Healthy Applesauce Carrot Muffins {a.k.a. Carrot Cake Muffins}
These healthy applesauce carrot muffins are like a better-for-you bite of carrot cake in muffin form. So delicious and easy!
Sorry to be one-dimensional with the healthy muffin recipes lately but I couldn’t wait. I had to share these with you immediately.
Maybe because I just shoved three of these in my mouth, but I have to say, they are my favorites of the latest muffin bunch.
They smell fantastic, they look pretty (those orange flecks are beauty), and they taste amazing.
It’s like a healthy bite of carrot cake. In muffin form.
They are low in fat, low in refined sugar and packed with applesauce and carrots.
But the real high point of these applesauce carrot muffins are they don’t taste healthy. Like, they don’t scream: HEALTH FOOD ALERT!
Yes, they are far healthier than many muffin recipes on the market, but they are subtly so, which means you can eat them and bask in the deliciousness without having to choke it down with a glass of, I don’t know, chocolate milk or something.
Get your little self into the kitchen and make these.
Another whole grain, healthy muffin to add to your life.
And it can be yours in 30 minutes or less (however, like all good muffins, these actually taste better once they are cooled, so dig deep for some self-control; you’ll be happier for it).
I hope these rock your world like they rocked mine.
One Year Ago: Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake Pie
Two Years Ago: Brazilian Feijoada {Slow Cooked Pork and Black Bean Stew}
Three Years Ago: Roasted Fruit with Streusel Topping
Healthy Applesauce Carrot Muffins {a.k.a. Carrot Cake Muffins}
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (213 g) whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons (28 g) butter, melted
- ½ cup honey
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- ¾ cup finely shredded carrots, about 2-3 medium carrots
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt.
- Make a small well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the butter, honey, egg, vanilla, and applesauce.
- Stir ingredients together until just combined and there are still some spots of flour remaining.
- Fold in the shredded carrots just until combined (don’t overmix or the muffins will be dense).
- Distribute the batter evenly among the muffin liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. These muffins freeze wonderfully and keep well if covered at room temperature for 2-3 days.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from 100 Days of Real Food after being referred to the recipe by a long-time reader, Laura G. (decreased ginger, added nutmeg, decreased butter from 8 tablespoons to 2 tablespoons, etc.) – thank you, Miss Laura!
These were absolutely delicious….our entire family, including our somewhat picky toddler asked for these daily:) Not dry at all, which has been our biggest issue with healthier muffins. Thanks for the yummy recipe.
Hi!
Found this recipe on Pinterest! Made these yesterday and they were sooooo good!
I brushed my muffin tin with coconut oil and had no trouble getting these out of the tin.
I also used the half honey/half maple syrup as another commentator suggested and they were perfect.
Light fluffy delicious. I am muffin obsessed and these are a keeper. Thank you for sharing! X
Glad you loved them, Jenny! Thanks for the comment.
What’s the calories?
OMG…thought I would never find this recipe again..lol!! Made them last week …used maple syrup instead of honey and 1/2 cup of instant oatmeal instead of all flour. Delicious…we ate them all. Now going to make again with raisins, walnuts then another batch with dates. Great for taking to work for a mid afternoon snack or with a hot cup of tea for dessert. Thanks for sharing this winner!
These are great!! I made them into mini muffin, that’s what my toddler and husband prefer, they work out to 1 point each on WW!! My changes were a 1/4 cup of pure maple syrup instead of the honey as my honey is unpasteurized and hard, wouldn’t have worked to mix it in! Also I grated fresh all spice in addition to the other spices as we love lots of spice!!
Thanks so much!!!
Thank you so much for this fantastic recipe! My toddler refuses most veggies, and these muffins are a perfect way to sneak some in. These turned out so light, fluffy, and moist. Even my husband loved them, and he is just as bad as our child when it comes to eating vegetables. I can’t wait to make a couple more batches. I count calories and calculated these to be 126 calories each, so I can feel good about eating them, too!
My muffins are always so unbelievably dense! Not just this recipe but all my recipes. Looks nothing like your fluffy muffins. The flavour was great though and my toddler loves them! Could it really be me muxing them to much or could it be something else?
Mixing muffin batter beyond just combining is the biggest culprit (in my opinion) of dense muffins.
These are so good! I used coconut oil instead of butter! Even my 12 year old loved them!
I just made these and they are fabulous! I had open applesauce that I needed to use so I doubled the recipe and made half large and half mini muffins. Next time I’ll try adding raisins or walnuts to give them a little extra texture. Beautiful, healthy recipe! Thank you!!
So, just FYI, don’t answer the phone in the middle of making these and forget to add the baking soda.
These were amazing. I made them last night, and woke up this morning to moldy muffins. Very disappointing, but I still ate a couple and threw the rest away. I knew I should have put them in the fridge. They were at room temperature too.
I love this recipe. I love it made exactly as described, and I love varying it.
Today’s variation: summer squash instead of carrots, double the ginger, cut to 3/4 of the honey, and a generous handful of walnuts. Baked longer, ~22 minutes.
