Carrot cake muffins have the flavors of carrot cake but in a much healthier form. Â They’re moist and lightly sweet from grated carrots, crushed pineapple, and applesauce.
I love carrot cake.  My mom makes the absolute best carrot cake in the world!  Hands down.  No question.  🙂
Mom’s carrot cake is incredibly rich, and sweet, and it’s covered in cream cheese frosting. Â It’s got amazing flavor from spices, carrots, and fruit. Â The last time I had her carrot cake I thought to myself, this has such great flavor I would like it even if it weren’t so sweet and decadent. Â So, these carrot cake muffins were born.
These muffins have less added sugar than most muffin recipes. Â But, they still have light sweetness from grated carrots, crushed pineapple, and applesauce. Â The fruit also helps make these muffins incredibly moist.
Just look at ’em! Â I love the chunks of pineapple and flecks of bright orange carrot.
Find more of my recipes on TikTok
Carrot Cake Muffins Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 2-3 medium carrots
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1 (8 oz.) can crushed pineapple in pineapple juice
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 large egg beaten
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with muffin liners. Spray liners with cooking spray.
- Using the small grate on a box grater, grate the carrots to make 1 cup of finely grated fresh carrots. Note: I do not advise using packaged pre-shredded carrots.
- In a large bowl, add the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
- In a medium bowl, add the pineapple, brown sugar, applesauce, butter, egg, and vanilla. Whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients and the grated carrots to the dry ingredients. Mix just until no large clumps of flour remain. Do not over mix.
- Pour the batter into the muffin liners.
- Bake for 21-23 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
Can I use honey instead of sugar?
Best muffins I have ever made! Super moist and yummy!
Very disappointed in these. I followed the recipe exactly as indicated. The batter was so overly moist that I baked them an extra six minutes. I believe some of the pineapple juice should be eliminated or more flour added. As to the amount of carrots, a more exact measurement of shredded carrots would be helpful since carrots vary greatly in size.
Can I use canola oil in place of the butter?
Amanda, your recipe is absolutely delectable and healthy and very moist. Restrained myself and ate only one! lol This recipe is a keeper. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes
So good. I may add some nuts raisins and flax meal. I am definitely making these again!
Just made these and they are delicious! I was able to cut the calories to approximately 104!
I used 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup stevia. Also cut the butter to 3 tablespoons not 4. Next time I will use just 2 tablespoons. This is a great recipe. Now I have my breakfast in the freezer for the next 12 days. Tks
Hi, it’s unclear from the recipe – do you drain the crushed pineapple or add the juice to the mix? Lara
So the pineapple is not drained? Just want to make sure before I try making them, they look wonderful!
Is the pineapple drained?
no it is not drained 🙂
Very moist muffins. After my small test muffin came out it hardly held together and didn’t rise much. ( I did drain the pineapple juice off).
So I added 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 teas of baking powder. Then they were great. Also I added 1 cup of raisins and some chopped walnuts.
I appreciated the lower sugar content.
Correct. The pineapple is not drained. 😛
I love the carrot cake muffin idea…more portion control lo! 🙂
Just what I need, PORTABLE CARROT CAKE.
These holidays are gonna be the death of me!
LOL Wan! That’s hilarious 🙂 But there are plenty of healthy swaps in these muffins. They’re way healthier than carrot cake. Although, portable carrot cake sounds pretty awesome!
Thanks Karielyn! I agree about the portion control….except I typically had several at one time 🙂