Make soft and moist Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins with apple sauce, shredded carrots and a flavorful spice blend. They are the perfect afternoon sweet treat or brunch addition.
If you want to serve these as cupcakes for Easter, you can top them with some brown butter cream cheese frosting.
20 minutes
Extremely easy
Quick Look: Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins
- ⏱️ Prep Time: 10 minutes
- 👩🍳 Cook Time: 27 minutes
- 🕖 Total Time: 37 minutes
- 🥕 Servings: 12 servings of 1 muffin per serving
- ⚡️ Calories: 212 calories per serving (based on nutrition panel)
- 🔥 Cooking Method: Bake in oven at 300F
- 🛒 Main Ingredients: apple sauce, brown sugar, carrots, flour
- ⭐️ Difficulty: Easy! Aside from grating the carrots, you just need to combine wet and dry ingredients separately, then add them together.
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Why you’ll Love this recipe
- Spring sweet treat – Whenever I think of early spring recipes I think of carrot cake. I love to have carrot cake or carrot cake cupcakes for a delicious Spring dessert.
- Sweetened with apple sauce – A lot of the sweetness in this recipe comes from apple sauce rather than granulated sugar. You just need a bit of brown sugar to finish sweetening these delicious muffins!
- Great for meal prep – I love including some kind of sweet in my meal prep. These carrot cake muffins are the perfect option because you can have them for breakfast, an afternoon snack, or dessert!
Randee left this 5 star review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Always impressed with Madeline’s baked recipes. This one is no different. So moist. So much flavor. Not overly sweet. And my apartment smells INCREDIBLE after baking these, no candle needed!”
Ingredients You’ll Need
Here’s a quick look at the ingredients you need to make these healthy carrot cake muffins. For a full list of ingredients and amounts please head to the full recipe.
- Eggs: the large eggs will bind everything together in your muffins. Room temperature are best
- Unsweetened apple sauce: this will provide both sweetness and keep your muffins moist
- Brown Sugar: the brown sugar continues sweetening the muffins and adds a great texture
- Finely grated carrots: you want really finely shredded carrots for the best results. I do this on my box grater
- All purpose flour: the flour builds the structure of your muffin
- Ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves: this spice combination adds all of those classic carrot cake flavors
- Walnuts: these are an optional addition, but I love incorporating some nuts
To make these muffins gluten free, use an all purpose gluten-free flour in place of the all purpose. You could also make this with whole wheat flour instead. To make these vegan, you could try making it with flax egg.
Add extra mix ins to these muffins for an even heartier carrot cake taste. You can add dried cranberries or raisins for a fruity taste. I like to use chopped walnuts in this recipe, but you could also do chopped pecans or sliced almonds!
For another fun dessert to try, make these pumpkin oat chocolate chip cookie bars or pecan pie brownies.
How to make A Perfect Healthy Carrot Cake Muffin Recipe
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350F and line a muffin tin with liners. Whisk apple sauce, eggs, brown sugar, vegetable oil and vanilla extract together in a bowl. Fold in the finely grated carrots.
Step 2: In a separate bowl, mix together all purpose flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg and cloves. Fold dry ingredients into wet with a flat spatula.
Step 3: Mix until just combined and then fold in the chopped walnuts.
Step 4: Scoop 1/4 cup of batter into each of the muffin liners. Bake at 350F for 27 minutes.
If you are looking for other muffin recipes, try these coffee cake muffins or double chocolate zucchini muffins.
Mad’s Expert Tips for the Best Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins 🥕
- Use room temperature ingredients – For the most even bake on your muffins, allow the eggs and apple sauce to get to room temperature before baking.
- Freshly grate your carrots – For the best results, grate your carrots yourself fresh. It makes a huge difference in keeping your muffins moist.
- Do not overmix – Only mix the batter until everything is just combined. By avoiding overmixing it, you’ll keep a light and fluffy texture.
I also use grated carrots to make these carrot cake cookies.
Recipe FAQs
How do you make moist muffins?
Add an ingredient like apple sauce in this recipe! You can also use something like greek yogurt or sour cream.
Can you freeze carrot cake muffins?
You can freeze these muffins. Store them in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
What can I add to carrot cake muffins?
I added walnuts in this recipe, but you can add almonds, pecans, raisins, or any other nut or dried fruit!
Other Muffin Recipes
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
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Recipe
Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup apple sauce
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups finely grated carrots
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp ground cloves
- ½ cup chopped walnuts optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line 12 muffin slots with liners.
- Whisk apple sauce, eggs, brown sugar, vegetable oil and vanilla extract together in a mixing bowl. Fold in the finely grated carrots.
- In a separate bowl mix together all purpose flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg and cloves.
- Fold dry ingredients into wet with a flat spatula. Mix until just combined and then fold in the chopped walnuts.
- Scoop 1/4 cup of batter into each of the muffin liners.
- Bake at 350F for 27 minutes.
Recipe Notes
- Mix in raisins or chopped nuts for a heartier muffin
- Top with a simple cream cheese frosting to make healthy cupcakes
- Store in the refrigerator to maintain freshness.
- You can freeze these muffins. Store them in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- You can also make this recipe as a bread instead of muffins. Just use a loaf pan instead of a muffin tin.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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