These are the best carrot cake muffins. They are tender, moist, and flavored with warm spices. The best part is they are made healthier with whole wheat flour, and you only need one bowl.
Are you a muffin fan? I would venture to guess yes, we sure are. We have quite a few muffin recipes on WWK, from blueberry muffins, and cranberry muffins, to chocolate banana muffins and low sugar banana muffins.
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If you’re a fan of carrot cake then you’ll love these delicious carrot cake muffins with their moist crumb and golden brown edges.
Muffins and quick breads are one of the easiest things to bake with whole wheat flour. If you are just starting out baking with whole wheat flour we would recommend starting with something like these carrot muffins, zucchini muffins, or banana bread.
What's Cool About This Recipe
- Made with whole Grains: These can be classified as healthy carrot cake muffins because they are made with whole wheat flour. You can also use coconut sugar to make them even more healthy.
- One bowl: You only need one bowl to whip up these easy carrot cake muffins.
Why We Test Our Recipes
This is just an example of why we test our recipes multiple times. As you can see our first attempt was not great LOL. This recipe took 6 tries before we were satisfied with it, we hope you are too!
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Flour: We use fresh milled hard white wheat flour, but you can use high quality store bought white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour.
- Sugar: We like to use organic cane sugar, you can also use coconut sugar.
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Spices: We use Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Cloves to spice up these muffins. You can omit the nutmeg and cloves but we highly recommend using at least the cinnamon.
- Unsweetened applesauce: Make sure you use unsweetened applesauce so your muffins aren’t way too sweet.
- Oil: We use avocado oil or olive oil but any neutral flavored oil will work.
- Egg: Just a large chicken egg.
- Milk: Our go-to is whole milk, but you can use whatever milk you like.
- Vanilla: We use pure vanilla extract.
- Finely shredded carrots: We highly recommend grating fresh carrots, and not using pre grated carrots.
See recipe card for quantities.
Equipment
- Box grater
- Mixing bowl
- Muffin tin
- Whisk
- Rubber spatula
- Trigger release cookie scoop (optional but nice)
Variations
- Add chopped nuts and (or) plain or golden raisins (about ¼ cup of each).
Instruction Photos
Step 1: Peel and finely grate 1 medium carrot.
Step 2: Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Step 3: Add the wet ingredients and stir until combined.
Step 4: Fold in the grated carrots.
Divide the batter evenly between 6 greased or paper lined standard size muffin tin. Bake in a preheated oven (400°) for 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Remove the muffins from the pan to a wire rack to prevent them from going soggy.
Serving Suggestions
Muffins are great on their own as a snack or quick breakfast but you can also
- Serve them for brunch with quiche or a frittata
- Frost them with cream cheese frosting or a swirl of whipped cream for a dessert muffin
- Eat with hot breakfast cereal
- Have one with your morning cup of coffee
- Warm with whipped honey butter
Storage
Store the cooled muffins in an airtight container for 2-3 days.
Tip: Place a paper towel in the container with the muffins to soak up excess moisture and keep the muffins from going sticky.
How to Freeze
Wrap individual muffins (make sure they are cooled completely) in a few layers of plastic wrap and place in a resealable bag or container. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
Tips From Our Kitchen
For the best results use freshly grated carrots (grated on the small side of a box grater).
If you can get your hands on fresh milled flour we highly recommend it, it makes the most delicious, moist muffins.
If you want 12 muffins then make a double batch.
FAQ
Dry and dense muffins are usually caused by using too much flour and over baking. Using weight measurements will give you the most accurate results. Check the muffins at the lesser bake time indicated, if they are close to being done then check every 1-2 minutes until they are done.
You absolutely can, that is what we use most of the time. It has the best flavor and nutritional value.
Related Recipes
📖 Recipe
Moist Carrot Cake Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup (128 g) White whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour hard white wheat or *soft white wheat
- ½ cup (105 g) Organic cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1½ teaspoons Cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon Nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon Cloves
- ¼ cup (60 g) Unsweetened applesauce
- ¼ cup (52 g) Oil
- 1 large Egg
- 3 tablespoons (45 g) Milk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- ½ cup (70 grams) Finely shredded carrots
Instructions
- Preheat the oven 400° F with the rack in the top third position.
- In a large bowl whisk the dry ingredients together.1 cup (128 g) White whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour, ½ cup (105 g) Organic cane sugar, 1 teaspoon Baking powder, ¼ teaspoon Salt, 1½ teaspoons Cinnamon, ⅛ teaspoon Nutmeg, ⅛ teaspoon Cloves
- Add the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the shredded carrots.¼ cup (60 g) Unsweetened applesauce, ¼ cup (52 g) Oil, 1 large Egg, 3 tablespoons (45 g) Milk, 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract, ½ cup (70 grams) Finely shredded carrots
- Grease a 6 count standard size muffin tin or line with paper liners. Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Notes
Nutrition
We calculate these nutritional facts using an estimate and they can vary drastically between ingredients used and measuring technique. So, they are not intended for medical use.
Vicki
These muffins are delicious
WholeWheatKitchen
Thank you! We're so glad you like them 🙂
Sarah
Found your blog by way of a fresh milled flour group—these muffins were SO GOOD, I’m so excited to have a great carrot cake muffin, where the fresh milled flour works perfectly. I doubled all the amounts *except* the sugar, I only did 1.5 times the original recipe, and they were still plenty sweet and flavorful for all my kids. Got 15 muffins out of the doubled recipe.
WholeWheatKitchen
That is awesome! Thank you for letting us know, we’re so glad you like the recipe 🙂