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.
I made this once and it’s delicious. What happens if I use coconut milk instead of almond milk?
It should work, the flavor might just be more apparent with the coconut milk.
Since I dont have coconut oil maybe i can get the coconut flavor with coconut milk? Thanks! Hope to see more wheat and healthy recipes!
Hi, sure! That could be a good choice of milk.
Could I use coconut yogurt in place of the Greek yogurt? Thanks in advance.
Hi Andrew! See the note about making it vegan. You can make a vegan butter milk. I’m not sure coconut yogurt would work the best here.
So no nutritionals, then? There is no info when I click the arrow.
Hi Tammy, Make sure you allow cookies in your browser. This acts like a plug-in on my blog. Let me know if you are still having issues!
Made these muffins this week. They are really yum and really nothing bad in them – and heaps of nutritious things – a great afternoon snack at work. Thanks for your beautiful photos that make me want to cook the recipes but are also realistic and helpful in knowing what the steps should look like. I’m now a fan of your website and recipes.
Thank you for sharing, Suzy!
The muffins are GREAT. Not to sweet, light and fluffy…the only change I made was I used plain goat yogurt instead of Greek yogurt…thank you!!
You’re welcome, Carol!
I’ve made them several times always great. I took a dozen to my son and his family, they tore through them! When I left my son walked me out the door and shut the door behind him and said tell me the truth mom you bought those muffins didn’t you… I admit I am a fancy baker I bought very nice cup-cake, muffin paper cups. Bake on everyone!!
Thank you for sharing, Laura!
Can I use ricotta or sour cream instead of the yogurt?
I haven’t tried, but sure, I think either of those would work.
I have been searching for a healthy sugar-free recipe and this was awesome! I replaced the sugar topping with a mix of sunflower, flax and pumpkin seeds. I doubled the recipe, I might add more of the spices next time since I did not add raisins [picky toddler]. thank you!
You’re welcome, Amanda!
I made this in a loaf pan – 350F for 55 mins and it’s so good! I used all whole wheat flour, I reduced the maple syrup to 1/3c, and I put 1/2c raisins, 1/4c walnuts + 1/4c unsweetened coconut. Crunchy outside and so moist inside! Thank you for this recipe :)
I was just wondering why you’d add the grated carrots to the flour mixture before blending the wet ingredients? I found it odd as most carrot cake recipes make you add the carrots and add-ins last? The top of my bread stayed pretty flat and I assumed it might be because the moisture from the carrots reacted with the baking soda and baking powder too early?
Thank you for sharing, CT! I find adding the carrots then helps get them more evenly distributed and less clumpy.
I have made this 3 times in the past week and I change things up each time with the ingredients I have on hand. Each time, the muffins came out delicious! I like to make them bite-sized, which requires less baking time.
This is my favorite so far:
Used 1 cup of Blanched Almond Flour + 3/4 cup whole wheat flour – for reduced carb and not too heavy.
I had baby carrots, so I did not grate the carrots – I chopped them really small instead.
Did not have greek yogurt on hand, so used regular blueberry flavored regular yogurt instead – came out just fine, could not taste blueberry in the end product.
I do not like raisins, so I used chopped dates instead – Delicious!
Substituted 1/2 cup honey with 1/4 Xylitol and 1/4 cup honey.
Added chocolate chips instead of dusting sugar.
I mix the wet ingredients in a bigger bowl and the dry ingredients in the smaller bowl.
I find it less messy/less wastage when you pour dry ingredients into wet.
The final product prior to baking may look really wet, but it turns out great, trust me.
This recipe is a favorite and a keeper! Thank you, Kate.
It feels like I use one of your recipes at least once a week! You’re so gifted. Thanks for sharing your wonderful and healthy recipes!!!!
You didn’t list eggs in the ingredients
Hi Sarah, eggs are listed below the maple syrup. You will need 2 eggs.
How many eggs are needed in the recipe? It’s not listed in the ingredients, but eggs are listed in the directions! Thanks.
You need two eggs, it’s right below the maple syrup or honey ingredient.
Unbelievably delicious!Thank you, Kate!
Another fantastic recipe that inspired me to order your cookbook–can’t wait to receive it.
Hello! I’m going to make these tonight and just wondering if you suggest any edits to bake temperature / time or ingredients if I’m making it in the form of bread? Thanks!!!
I haven’t tried this in bread form. How did it turn out for you?
Heya, I don’t have any wholemeal flour. Would it work with almond or coconut flour? If so what amount would you recommend?x
Hi Penelope! I wish I could help. I don’t recommend those flours as a 1:1 substitute and wouldn’t know the right combination, and if it would work, without trying it. Sorry!
Hey! I’ve made these before and absolutely love them. You mentioned that they freeze and defrost well, so I’m thinking of making a batch or two to freeze since I’m about to have twins next week!How long do you think these would these be good in the freezer for?
See step 5:) 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.
Delicious!!
YUM! I made these this weekend and am enjoying one with a cup of tea right now. I love all of the flavors and nutritious they are!
May I know the measurement in grams?
