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
When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more
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.
This is my all time favorite recipe. I add chia seeds and a tablespoon of flax also to this. I also add craisins, chopped pecans and both white and dark raisins. They are so moist!
Sounds delicious! Thank you for your comment and review, Denise. I appreciate it!
I’ve made these muffins three times. I use spelt flour + wheat bran instead of whole wheat, I reduced the maple syrup to 1/4 cup and increased the ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg to make sure the reduced sugar didn’t cause them to be bland, I used almond milk + vinegar instead of greek yogurt and I omitted the turbinado sugar. Each time, they are moist and delicious. I don’t miss the extra sugar and neither do my kids. Thanks for the great recipe!
Happy they work so well for you and with your changes, Sam! It is great when a healthy recipe can be enjoyed by all :)
Hi! Can I use 1 c WW four, and 3/4 oatmeal? Also wondering if I can make carrot bread instead of muffins… And, since I combining carrot with zucchini because that is what is around, I’ll be sure to squeeze some moisture out!
By oatmeal, do you mean oat flour? I think that would work out pretty well in conjunction with the whole wheat flour. If you bake it as a loaf, that should be fine but it will require longer in the oven. Please let me know how your changes turn out!
Great recipe. I had to bake for 18 minutes. My tweaks: I dusted the raisins in the flour before I added anything else. I used coconut oil and medium unsweetened coconut instead of walnuts. I had plain yogurt on hand.
They disappeared in one sitting. :)
That is a great thing, Garfield :) Thanks for your comment!
I made the healthy blueberry muffins a couple of weeks ago and loved them! So I was really excited about trying this recipe today. The flavour is amazing but for some reason the muffins are soggy in the middle – and I followed the recipe exactly. I kept them in the oven for 5 minutes longer because after 13 mins my cake tester wasn’t coming out clean. They had risen quite nicely but sunk after I’d removed them from the oven. Should I have squeezed out some of the moisture from the grated carrot? I can’t work out what I’ve done wrong! :-(
I love your recipe, but how may I substitute for Greek yogurt?
Thanks
Hi Liz, check the recipe note on how to make these muffins vegan—you’ll find a buttermilk option there. Hope that helps!
Baked half of the recipe into mini muffins without walnuts for kids’ lunches. Baked for 8 min. Delicious! Thank you!
You are welcome, Rachel!
These muffins are delicious,moist and taste healthy. Looking forward to trying more of your recepies.
Thank you! I appreciate the review Ruth.
Another roaring success, Kate. Although I made slightly less healthy carrot cake muffins by topping them with a mascarpone, butter and sugar icing. Really tasty, moist and springy.
Love to hear that! Your additions sound wonderful. :)
I just wanted to say that I made these vegan, and they came out really good! I did the buttermilk option (using Apple cider vinegar instead of regular vine) and didn’t add the raisins or walnuts because I didn’t have any on hand! I also forgot to add the maple syrup and they still came out super good. Moist and perfect…and kinda nice it was sugar free. Will make these again.
That’s great! Thank you, for sharing Sarah. I really appreciate the review!
How could I incorporate applesauce into this recipe?
Thank you for this healthy morning muffin recipe! I just made them and they came out great. I did not have coconut oil on hand so I used both olive oil and veggie oil (didn’t want to use all olive oil because I didn’t want the herbal flavor to be too strong). I can taste the herbal notes but it’s nice – not too much. I also used mostly honey instead of maple syrup, since I only had a couple tablespoons maple syrup on hand. I reduced the oven temp and adjusted the time as you recommended. These are delicious, and I don’t feel bad eating them!
I’m happy it worked out for you, Stefanie! Thank you, for the review.
Good day,Kate!
My husband birthday is coming soon!
Can Bake the muffin butter in a 9 in pan?
I love this recipe! Gave them to helpful coworkers and they really enjoyed them :) The honey sub worked out fine, and I even converted the recipe to ml (I live in Sweden).
They are just like muffins that my mom would make with yogurt and honey. Thank you!!
You’re welcome! I’m happy to hear they reminded you of some from a family member.
This recipe was a stunner. Though i made it with part kamut/part buckweat flours. A bit heavier then (which i don’t mind at all) but the flavours, my oh my! And with walnuts and raisins, it was so filling and nutricious!
I also put vegan eggs instead (1 egg = 1 tbsp flax mill & 2 1\2 tbsp watter let to sit for 10 min, This makes for surprisingly moist and yummy muffins).
**In your indredients list, isn’t it a bit nonsensical to write “white whole weat flour”?
Does such a thing even exist?
Thans a bunch!
