These tasty muffins make the perfect indulgent snack or comforting breakfast and are ready in less than 30 minutes! Whip up a batch to enjoy throughout the week or make them for a brunch get-together. They are also great to add to kid’s school lunches! If you’re looking for more breakfast recipes, then try my breakfast potatoes recipe, homemade monte cristo, or blueberry muffins.
What You Need to Make This Recipe
Carrots – you will need 2 cups of grated carrots, which is about 3 large carrots, or 6 small/medium carrots. Large carrots are the easiest to grate. I don’t recommend buying pre-shredded carrots as they are often too hard and dry to use in baked goods. Spices – a combination of warming spices, including ground cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, add a delicious spiced aroma and flavor to the carrot muffins. Sugar – white granulated sugar makes these muffins soft and moist. You can sub granulated sugar with brown sugar or a deeper molasses flavor if you are out of granulated sugar. Eggs – use large eggs and bring them to room temperature before adding them to the recipe for a smoother, fluffier batter. Oil – vegetable oil has a neutral flavor and makes this carrot muffins recipe extra moist. Milk – whole milk adds flavor and makes the muffin crumb nice and tender. Alternatively, you can substitute it with 2% milk. Walnuts – chop raw walnut halves into smaller pieces so they are evenly distributed in the batter. Or, for added flavor, toast the walnuts before chopping them. Raisins – use regular raisins, golden raisins, or a mix of both to add sweetness and tasty texture to these carrot raisin muffins.
How to Make Carrot Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners or muffin cups. In a medium bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt and whisk together.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla extract, and milk and whisk well.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in a large bowl. Stir together until the flour mixture is just combined, making sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Use a rubber spatula to gently fold the carrots, walnuts, and raisins into the batter.
- Divide the batter evenly among the paper liners and fill until each one is almost full.
- Sprinkle the top of each muffin with more sugar, if desired. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until the muffin tops are springy and a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs. Let the carrot muffins cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Pro Tips For Making This Recipe
Accurately measure the flour. You want the exact amount of flour so the batter is not too dense. The best way to measure flour when baking is to weigh it on a food scale. If you don’t have a scale, fluff and spoon the flour into the measuring cup, then level it off with the flat edge of a butter knife. Use fresh spices. Fresh spices have a more vibrant flavor than preground spices. Be sure to use spices with a good expiration date. I typically buy preground cinnamon and ginger, but I always freshly grate the nutmeg when adding it to baked goods. Jarred ground nutmeg has significantly less flavor than fresh. Mix the batter gently. Overmixing the batter can lead to tough and dense muffins. Mix the wet and dry ingredients until just combined, and then gently fold in the grated carrots, chopped walnuts, and raisins. Do not use a mixer. Don’t overfill the muffin cups. It is important to leave room for the muffin batter to rise. Avoid filling the muffin liners to the top; leave a bit of space so they are only about ⅔ full. The muffins will rise when baking and come out at the perfect height in the liner. Garnish with sugar. These muffins are extra delicious topped with sugar for a crunchy, sweet muffin top. Sprinkle with sanding sugar or coarse turbinado sugar for a sparkling finish if desired!
If you’ve tried this Carrot Muffins recipe, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!