Hi Adeline! This is a great resource to use. I hope it helps!
these were very oily even though i used half the amount of coconut oil! They were yummy though. Seemed like lots of batter for 12 muffins. I tried to make smaller ones but they just didnt have the same effect. These are def muffins. Not cup cakes. I wouldnt usually use these because I dont often buy plain yogurt. Kids loved and I gave to them for dinner! We had a big lunch.
I’m sorry they didn’t quite seem to turn out perfect for you, Nikky. I appreciate your feedback.
I agree. Felt like the right amount of batter for 13 or 14 muffins. Thanks for the recipe!
How many calories in a muffin?
Hi Vera! The nutritional information is below the notes section. Give it a second to load and make sure you allow cookies in your browser.
I just made these in my mini muffin pans and they are a big hit!!!!
They’re moist and sweet enough and the sugar on top was a great surprise!
I made these for my sons first birthday, instead of cake. I wanted something healthy for him and this recipe was perfect! They were so moist and delicious! I used honey and probably just over 1/4 of a cup – that is all I had! and I didn’t add the raisins as I’m not a fan, I didn’t have walnuts but will add next time. But they were still yum! I made a ricotta icing with just ricotta, vanilla and a tsp of maple syrup. AMAZING! My son loved them and was so good knowing it was all healthy! Even the icing! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing! I’m glad this worked for your kiddos birthday.
Hi Kate! I love this recipe. Muffins turn out delicious. I wonder if Ican try a different version replacing the cinnamon and ginger for orange zest since I love carrots and oranges. What do you think?
I would suggest trying something like these instead: https://capital-fly.pro/fluffy-cranberry-orange-muffins-recipe/%3C/a%3E.%3C/p%3E
I just made these today and added the zest from one orange-I did not omit the spices-and they were great.
Hi, Kate!
These muffins look fantastic! Could I use a cup of all purpose and a cup of almond flour with flax eggs?
Thanks!
Hi Perdita! I’m not sure without trying. Flax eggs will work with my flour variation.
Loved the healthy recipe but a few leftovers went stale when I left it on the counter for 2 days. Looks like its better to refrigerate any leftovers right away!
I had some carrots that needed to be used up and this recipe had been on my radar for a while, I am so happy I got around to making it, these muffins are dee-licious, it is hard to eat just one!! It was so easy to make too :)
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Steph!
The family really liked these muffins, great use of extra carrots.
This is my favorite muffin recipe and I’ve made it many times. Grating the carrots is time consuming but the result if well worth the effort. I divide the batter into 18 muffins so my muffins are a bit smaller. I freeze them in a plastic bag and thaw one for a quick snack.
Love to hear that! Thank you for sharing.
Great recipe. I usually reduce maple syrup to 1/3 cup and still plenty sweet with raisins. Carrots get nice and soft when baked. Kids love them!
I love that! Thanks for sharing, Lucas.
I absolutely loved this reciepe and your website in general! These had an amazing flavour, so tasty and I can not believe how many carrots I hid in these bad boys!
Thanks for your comment, Ana!
Delish! I didn’t have whole wheat flour so I used 3/4 cup ground oatmeal, 1 cup all-purpose flour, and a teaspoon of wheat germ – they still ended up fluffy any tender. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
These were absolutely terrible. Followed the recipe exactly, the dough was extremely tough and hard – seemed to be lacking liquid. The muffins came out completely hard on the outside and soggy on the inside, and way too much carrot. Very disappointing. Something appears to be missing from the posted recipe – this can’t be correct.
I’m sorry you didn’t love these. I’m not sure why your result turned out that way if you followed it correctly. I appreciate the feedback!
Hi,
This recipe was also horrible for me :( very soggy inside and cooked outside. Im trying to find why… but I don’t see any reasons since I did follow the recipe correctly.
Great recipe Kate! My 3 kids love these muffins. Definitely going to become a regular part of our meal planning. Without the walnuts, these muffins are such a great option to have ready for lunchboxes.
I substituted the raisins for mini semi sweet chocolate chips – delicious!
I’m glad you loved them, Molly!
I make the banana, blueberry and pumpkin muffins from this site all the time and am looking forward to the apple and zucchini muffins next time I bake! I like the fact your recipes are much healthier then those from other sites. I made this recipe exactly as written, using the best ingredients and I have to be honest, I don’t think there are enough tweaks to make these muffins edible. They were tasteless! :-(( I even went over the ingredients twice to make sure I did not overlook anything. Sorry, Kate.
I’m sorry you didn’t love these ones, Lisa.
Maybe the carrots you used were not as tasty? I made them just last week with honey, and also used pecans instead of walnuts and a mix of blueberries and sultanas and they were GREAT. You should try making them again :)
Hi Kate, I’ve made these muffins before and they are to die for! I make them for my toddler and love that they’re sugar free.
I’m about to make another batch today but don’t have yoghurt! Any recommendations for a substitute? Milk or cream perhaps?
Hi Regan, I have a note on the blog about making these vegan which might help: Replace the yogurt with a smaller amount of vegan buttermilk—just mix ⅔ cup non-dairy milk with 2 teaspoons vinegar.