Thank you also for your YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtl0QIjDaK8) on how to squeeze water out of zucchini – I used the tea towel method. Your caption at the 1:30 mark made me laugh a lot. 🙂
Great recipe! After trying your original recipe (which I loved!) I reduced the honey by half and threw in some raisins, shredded coconut, and chopped walnuts. They were an even bigger hit with my kids.
I have never posted a comment before but these are so amazing I have to. I made them as a healthy treat for my two toddlers but I’ve eaten 4 of them in the last 4 hours. I used half maple syrup and half molasses instead of honey because my son is just 1. The flavor is amazing and they’re so moist. Thanks for this recipe!
Hi Mel, I’m a juicer. Do you think the pulp left behind if I juiced some carrots would work just as well as grated carrots?
Hi Jennifer – I’m not a juicer so I can’t say for sure but I think it’s definitely worth a try!
I used white flour after discovering my whole wheat flour smelled rancid (yuck) and these turned out deliciously moist. You could even stand to decrease a bit of the honey as they were almost too good! They definitely stuck to the liners, but who cares. Made these as a healthy option to send along to daycare for my 2 year old’s bday, and now going to make them again with frosting for his party on the weekend! Thank you for the recipe.
Thanks! Looks healthy and tasty. Trying to eat healthy for the New Year!
can you use white flour?
Sure.
I just made these yesterday and they are HEAVENLY.
Thank you so much for this recipe! 🙂
Hi! How many calories per muffin?
Thanks.
Try googling for nutrition info/calorie count – I don’t calculate it for my recipes. 🙂
I know this post is quite old, but I wanted to thank you for a great recipe. I just took out a freshly baked batch from the oven and it’s a hit! Thank you for sharing. It was easy to follow and the results were very moist and tasty muffins!
Moist & delicious! Will make these yummy muffins again…added 1/2 cup ground flax with 1 cup ww flour. Cut honey to 1/3 cup. They were a big hit!!
I make a lot of healthy muffins around here. Several are from your site. Of my three kids one of them always eats them but the other two are hit or miss. All three and dad and I loved these. I used shredded sweet potato because I had it let over from a breakfast casserole and it worked great. We liked them best with a little bit of cream cheese. I also only added a bit of ginger and nutmeg I don’t like my carrot cake heavy on the spices. Next time I will cut the honey some too. I thought they were almost too sweet of course this is why the kids loved them so much. 🙂 Thanks for another healthier muffin recipe.
I made these last night and they turned out good. Can I freeze the muffins? If so how long and what’s the best way to do so? Container, ziplock bags?!!
Thank you for a great recipe
Yes, they freeze well. I usually put them in a single layer in a gallon-size ziploc bag – if well-sealed, they should keep for up to a month.
Made these many times and love them. Today my honey came a little faster than planned. They’re already really moist and I was worried that would push it over the edge. So I added about 1/3 -1/2 cup quick oats. Turned out awesome! I think il always add a little from here on out.
I’m guessing the carrots that you can buy pre-shredded would be too big for these muffins?
Yes, I think they might be too thick.
I have some presbredded from the store. Do you think it would work if I just cut them up so the pieces are smaller?
Could certainly try – the texture might be a bit different, but it’s worth a shot.
hi, Mel, love you so much for this receipe . I made it today and in no time my kids finished 1/2of the cake . i only made few variations. added Zuchinni instead of carrot and instead of honey i added molasses, which i have in loads of amount lying at my place. it turned out really good. everyone liked it. thanks for such a healthy cake receipe ones again
These muffins are moist and delicious. My 2 year old loves them and it is one of the few ways I can get veggies in him. Thank you!
Can I use yogurt in place of the applesauce?
I haven’t tried it but I believe someone in the comments did if you read through the thread.
I add in some fresh diced pineapple in it’s juice to give it a little zing
Wow! Can you use pear sauce?
Haven’t tried that but I’m guessing it would work just fine.
Amazing. When looking for a healthy carrot muffin recipe, I was kind of surprised what came up. I don’t think 3/4 cup of oil or a 1/2 cup of butter for 12 muffins is particularly healthy. So this recipe was an easy choice. They were easy to make and so delicious, just like a carrot cake really, and in the ingredients I really don’t see anything objectionable. I used fresh grated ginger and I loved the flavor of that. Next time will definitely add walnuts. I don’t like to bake with honey so used brown sugar and it was sweeter even than it needed to be, so next time I’ll reduce that and they’ll be even healthier. Thank you for the great recipe!
Hi Mel, I just stumbled across this recipe looking for carrot recipes. I just wanted to let you know that I have been buying Bunny Love organic baby carrots & I haven’t found any bitter ones yet. I hope you can find them in your local grocery store. I buy mine from Kroger.
I made these today for my daughter and grandson. I replaced 1/2 flour with old fashioned oatmeal to reduce flour it was delicious and my grandson loves them. so easy to make. Great recipe
Do you know how many calories and/or fat are in these muffins?
I don’t provide the nutritional facts currently but there are a lot of online calculators that provide that information. Good luck!
