when I decided to do something good with all those carrots that were starting to look bad…The result: delicious, not too sweet, moist…and HEALTHY!!!!
Thanks, Judit! I appreciate all the notes, too.
Hi made these muffins healthy. Thanks for the recipe. However, there is nothing healthy about consuming the milk of another species or eggs. There are many doctors and health care organizations now promoting plant based diets to cure most of our common disorders and diseases. The World Health Organization, the U.N. and even Kaiser Permanente are endorsing plant based diets to heal people and save the planet’s resources. Please educate yourself before making such claims. I’m sure you’re a great person, watch on Netflix a new movie called What the Health! I’m sure you’ll love it.
Hi, Julia. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe! While I respect your choice not to consume eggs, I’m not here to dictate my readers’ choices– it’s not the tone or style of this blog, which is to share how I cook and eat with others, and share what I perceive are the great benefits of that lifestyle. Nutrition health is not black or white, as you are making it seem here. If someone wants to swap out the eggs with flax eggs, and use plant-based milk, then they absolutely should (I often include these substitutes in the notes section!). But, if not, I’m not in the business of calling people’s efforts to eat better sub-standard, or “uneducated,” because they choose to eat eggs and drink cow’s milk in moderation.
Thank you kate!
Everything in moderation. People have been drinking cows milk for a very very long time.
I love that i found this recipe for my family, whenever I try and find a healthy muffin it’s always full of ingredients that I have to go to special food stores to find. These have everyday ingredients. Please don’t stop creating amazing recipes.
It tastes great but I think that the temperature is too high. The muffins I baked following this recipe were not properly cooked through. I use the same oven that I cook your other delicious recipes with and they come out perfect. I’m going to try again on a slower longer bake.
Hmm, that’s weird, Ed! Sorry these didn’t turn out as well as you expected. Let me know how the second try goes.
Love it! It turned out great and v yummy
Absolutely divine! If using pre-grated carrots from the shop, I did need to add 1/3 cup of milk to avoid it becoming too dry. Also, next time I’d use 1/8th cup less syrup, bc the raisins do provide enough sweetness!
Can I use white all purpose flour instead of whole wheat? I do have whole wheat bread flour, would that work? I also have wheat bran.
Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as a straightforward substitute. Most resources don’t recommend subbing out more than 1/4 of the whole wheat flour with all-purpose. They have different structures and behave differently in recipes. Sorry!
I made these muffins using a mixture of coconut sugar and maple syrup (only because I didn’t have a lot of maple syrup left). I also added a dash of cloves and only added 1 cup of flour and 3/4 cup of steel oats. The muffins were great and the vegetable haters in the house ate most of the muffins. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Oh my goodness! I just made these with pecans and added a handful of cacao nibs! Heaven!
Thanks for the great recipe. That’s going in the keeper file!
I made these and they are delicious! Out of necessity (I live in East Africa) I used honey instead of maple syrup, dried blueberries instead of raisins, pecans instead of walnuts, and 1/2 white 1/2 wheat flour. They taste amazing! Thanks for the recipe! I’ll be checking out more on your blog :)
I am an experienced baker and these did not turn out at all, they are super flat and not cooked at all in the middle, super disappointing and a waste of ingredients.
Hi Sarah, I’m sorry I missed your comment until now, and I’m disappointed these didn’t turn out well. I’d guess that you used baking powder instead of baking soda or forgot to add baking soda at all (happens to the best of us). I’ve made many variations on this muffin and they always rise as shown here.
Tasted good, made the mistake of using cupcake liners (the muffins stuck really badly) took a lot longer to bake than 13 more like 30 I believe due to the high moisture content of the carrots.
LOVE..LOVE…LOVE!!! Started juicing for my husband following his cheno-radiation..he couldn’t swallow oe taste very well. Wanted to use the beautiful pulp vs discarding. Your recipe is fragrant and soooo yunmy! And…he coukd eat it!! Yay!!! Thank you Kate and Cookie, too!