I’m glad this worked so well for you! And yes, it is important to note that about the flour. There are a lot of variations! White whole wheat flour is simply made from wheat berries that are even more mild in flavor.
I used cupcake wrappers to make them come out of the tin more easily but they stuck to the paper. Guess that was mistake #1. I thought there was too much batter in the tins. I was afraid of overflow, so I made them smaller and made 23 instead of 12. But even with 13 minutes of cook time they were doughy inside. Added a few minutes to cook. But it didn’t help the stick factor. Taste was good. Hubby loves carrot cake so I thought this would be a good variation. It was a fail for me. Willing to try again. Thinking I did something wrong. Any suggestions?
Can I use honey instead of maple syrup? Would it make a big difference?
I just noticed using honey was already mentioned.Never mind ! :) Thanks!
Can I substitute the liquid stevia for coconut sugar? If so, how much? Thanks!
These are very delicious. I only baked mine 10 minutes and they were perfect, but I have a strong oven. I didn’t have walnuts so I substituted coconut. Would definitely make again!
Thanks, Sally for the review!
I made tve muffins but I didn’t have yogurt so instead I put applesauce. They still tasted very good. Love the recipe!
Great! Thank you, Brenda.
You’ve done it again, Kate. These muffins are absolutely the best hands down. I have tried quite a few of your recipes and none of them has been a flop. Thank you for all your hard work experimenting with just the right ingredients.
Thank you for your kind words, Sherrill.
whatever oil you use I would recommend avoiding sunflower oil as its ration of omega 6 to omega 3 is very high. This means this promotes inflammation which is linked to all sort of nasties going from arthritis to cancer.
Thank you, Flo for your comment.
These are my absolute go to recipe. I used them first for my daughter’s first birthday. I now make them all the time. They are so delicious and everyone loves them!
Wonderful, Rachel! Thank you for your review.
This is a regular at our house. I love how you use simple, healthy ingredients and your recipes are never short on flavour!
Bev Chapman Nova Scotia Canada
Thank you, Bev!
These muffins are fantastic! Wonderful recipe! I had not made muffins in a long time, but this recipe is easy and the muffins were perfect. I wasn’t sure about the olive oil, but I decided to trust the recipe and go for it. It gave the muffins a wonderful flavor. We have a new olive oil shop in our town. I’m going to pick up some oil infused with lavender in the next batch. Thanks Cookie and Kate!
Thank you, Sarah! I really appreciate it.
Made this carrot muffin and is completely delicious. It is moist, fluffy and great flavor. Great recipe.
Great to hear, Vanesa! Thanks for your review.
This has become a staple in our house! Today we switched it up and did 1 cup of carrots and 1 cup of apples and it was awesome! Always love your breakfast ideas – thank you!
Great combination! I might have to try that, Caroline. Thanks for the review.
I made these yesterday, and wow, is this recipe a keeper! It took about 5.5 smaller sized carrots, and I used black maroo raisins. So, so good! I’m going to have to try your other healthy muffin recipes, as well. I love that the ingredients are all good for you. Thanks so much for this recipe!
Hooray! You’re welcome. I appreciate the review, Laura.
Those muffins are so good, rich and delicious! I made them 4 times already and definitely will keep making them. I substituted Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix from Trader Joe’s for cinnamon, ginger & nutmeg, and omitted walnuts. But otherwise followed the recipe. Thank you, Kate!!!!
Oh, I might have to try! Thanks for the review.
I’ve recently had to go gluten free and have been searching for a healthy snack recipe. I came across this one today and made them. I used the bob’s red mill all purpose GF flour, and used 3/4 C plain kefir instead of the yogurt. They turned out great. I also have the bob’s red mill 1to1 flour but used the other as it is higher in fiber and protein. Thank you for this recipe and the tips for exchanges!
I’m glad it worked so well gluten free for you! Thanks for the review.
These were so good: I omitted the raisins and nuts because I don’t like those, but it was still great!
That’s great! Thanks, Vanessa.
These were absolutely delicious! I substituted honey for maple syrup and baked them for 23 minutes at 325 degrees and they came out perfect.
Great! Thanks Kaitlin, for the review.
Hi,
I would like to make these muffins, but in Spain it is difficult to get maple syrup. Could it be replaced by raw cane sugar? Thanks.
Nice alternative to other carrot/walnut muffin recipes. I did organice whole milk with a little raw apple cider vinegar instead of yogurt. baked a little longer :)
Thank you, MJ for sharing.
Could I make this in a regular square baking pan instead of a muffin tin? Will the texture be affected?
These muffins are my favorite! I substituted a gluten free blend of flours and used the vegan options. They turned out great. Two questions: How would this recipe turn out if I omitted the maple syrup? Would that liquid need to be compensated somehow?