Just threw in a batch of these! My toddler and I can’t wait to get them out of the oven. Great recipe 🙂
I just made these for my grandson and we both loved them!! Healthy and
The only problem I had is with liners, a good part of it stayed stuck to the liner, any advise for this?
ooops … healthy and delicious 🙂
Maddy – You could definitely try lightly greasing the muffin liners with nonstick cooking spray – that may help.
Hi Mel! I really like these muffins! Sometimes when I make them I get a bitter carrot after-taste. Is there something I should be looking for when it comes to choosing carrots?
Hey Danielle – there must be a secret out there but I’m with you, sometimes the carrots I buy are sweet and crisp and other times they are bitter. Since I just moved, I’m looking at all new brands of carrots. Back in Minnesota I didn’t have many options but I’m hoping to get a brand that is consistently non-bitter – if I do, I’ll share!
I used 1 cup grated carrots using the smaller grate on my hand grater. I also substituted canned crushed pineapple (1 cup) in place of applesauce. I didn’t have ginger either so I used pumpkin pie spice (1/4 tsp) as a last resort even though they aren’t very close. Other then that I did the recipe exactly (which is kind of rare for me – I usually like to wing it)
I didn’t use muffin liners or grease (fingers crossed) but i sprinkled a small amount of oats on the bottom of the tin (which is new and non-stick) *** I don’t recommend this haha use liners if you have ’em
Calories per muffin (assuming 12 muffins) with these adjustments is 136 calories per muffin. Which is excellent!! This is very easy to do if you have a MyFitnessPal account using their recipe section.
The muffins just came out of the oven and the verdict is….. Very good, moist and tasty. Doesn’t necessarily taste like carrot cake without the frosting lol but they are very good and I would probably make them again.
I forgot to mention I did like it with the pineapple addition – but next time I will try it with applesauce as directed or less pineapple I felt like the pineapple kind of took over the carrot flavour a bit
If i wanted to make this into a round 9 inch cake what will the measurments & baking time be ?
Please help making a birthday cake for my mom
Nadelle – Quite honestly, I don’t know – and I’m not sure this muffin recipe will transition well into a cake. Definitely have to experiment as I haven’t tried it – good luck!
Would you happen to know about how many calories would be in one of these muffins?
Viktoriya – No. There are a lot of online nutrition calculators that you could try though.
I’ve been juicing a lot so I’m trying it with the pulp of the carrots ? any thoughts or comments ?
Rejeanne Johnson – I don’t know the texture or consistency of the carrot pulp so I can’t say for sure but I think these muffins are pretty forgiveable so its worth a try. Good luck.
My family and I loved these! I made my own applesauce and used whole grain spelt flour, which tasted great! I also omitted the ginger and nutmeg.
Hi Mel! I was wondering how I can accommodate your muffin recipe (this one and the other delicious ones) to fit a mini muffin tin (24). I would follow the recipe – but can you tell me the approximate timing for the minis and anything else I should be aware of? Thanks Mel – I would like to make these for my 2 year old and just bought the mini tray yesterday.
Melissa – When I bake mini muffins/cupcakes I always check them after 6-7 minutes. This recipe will probably make more than 24 mini muffins so you might need to do a second batch in the oven.
Hey Mel, just made a double batch of these for the freezer for summer snacks. My boys love them! Have you ever tried 100% Maple Syrup instead of honey? It’s much healthier than refined sugar, like honey, but doesn’t have the strong taste honey can have in baked goods. Anyway, I almost always replace half the sugar in a recipe with maple syrup and it’s delicious in these muffins. It can be pricey though, which is the downside. Thanks again for another awesome recipe! Sincerely, one of your biggest fans.
Hi Karen – thanks for the suggestion! I haven’t made these with maple syrup but I have subbed the honey out for agave nectar (it has a mild taste too).
Made these a couple times written. Yummy! This last time I went crazy with changes and ended up liking them even better: subbed the butter for melted coconut oil, added 3/4 c Craisins and a small, peeled and diced apple. Thanks!
You don’t use any sugar only honey????
Alice – Yep, just the honey and the applesauce to sweeten them.
I am making these right now for my sweetie. He loves carrot cake and has been craving it. I am hoping that these healthier muffins with fat free cream cheese frosting will do the trick. He has lost close to 100lbs in the past 2-3 years so I want to make healthy treats for us. Thank you so much for this great recipe!
I dont have ground ginger. Is there any other spice I can subsitute? Thanks!
J – You can use an additional 1/4 tsp. cinnamon instead of the ginger.
I have never baked with Apple sauce but have a bug jar of sweetend apple sauce in the pantry. Will that work of be too sweet? Thanks!
Erica – Sure, but I’d probably cut down the sugar a bit in the recipe.
These are amazing! My toddler (she’s almost 2) just gobbled down 2 of them for breakfast. Thanks for a fantastic solution to a suddenly picky toddler 🙂
HEY!! i wondered across your page recipe hunting and found these! made them today! may be the best muffins i’ve ever made!!! i really appreciate how you instructed on how to mix the ingredients – it really makes a big difference! thank you!! ps..any chance you have any idea of calories per muffin??
Jolene – Sorry, I don’t post the nutritional information, but if you read through the comment thread another reader posted the calories, etc. for this recipe.