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Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins- a SUPER simple vegan breakfast that you’ll find yourself making over and over again because they’re SO GOOD!
Oh hey, hi! Yes, I’m sharing another muffin recipe. Are you sick of muffins yet because I’ve been sharing a lot of them lately but I’m not really at all sorry about it.
I know that I say this pretty much every single time that I post a new muffin recipe BUT these muffins are my new favorite muffins on the blog. I kept testing these under the premise of getting them “just right” but really, I just wanted an excuse to make and eat another batch of them. Once again, not sorry about it.
I mean: LOOK how fluffy are these muffins!?
And I know this picture makes it look like there are raisins in there but there are in fact no raisins. That’s just the skin of the walnuts that you see.
Here’s the one bad thing about these muffins: they’re at their peak right out of the oven while they’re still warm and soft. You can totally eat them after this, they just aren’t *quite* as good. And if you are going to eat them later, I HIGHLY recommend popping them in the microwave briefly (~30 seconds) to lightly warm them up.
Warm muffins are the only way to eat muffins anyways, right?
To keep these a little healthier, we’re ditching white sugar and using maple syrup instead. And to keep these muffins vegan, we’re using nut butter and mashed banana to bind these together instead of an egg. Simple and easy!
Can you make these muffins gluten free?
While it’s on my to-do list to test a gluten free version of this recipe, I have not been able to get around to it yet. However, I’m confident that you can use any gluten free 1-1 flour. I’ve had great luck with THIS Bobs Red Mill gluten free flour and THIS Cup4Cup gluten free flour.
How to make these vegan muffins:
These muffins are ridiculously easy to make and I worked it so that you only have to dirty ONE bowl (instead of mixing the wet and dry ingredients in 2 different bowls). The banana is mashed and then the other wet ingredients are mixed in. Once that is fully combined, we add in the dry ingredients and mix. Then bake and BAM amazing muffins!
That’s it! The ease of this recipe is why I eat muffins FAR to often :)
DO YOU NEED MUFFIN LINERS?
I find muffin liners completely unnecessary and even a waste. The only time that I find them useful, I guess, is if you’re making muffins/ cupcakes to take to a party. Then it can be nice to have some sort of barrier between the muffins and lots of hands that might be touching them. Otherwise, I just spray the pan well and never have any issues with the muffins sticking at all.
Alternatively, you can use THESE silicon liners that are easy and reusable. I have some and they can be run through the dishwasher which I love! There is also THIS silicone muffin tin which looks rather handy!
MORE VEGAN MUFFINS THAT YOU’LL LOVE:
See how to make these Vegan Carrot Cake Muffins here:
Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour, I use all purpose but you can also use whole wheat, pastry flour, or a gluten free 1-1 substitute
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup almond milk
- 3 tablespoons nut butter, I used peanut butter this time but have also made these with almond butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 medium banana, mashed
- ½ cup grated carrot, I use a medium grate but you can also finely grate them
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts, or pecans plus more for topping if desired. You can also omit the nuts completely.
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 6 cup muffin tin.
- Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
- Stir in the milk, nut butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and mashed banana. Stir until well combined.
- Gently stir in the grated carrot and nuts.
- Evenly spoon the mixture into the 6 muffin cups.
- Top with a few more chopped nuts if desired and bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
- Let cool slightly and ENJOY!!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These were perfect, thank you. For those interested in calorie count I put it in a calculator and it came out 284 calories per muffin. Amazing!
I love these! I made gluten free them for my family last night… and they were delicious. I was wondering, if I make them again what would be the best replacement for the almond milk? For some reason my son said they taste too “almond-y?”. I thought they were perfect though!
turned out really good, nice and moist, will continue baking these on a trgular basis,Thanks
These are SO yummy and easy! I doubled the recipe and made a couple changes based on what I had on hand. Used white whole wheat floor at an equal equivalent to the plain flour, didn’t have bananas so I used one pouch of unsweetened applesauce and one cup of vanilla Greek yogurt. I chopped the carrots in my blender and added all the wet ingredients there to combine. Made one batch of 24 mini muffins plain and the other batch with chopped pecans and golden raisins. Baked as mini muffins for 15 minutes and they turned out perfectly fluffy and moist! I’m always looking for ways to get more veggies into my kids and they all LOVED these! My 3 year old held up 4 fingers and said “can I have this many?” Many thanks!
I doubled the recipe and baked in a loaf pan for 45-ish minutes. Delicious, and a hit with the kids!
Is it necessary to use almond butter in this recipe. I can’t find any in my grocery store and it only takes 3 tablespoon. Can I just not put anything in it.