Favorite Carrot Muffins that are warm, cozy, and wholesome! A naturally sweet snacking muffin flecked with tiny bits of carrots and oats, smeared with some butter and honey.
Healthy Carrot Muffins
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Featured comment
I love blender recipes with oat flour! I feel like it makes the most consistent texture and reliable muffin. These are delicious! Thank you!
Andrea
So you feel best when you eat wholesome foods but you’re also never not craving something warm and yummy from the oven?
A) You are understood here, and B) YOU CAME TO THE RIGHT PLACE.
Today that warm, cozy, wholesome but also buttered-and-honeyed answer is coming in the form of pleasantly dense, lightly springy, and naturally sweet snacking carrot muffins that are flecked with tiny bits of carrots and oats – just textured enough to keep it fun, playful, and happy.
Is it an open invitation for a melty smear of butter or coconut oil with honey? Is it the perfect warm and satisfying match for your morning or afternoon coffee? Is it a day-brightener and a body-booster? It most certainly is.
This recipe is happily flexible with toppings and mix-ins. You can add any number of things and end up with a carrot muffin that is entirely YOU.
(Or, go a totally different direction and try our similarly wholesome and really delicious banana muffins, pumpkin muffins, zucchini muffins, and apple muffins.)
We have a favorite saying: the little things are the big things. And today a warm, buttered, honey-drizzled carrot muffin is the very important little big thing.
Click here to see the step-by-step web story instructions for this recipe!
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Healthy Carrot Muffins
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
Description
Favorite Carrot Muffins that are warm, cozy, and wholesome! A naturally sweet snacking muffin flecked with tiny bits of carrots and oats, smeared with some butter and honey. YES.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 8 medjool dates, pits removed
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup real maple syrup
- 3–4 carrots, peeled and shredded (about 2 cups total)
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- walnuts or raisins (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grate your carrots.
- Mix all ingredients in a blender until a chunky batter comes together.
- Pour batter into a greased or lined muffin tin. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the tops gently spring back when you press into them.
- Smear warm muffins with butter and/or honey. Attempt not to eat them all. Serve warm or cold ALL DAY LONG. ♡
Notes
If your dates are on the firm side, soak them in hot water for a bit first so they are easier to blend!
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: carrot cake, carrot muffins, healthy muffins, blender muffins, carrot cake muffins
Frequently Asked Questions For These Carrot Muffins
Can you use an oil other than olive oil?
Yep! Any neutral-tasting oil will work.
How do you recommend storing these muffins?
I store mine in the fridge in an airtight container! To eat, we usually pop them in the microwave for 15 seconds or so, or toast them up in the air fryer for a minute or two. Spread with butter and mwah! So good!
Do these freeze well?
Yep! They freeze perfectly. I do it all the time!
What can you substitute for the egg?
I haven’t tried, but would imagine flax eggs would work well for this!
Is there a replacement for the dates? (Applesauce, mashed banana, other dried fruit, more maple syrup?)
Other readers have said that mashed banana worked (though it created a wetter batter), or other dried fruit.
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our yummy carrot recipes page. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Baking Breakfast Carrot Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Healthy Most Popular Recipes Snacks Sugar Free January Sugar-Free Winter
January 20, 2020
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
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I need to go count my dates, because I LOVE your apple muffins, and I really want to try these!!
Enjoy, Kristin!
Hi, I don’t have any dates in the pantry what else could I use
You could sub a mashed banana or some raisins here instead. 🙂
Looks delicious
Could honey be used instead of maple syrup in the recipe?
We haven’t tried these with honey yet, but we imagine that would work just fine. Enjoy, Amy!
I used honey and it tasted great.
I made these this morning. I’m a bit disappointed in these muffins. They feel more like a base. My daughter and I think they need something extra for some added flavor – perhaps grated apple or chocolate chips.
Hi there, Stephanie! Thanks for sharing this feedback with us. We haven’t tested out apple or chocolate chips in these muffins yet, but let us know if you end up trying it out – we’d love to hear!
I haven’t tried these carrot ones yet but we love your apple ones. I had two very ripe bananas so I used these instead of the apple one time and they were good too
Made these over the weekend and they are incredible! Super tasty:) question, are the nutritional values per muffin or for the 12 batch?
The nutrition info is per serving – so for 1 muffin. 🙂
Looks delish! Don’t have a vitamix and don’t think my blender could handle this. Do you think the Food processor would work?
Should work just fine! Enjoy, Jai!
These muffins look amazing! I need them in my life asap! Totally making these when we get home from vacation tomorrow!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
Enjoy!
Just made these and they’re so yummy! I knew they were going to be, just from the taste of the batter (I’m one of those weirdos). Mine were a little soft in the middle, so I’m not sure 18 min was enough. Next time will go for 20 in my oven.
Oops! Didn’t mean to post under an existing comment.
So glad you enjoyed the muffins, Jamie!
These muffins look so dang delicious! And what a bonus – they’re healthy. Thanks so much for posting.
Enjoy!
Totallt trying this!!! What can I use instead of maple syrup?
We haven’t tested out a sub yet, but you could try out honey instead.
Are these steel cut, old fashioned or quick oats? Thanks!
Just rolled oats here. 🙂
My grocery store substituted steel cut oats for the rolled oats in my grocery order. Can I use these? Not sure I have enough of any other kind.
