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My healthy carrot muffins highlight the natural sweetness of carrots using whole foods. They’re gluten-free and made in one bowl!
Need more healthy baked goods? You’ve got to try my carrot cake cookies, chocolate zucchini bread, and sweet potato cake.
I consider my healthy carrot cake to be the pinnacle of my career, that is, until I came up with my healthy carrot muffins!
Okay, maybe that was an overstatement, but I promise these muffins are that good! They’re light and fluffy like any good muffin, but the carrots add moisture and a sweet flavor that takes them to another level.
Table of Contents
Why I love this recipe
- They’re actually healthy. They’re naturally gluten-free and refined sugar-free.
- Made in one bowl. So clean-up is quick.
- Fun to customize. I added walnuts and raisins to mine, but you can do what you please.
- Kid-approved. I know plenty of kids and adult picky-eaters who say they don’t like carrots, but they always come back for seconds.
Ingredients needed
For the muffins:
- Almond flour. I tested blanched almond flour and almond meal, and I preferred the texture of flour. Almond meal is too coarse and makes for crumbly muffins.
- Baking soda. Gives the muffins some rise and fluffiness. If you don’t have baking soda, you can add half the amount of baking powder.
- Cinnamon and allspice. Essential spices for any good carrot recipe!
- Coconut oil OR butter. I used melted coconut oil to keep it dairy-free, but unsalted butter or vegetable oil can be used.
- Eggs. Room temperature eggs.
- Maple syrup. Adds essential sweetness and moisture.
- Grated carrots. What is carrot cake without shredded carrots? You’ll use a full cup for these muffins.
- Walnuts. Optional, but it gives the muffins some added crunch.
- Raisins. Also optional, but I like the taste and texture of half-baked raisins.
- Vanilla extract. A must for any good muffin.
For the cream cheese frosting:
- Cream cheese. For this recipe, I preferred low-fat cream cheese to keep things light.
- Greek yogurt. Extra protein. Use non-fat and plain yogurt.
- Maple syrup. For sweetness.
How to make healthy carrot muffins
I’ve included step-by-step photos below to make this recipe easy to follow at home. For the full printable recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1- Prep work. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease a 12-count muffin pan and fill it with muffin liners.
Step 2- Mix. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Whisk in the wet ingredients, except the carrots and mix-ins. Fold in the shredded carrots and mix-ins.
Step 3- Bake. Pour the batter into the muffin tin and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
Step 4- Frost. Beat the cream cheese, yogurt, and maple syrup until fluffy, then frost the cooled cupcakes.
Arman’s recipe tips
- Make them oil-free. Use equal portions of unsweetened applesauce or mashed banana. The texture of the muffins will be a little dense but still delicious.
- Add more spices. Try nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, or one teaspoon ground ginger for a subtle heat.
- Enhance the flavor. Fold in one teaspoon vanilla extract and a dash of sea salt.
- Make a thinner glaze. Whisk unsweetened almond milk into the frosting until it thins out, then drizzle it over the muffins.
Storage instructions
To store: Leftover muffins should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.
To freeze: Transfer muffins to a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to three months.
Frequently asked questions
While I haven’t tried this recipe egg-free, I imagine an egg-substitute would work well.
More healthy muffin recipes to try
Healthy Carrot Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon all spice
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 3 large eggs
- 4 tablespoon coconut oil softened (can use butter)
- 1 cup carrots shredded
- 1/4 cup walnuts optional
Cream cheese frosting
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
- 1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease a 12-count muffin tin and fill with muffin tins and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together the almond flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and allspice. Next, add the maple syrup, eggs, and coconut oil. Fold through your carrots and walnuts.
- Distribute the batter amongst the 12 muffin tins. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a skewer comes out mostly clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan completely, before frosting.
- To make the frosting, beat together the cream cheese, yogurt and maple syryp until fluffy.
Very easy recipe. I doubled the anount of egg and tripled the amount of cinnamon. The muffins were much smoother and muffin’like with 6 eggs.
