Banana carrot muffins are healthy, whole wheat, dairy-free, & perfect for Easter! With all-natural, real food ingredients, they’re perfect for you and your toddler!
Who doesn’t love a fluffy and moist muffin in the morning?
They’re sweet, soft, and just taste so much better in the mornings than any other time of day.
The problem with some muffins, especially storebought ones, is that they are not healthy at all. Not even a little bit.
That’s why it’s so fun to experiment with making your own muffins at home! Not only does it save money to bake things from scratch, but you can always find a way to make your favorite foods healthier at home.
So try these carrot banana muffins sometime soon, whether it’s Easter Sunday or just randomly in the middle of the week. They’re delicious anytime!
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What does it taste like?
These carrot muffins basically taste like banana bread with hints of carrot cake. There’s a lot of carrots in these things, but you’d never know it when you’re eating one.
Fluffy, moist, soft, and full of banana and cinnamon flavors, these muffins really are amazingly delicious.
Honestly, who knew carrots could taste so good baked into a banana muffin?
Ingredients
Bananas – The key to making these muffins taste amazing. The bananas not only add flavor, but they add moisture and sweetness, too! Mash them up so they are almost smooth, but leave a few chunks so you can really taste them in the muffins.
Eggs – These add a lot of structure to baked goods, and add some protein as well. You can substitute these out if you want to make these muffins vegan. Simply use 2 T of ground flaxseed mixed with 6 T of cold water instead of the 2 eggs.
Carrots – The smaller you can shred these, the better. Don’t use the storebought, pre-shredded carrots. They’re just too dry! To cut on cost and improve the flavor of these muffins, you should shred up a few carrots using your cheese grater.
Pure maple syrup – The only maple syrup you’ll find in my house is 100% pure maple syrup. If you’re using anything else, I can almost guarantee it’s full of artificial flavors and high fructose corn syrup. Use the real stuff for you and your family’s health.
Avocado oil – My favorite cooking oil ever. It’s heart-healthy and can be heated to really high temperatures without reaching its smoking point. It has a really mild flavor, and unlike olive oil, you won’t taste it in your baked goods at all.
Apple cider vinegar – Adding vinegar to your baked goods actually helps them to rise a little bit, especially when combined with baking soda.
Pure vanilla extract – Just like with maple syrup, I only use pure vanilla extract because it’s a real food. The imitation vanilla extracts are full of artificial ingredients that just aren’t healthy. The pure stuff is the way to go.
Whole wheat pastry flour – I love whole wheat pastry flour for baking because it’s 100% whole wheat, but is ground much finer than regular whole wheat flour. This helps your baked goods, like these banana carrot muffins, rise without falling or becoming too dense or dry.
Cinnamon – Pretty much my favorite spice to throw in a muffin. Cinnamon helps these to taste like banana bread, and I’m here for that!
Baking powder – Essential if you don’t want your muffins to turn out hard as rocks.
Baking soda – Remember when you were a kid and you mixed baking soda and vinegar to make a crazy bubbly reaction? The baking soda and the apple cider vinegar react together, on a much smaller scale, to help add air bubbles to the muffins while they bake. This gives the muffins rise, and makes them extra fluffy.
Salt – Non-essential but it does help elevate the sweetness of the carrot muffins.
RELATED: Low Carb Almond Flour Banana Muffins
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°. In a large bowl, mash your bananas until almost smooth.
- Add eggs, carrots, maple syrup, avocado oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
- Add whole wheat pastry flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Mix until just combined, but try not to overmix. If you end up overmixing your batter, the muffins won’t rise as well.
- Line or grease a cupcake pan, and fill each liner about 3/4 full of batter. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, until the muffins are cooked through and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool and enjoy!
Tips & FAQ
Muffins freeze really well, especially when wrapped tightly with plastic wrap. These will stay fresh in the freezer for about 3 months if they’re wrapped tightly. You can simply pull them out of the freezer a day ahead of time, or pop them in the microwave for about 30 seconds to eat them immediately.
Toddlers absolutely love muffins. Seriously, my almost 2-year-old goes nuts anytime I make muffins! These are perfectly safe to give your little one, and are a great way to sneak some veggies into them, too! Just make sure to cut the muffin up in smaller pieces if your little one can’t handle a whole muffin at once.
The storebought, pre-shredded carrots are much more dry than home-shredded carrots, so don’t use them! Just shred your own using your cheese shredder. Not only will you have delicious muffins, you’ll have saved some money, too!
RELATED: 30 Healthy Foods To Feed Your 1 Year Old
Nutritional Info
Storebought muffins are convenient, tasty, and usually pretty cheap. But they are usually not healthy whatsoever.
Did you know that one Costco muffin has almost 50 grams of sugar, 80 grams of carbs, almost 700 calories, and just under 600 mg of sodium per muffin!?
Are you cringing? Cause I am just thinking about it.
But don’t get me wrong, I love Costco. There are just some things that you should make at home if you want to put your health first.
Like muffins! These ones are full of healthy fats, natural sugar, are lower-calorie and in carbohydrates, and even have vegetables, too!
Total nutritional content per muffin is:
- Calories: 167 calories
- Protein: 3 grams
- Sodium: 231 mg
- Carbohydrates: 26 grams
- Fiber: 2 grams
Pricing Info
This recipe comes out to be about $4.17 for the entire batch or roughly $.35 per muffin. You literally could not buy a healthy muffin at the store for anywhere near that price!
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Recipe
Banana Carrot Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed banana (about 2 medium bananas)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup grated carrots
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup avocado oil
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°. In a large bowl, mash your bananas until almost smooth.
- Add eggs, carrots, maple syrup, avocado oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
- Add whole wheat pastry flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until just combined, but try not to overmix.
- Line or grease a cupcake pan, and fill each liner about 3/4 full of batter. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, until the muffins are cooked through and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool and enjoy!
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Banana carrot muffins are healthy, fluffy, and so easy to make all in one bowl! Make them for Easter Sunday or anytime really. They’re one of the easiest ways to get your toddler (or even your husband) to eat their vegetables!
xoxo Megan
Fun to make with grandkids
I love that Patricia, thank you!