Carrot Cake Muffins

These incredible healthier carrot cake muffins come complete with a delicious streusel topping and pepitas for an extra crunch. 

Who doesn’t love fresh muffins right out of the oven, smelling incredible, your mouth watering and you just can’t wait to sink your teeth in them. I thought so! But you don’t have to go to your bakery to get them or use store bought mixes, you can make them from scratch and nothing tastes better than homemade freshly baked muffins from scratch.

These carrot cake muffins really are quick to make and they are perfectly spiced with ginger, cinnamon and allspice then topped with an easy streusel topping and some pepitas for extra crunch. Muffin batters really are easy to make, you mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, then the wet ingredients, then you put them together. Nothing to it.

Carrot cake muffins have to be one of my favorite though because just the idea of carrots in a muffin simply implies healthy eating in my head. Yes I know there are sugars in the muffins, but come on, we’re talking carrots. My latest thing that I do with quick breads and muffins is to replace the vegetable oil with applesauce. Trust me it works, you cut down on the fat, but you still end up with super moist muffins or quick breads. You won’t even miss the fat, you might even like them better this way.

Of course if you wanted to take it one step further, you could replace the refined sugar in these muffins with pure maple syrup for example, I think that’s what I’ll try next time I make these muffins. Not that I’m on a health kick or anything, you know me, I love my bacon and cheese, but hey I’m all for making healthy substitutions when I don’t affect the taste at all, especially when they taste even better.

Check out the video and see how easy it is to put these great carrot cake muffins together!

If you guys love this recipe, and most importantly make it yourselves, please let us know. Take a picture and tag it #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!

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Carrot Cake Muffins

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

20 mins

Total Time

40 mins

 

These incredible healthier carrot cake muffins come complete with a delicious streusel topping and pepitas for an extra crunch. 

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Servings: 12

Calories: 138 kcal

Author: Joanna Cismaru

Ingredients

For Streusel Topping

• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp brown sugar packed
• 2 tsp unsalted butter melted

For Muffins

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon ground
• 1/4 tsp ginger ground
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar packed
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups carrots grated
• 2 tbsp pepitas optional *

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners and spray each liner with cooking spray. This will ensure paper liners come off smoothly from muffins.

2. First prepare the streusel topping by combining the 2 tbsp of flour with the tbsp of brown sugar, breaking the sugar with a fork. Add the butter and stir in with a fork, or use your fingers to crumble up the mixture. Set aside.

3. To prepare the muffin batter, first combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and salt in a large bowl. Whisk to combine properly.

4. In another bowl add the eggs, applesauce, buttermilk, the sugars, vanilla extract and whisk well or use your mixer to mix properly. Using a spatula stir in the flour mixture. Stir in the grated carrots.

5. Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter equally among the 12 cups.

6. Sprinkle each muffin with some of the streusel topping and the pepitas.

7. Bake for 20 minutes or until muffins are done. To test for doneness, insert a toothpick in the center of a muffin and if it comes out clean the muffins are baked.

8. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove and serve.

Recipe Notes

* Pepitas is a Spanish culinary term for pumpkin seeds.

 

I used applesauce in this recipe to make the muffins low fat and a bit healthier but you can substitute the applesauce with equal amount vegetable oil.

 

To make these muffins even healthier you could substitute pure maple syrup for the sugars in equal amount.

 

Feel free to add nuts or raisins to these muffins as well.

 

To store muffins for a few days, line the bottom of an airtight container with paper towels. Line up your muffins in the container, then top with another layer of paper towels, then seal with the lid. The paper towels will absorb the extra moisture and your muffins will retain their texture and flavor for up to 4 days.

 

Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.

More delicious recipes from my kitchen

The Perfect Banana Muffins

Apple Coffee Cake Muffins

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Muffins

Jumbo Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

Pear and Chocolate Chip Muffins