Hi Marissa! We haven’t tested the muffins with steel cut oats, but unfortunately, I think you’d need rolled oats for this recipe.
Don’t have a blender that could handle this. Can I just hand mix the ingredients? Or blend the oats first?
Since there are some chunkier ingredients in here, like the dates, you’ll need something to help blend all of the ingredients together into a batter. A food processor could be a good alternative!
I may have to try a food processor for the dates. I’ve tried this recipe 3 times this week (and it’s SO GOOD), but the dates continue to be a problem for me. I even let mine soak in boiling water for at least 15 minutes this morning, and my blender could not chop them down completely.
Blender Muffins/Breads are Mama’s favorite!! Thank you!
Enjoy, Katie!
Hello, trying to not take sugar, can I remove maple syrup in the recipe? Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi there! We’d recommend a little bit of maple syrup just for the taste and the texture. You could try reducing the maple syrup though if that’d help! 🙂
Sounds good, will try to half the syrup and see how it goes. Thanks!
You can add protein sweetened protein powder instead. And just add a bit of water to thin the batter. Thats what I did.
Thank you for sharing such healthy option. Could you please clarify whethet grated carrots need to be blended too or gently incorporated with the ready batter?
Hi Irene! It’s up to you! I believe for the muffins in the photos, we folded some of the grated carrots into the batter. And for the muffins in the video, we blended all the carrots into the batter.
Hi! Kind of random, but I have a couple jars of carrot baby food to use up in my pantry (literally just pureed carrots). Is there a way to incorporate them into these?
Good question, Hannah! We haven’t tested this out using pureed carrots yet, so we’re not sure if the texture would be the same or not. Let us know if you end up trying it out! 🙂
Super delicious. I added some mini chocolate chips on top. So good!
Mini chocolate chips on these would be 💯!
these are divine!! I put my daughter to bed last night, had a hankering for something sweet and had whipped them up in 30mins. I then ate 3 with butter slathered all over them. Not good for the jan diet….but very yummy
YUM! Glad you enjoyed these, Jessica!
Can I make these with a vegan egg replacement? And if so, would you recommend ‘flax eggs’?
We think a flax egg should work just fine here. Enjoy, Kathleen!
I just made these with my 2 year old and they are soooooo good!!! SUPER easy , I already had all the ingredients which was perfect and was a fun activity! I added walnuts and will def be adding raisins along with that next time.
So happy to hear you and your little one enjoyed these, Leah!
I have chopped dates……what measurement would you recommend? 1/4, 1/2c?
I have a similar question – what quantity of baking dates would I use instead of pitted dates.They seem to be already blended/chopped.
We’d suggest trying 3/4 cup here.
Would raisins work instead of dates? 3/4 cup…?
Yep, raisins should work here!
Thanks for a great recipe! I made them as written but without the nuts and added some chia, hemp and flax for a little boost. Such wonderful taste and texture. My muffins took about a half hour to bake but I did fill the pan quite full!
Yum! Sounds delicious, Jacklyn!
I would also like to add that I used my food processor to greet the carrots and to mix the batter and it came out perfectly. So thrilled with this recipe!
Made them last night and they were okay. But when I ate it today, really delicious. Like all the flavors melded overnight. Thanks for the great recipe!
Glad to hear you enjoyed the muffins, Carol!
I LOVE all your muffin recipes like this one! My husband and daughter love the zucchini ones and the apple and my favorite. Can’t wait to try these.
My second baby is due in a few weeks and I plan to make several batches to freeze with all their nutritional goodness!
These would be great to pull out of the freezer for a yummy snack! 😋
These muffins! OMG! They are sooooooo good.
So glad you enjoyed the muffins, Lizzy! 😊
These have been a hit with my kids! I topped them with a little of the Carrot Cake Coffee Cake streusel.
Okay, YUM! Sounds delicious, Erin!
Amazing recipe, I will be making this regularly for sure! Had noor dates on hand and they worked fine 🙂
I topped mine with granola. Amazing!!
Love that idea! Thanks for sharing, Jenny!
Love these for my 15 month old son instead of buying the gerber date and carrot bars, and I eat them too! I added raisins and pecans and some unsweetened apple sauce. I ran out of rolled oats and did half steel cut oats but next time I would not do any steel cut. Texture is a little off with those but good flavor!
Yummy! Pecans would be delicious here! Thanks for the tip, Sarah!
Just made these today! So yummy. Added some coconut flakes (unsweetened) & used coconut oil instead. They were a little dry (maybe because of the different oils?), so added some almond milk as well. Came out a bit crumbly… But really really tasty! Any other tips or suggestions to get these to “perfect”?
It’s possible the different oil affected them. Let us know how these turn out for you using olive oil. 😊
Typing as these bake in the oven. Kitchen already smelling like heaven! Thank you for such an easy and wholesome.
I used date paste, as I didn’t have regular dates on hand, and a food processor to both grate the carrots and blend all the ingredients. Hope they come out delicious
And indeed they are delicious!!!
So happy to hear you enjoyed the muffins, Karina!
Is there any substitutions for dates? I dont have any 🙁
Same here…. raisins perhaps?
Other readers have had luck with raisins, yes. Enjoy!