These are great! I replaced the almond flour with coconut flour (1/2, the amount), I was afraid these would turn out dry but they didn’t. I probably could have used a smidge more bicarb to make them a smidge lighter, but I wouldn’t say they were dense at all!
What can I substitute for maple syrup? I use sugar free syrup because I am diabetic.
You can try that!
This is a great recipe, lots of flavour. I have exchanged the walnuts with pumpkin seeds and added 1/2 cup of desiccated coconut to the recipe. I love the maple syrup flavour too. Delicious and have been a hit with my work mates.
Delicious! I made six muffins instead of twelve and cooked them a bit longer. I’m telling ya these are so good and don’t taste gluten free at all! We had them with frosting and the next day made them and just ate with butter. Either way we love them! We get our “bread” craving eased by eating these!
Absolutely the best muffin recipe I’ve ever made! Soooo good!! From The muffin to the frosting! My whole family loved them!
Just made these exactly as written and like all your other recipes, it was delicious and so very moist!! Thank you!!
Excellent easy recipe, thanks a lot.
Best Carrot muffins I’ve ever made and I new at this almond flour stuff.
If I use the butter instead of coconut oil, should it be melted?
Yes 🙂
Carrot cake for breakfast? COUNT ME IN! This was super delicious and easy to make – and hey, another excuse to eat more carrot cake? yes please!
Great to hear it!
How many are carrots in grams please, makes one cup of cooker pureed carrots?
I haven’t calculated in grams, unfortunately!
I made thesense muffins. They are dryer than I expected. In the list for the paleo version u don’t have milk in the ingrediet list. Should I have added the milk mentioned in the first version?
I used 1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond flour and 1/2 cup of rice flour. I use these flours weekly for the muffins I regularly. And those muffins are moist unlike the ones I made today.
They don’t generally need milk, unless your particular brand of coconut flour is considerably thicker. Perhaps they were cooked too long?
I’ll try again and let you no how it goes
Hello, I want to start trying some of your recipes, but I had a question for the protein powder. The one you link to is always the vanilla flavor. Do you use that flavor in everything or do you use the chocolate flavor for say…your flourless brownie recipe (link on page is to the vanilla)? I’d like to try both this recipe and the flourless brownies so I’m not sure if I should buy 1 protein powder flavor or two. This is for the growing naturals rice protein powder that is vegan. Thank you.
Hi there! Definitely use chocolate for chocolate-esque recipes 🙂
Do you not recommend doing the grain free version?
I prefer the flourless version 🙂
Can you do all coconut flour? I’m starting a low oxalate diet for health reasons and can’t have nut products, but I can’t have oats either!
I haven’t tried that, sorry!
I am not finding a link to the protein powder frosting – only to the protein powder itself.
Hi Sandy- Here is where the frosting recipe is- https://thebigmansworld.com/2016/02/25/healthy-flourless-cinnamon-bun-breakfast-cake/
I don’t understand what needs to be done for the grain free option
Angela, the grain free option is directly under the flourless option.
Carrot cake is my favourite. I’m definitely going to make these!
Carrot cake is Riley’s favorite! I just eat it for the cream cheese frosting. I think you know how I roll when it comes to brunch. Give me eggs, home fries, and a mimosa and the rest is optional!
This is like the reverse version of my birthday plans. Because I’ll first eat carrot cake at home and then go out for a savory brunch later 🙂
P.S. if your chest is still not ripped in a month we shall consider plan b 😉
Hmmm…savory or sweet for brunch? That’s a good question, mate. We don’t brunch all that often (mainly since we’re up at the crack of dawn with Robbie…and I couldn’t make it all the way to brunch!), but I usually do sweet over savory. Check that, I do sweet at home and savory when we go out. I guess it’s because I don’t do savory breakfast at home all that often. And I’m not likely to start anytime soon now that you’ve posted these muffins! Carrot cake is one of my favorite things about Easter…watch out breakfast, carrot cake is coming!!
These make me think of spring!
May I have a copy of the coconut butter frosting or protein frosting please?
Hi Susan! For sure, it has been linked in the recipe, simply click on them 🙂