Hi Kate! Any suggestions on how to make this recipe into a loaf or in a 9” round pan? I tried it tonight and had no idea how long to cook it for. I kept checking but the top just got darker (even with foil) and the inside seemed to not cook throughly. Please help! Do I need to change the temperature and how much longer does the cook time need to be? Thank you!!
Great recipe. I topped my muffins with an apricot glaze too.
I subbed:
Honey for maple syrup
Eggs for ‘chia eggs’
Yoghurt for 2/3 cup milk + 2 tsp white wine vinegar
Muffins turned out really moist and yummy despite me making so many adjustments!
Thank you for sharing!
Hi! Love all of your recipes, I have tried so many of them and they are always awesome. I want to make these muffins dairy free. When you say non dairy milk, do you mean that any milk substitute would work? For ex, can I use soy milk? Thanks!
Sure! I typically use almond milk, but soy should work. Let me know what you think, Melissa!
The muffins turned out awesome!!! I am planning on trying the blueberry rendition today :)
LOVE these muffins! Doubled easily and used up a couple pounds of CSA carrots.
Thanks for sharing and for your review!
GREAT recipe! I used half white/whole wheat flour and half brown sugar/maple syrup and used coconut oil. (Skipped he nuts and raisins as a preference) supper tasty will be our go-to recipe from now on. Will add a bit more of the cinnamon/nutmeg and ginger next time as I loved these flavors. Thanks for the recipe
You’re welcome, Jill! Thanks for the review.
These worked amazingly with a few of my own swaps due to the pantry missing a few ingredients.
Rave reviews from friends for flavour and texture
Thanks for sharing, Carla!
it is delish! how many calories in each muffin?
The nutritional information is below the notes section. You just need to click to expand.
Hi Kate! Can this recipe be used to make a loaf instead of muffins? I’m a bit lazy when it comes to baking and would rather just pour the whole thing into a pan and throw it in the oven :-)
Thank you,
– Leigh
Love this recipe!!! I used a lot of locally sourced food from here in Springfield, M. Instead of greek yogurt I used Bulgarian (I don’t really know the difference, just thought I’d try something new) and I used dried, tart cherries instead of raisins. Also, I didn’t have maple syrup so I used local honey and my muffins look awesome and taste so YUMMY! Thanks for this awesome recipe!
I’m happy to hear you could use local ingredients and that it worked well with your substitutions. Thanks for your review, Kristen!
I was skeptical of this as I mixed it. It looked like more carrots than batter. The result though was wonderful. I used a full fat sour cream and left out the raisins and nuts. My family couldn’t get enough! I also made a cream cheese frosting which my boys liked but they both said they were great without that. This is a keeper. Perfect for ushering in autumn.
Really enjoyed it! Thank you for all the helpful tips about modifications!
Hi Kate. I just made this recipe. They are good, but the cooking time cannot possibly be right. After 13 minutes they were still basically batter. Finally after 2 hours I took them out, even though they didn’t pass the toothpick test.
I followed the recipe exactly and there is nothing wrong with the oven. I did use 10% yogurt which probably makes a difference, but surely not that much. This is the first recipe of yours where the cooking time was not pretty much right on.
I made these without nuts or raisins, and i used plain yogurt instead of Greek because that’s what i had available…
Amazing. The flavor and texture were awesome. Had to bake them a few minutes longer but they still ended up really moist and delicious. My 4year old daughter loved them too, and she’s usually quite picky about food.
Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I’ll definitely use it again.
Hi Jim, very sorry to hear of your muffin troubles! Muffins should never need two hours in the oven; that’s a crazy long time. Are you sure your oven hasn’t been acting up? Other than that, I would suspect that maybe either the baking powder or baking soda was omitted, since those contribute to rise, or one of the wet ingredients was over-measured.
They are excellent very good recipe and healthy too.
Thanks, Line!
I have tried so many healthier muffins and they are always dense with no moisture, but your recipes are amazing! I have been making the apple muffins every week and thought I would try the carrot and they are possibly even better and the best carrot cake I have ever tasted. Thanks so much for sharing your recipes!
Thank you! I’m happy you love these. I appreciate your review, Chadanie!
They weren’t bad and a good option for a healthy muffin.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Mary. I’m sorry you didn’t love them!
Made these yesterday and my boyfriend thinks they’re “the best muffins I’ve ever made”. Thanks!!
Win! I love it. Thanks, Laura.
These were a hit in my house! I would like to change my review from a 3 to a 5 star.
Thank you! Love that they were a hit, Mary!