I was super excited by this for my daughters school picnic.. But the muffins were quite soggy inside although the toothpick came out clean. I am wondering why that is. It almost seems like raw in the middle despite following the recipe to the T and baking at the required temp for the required time.
Hi Kate, Can I use the same recipe in a loaf tin? Any change required in the recipe ?
Hi! I’m not sure without trying it. You could make my carrot cake instead! https://capital-fly.pro/best-carrot-cake-recipe/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Can I use oat flour?
I don’t believe oat flour will work here. If you need to make them glutenvfree, you could try a gluten free flour blend. Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 works really well!
Thank you so much!I Love your site. Thank you for sharing all your great ideas and recipes. Happy Holidays!
I made these and they were delicious! I even used Greek vanilla yogurt no fat and no sugar and they turned out great! Thank you.
Something went wrong. My muffins were very oily/ soggy inside :(
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that. Are you sure you followed all measurements and directions? Any adaptions?
Now I see I didnt follow all the directions :( I will try one more time :)
Let me know how it works!
I made muffins one more time, 100% following the recipe and muffins were delicious ! Just perfect.
LOOKS DELICIOUS
Thank you, Elizabeth!
Came great! My picky toddler immediately devoured one, I couldn’t be happier! I didn’t have Greek yogurt so used kid yogurts which happened to have an apple flavor. Used EVOO and didn’t have baking powder so used a total of 1 tsp baking soda. Didn’t use raisins or top with sugar, will try next time but not missing it in this batch. Came fluffy and flavorful. Thank you!
Parent win, right! Thank you for sharing, Jackie.
Hi! I used King Arthur gluten-free flour and found the texture and moisture of these to be fantastic. They were also a really pretty golden color. I was hoping for stronger flavor, though. I am really excited to try this again, but I plan to double all of the mix-ins and carrots and see if it will still hold together. My kids also asked me to throw in some butter next time. (Funny to get such specific baking requests from the peanut gallery.) Thanks for this interesting recipe; the second round should be a fun experiment!
Update: Well this recipe can withstand a great deal of carrots, nuts and raisins. I doubled the carrots, double the nuts, and increased the reasons by 1.5 because I was starting to get nervous. It worked beautifully! What a fun base recipe!
I’m sorry you didn’t love these right away!
Can you make the batter the day before baking it? Thanks!
Hi Brooke, I don’t typically recommend it for baking recipes as the batter can change some if it sits and may not raise the same.
I want to make these for a snack for my 10 month old, so I plan to leave out the raisins, but I’m also wondering if I could do crushed pineapple instead of the maple syrup to get in more fruit (we love crushed pineapple in our carrot cake!)… I’m thinking this will be a decent substitute for the sweetness, but will it be too wet?
Hi Heather! Crushed pineapple sounds interesting. I’m not sure without trying it, sorry! I feel it will weigh down the batter.
I just wanted to update that I added 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple and they came out great!
I left out the raisins and walnuts to make it baby friendly, but left everything else the same (I ended up using the maple syrup still). I squeezed excess juice from the pineapple before adding it to prevent too much moisture. Delicious!
I only have AP flour, would all the quantities be the same? Thank you.
You could try it! I’m not certain without trying it, but it might work. Sometimes there is variances since wheat flour is a little coarser ground.
These were amazing thank you! I added 1/4 tsp ground clove, half a cup of unsweetened coconut and used chopped dates instead of raisins. I put the coconut oil in an oven safe bowl in the warming oven while I mixed the dry ingredients. The warm bowl prevented the oil from solidifying when I added the other ingredients. Loved adding the carrots to the dry ingredients before adding the wet as it was so much easier to mix & distributed the carrots Everyone loved them.
I made two batches (one vegan, one with eggs and dairy) of these today and they have gotten rave reviews. I modified the recipe slightly by substituting buttermilk for the Greek yogurt, adding the zest from one orange to the wet ingredients in each batch, and increasing the carrots by about 3/4 C per batch. I also used sunflower oil instead of coconut oil because I don’t keep coconut oil on hand. This is a terrific recipe that I will use again
Thank you for your comment and review, Rebecca!
My sister shared this recipe with me and I now make these muffins weekly. delish! thank you!
You’re welcome, Rebecca! I appreciate your review.
Hi! I’ve never had trouble with any of your recipes before, but this one didn’t work for me- I had the same problem with the dough being way too wet inside that a couple other people described. I baked them until the outsides were almost starting to burn so the inside got to the point of being edible, but the texture is still all wrong. The batter seemed too wet for muffins going into the oven, but I chalked that up to the liquid sweetener- comparing it to a different carrot muffin recipe I’ve made before, it seems like there might be too little flour? I used honey and vegetable oil- I don’t know if those variations might be the reason people are getting different results. The flavor is still good, though!
My husband and children (6,4,15 months) really enjoyed these. I used coconut milk or almond milk instead of the yogurt and half honey half maple syrup. Thank you for the recipe.
Wonderful, Leah!
I have all the ingredients to make these muffins! However, I only have regular unbleached all-purpose flour… Can I still use this type of flour to make this recipe, or will it make a big difference?
Hi Emilie, It could work, although I’m not 100% without trying it.