These Carrot Cake Muffins are a delicious combination of carrots, walnuts, and cinnamon topped with a crumbly streusel topping! Enjoy for breakfast or as a snack, these are going to satisfy all your sweet tooth cravings.
If you love muffins, try our Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins!
CARROT CAKE MUFFINS
Enjoy these fluffy and moist freshly baked carrot cake muffins! Packed with carrots, walnuts, a hint of cinnamon and topped with a sweet and crumbly streusel topping, the muffins are the perfect sweet treat. These carrot muffins are perfect no matter what the occasion, but especially perfect for Easter! With just a few basic steps, have these delicious muffins ready to enjoy.
WHAT YOU NEED-
- Flour– Use a good quality all purpose flour for these muffins. I like to use Bob’s Red Mill All-purpose flour.
- Baking Soda & Powder– Be sure to use fresh baking soda and baking powder, to ensure your muffins come out fluffy and with beautiful tops!
- Spices– The key to getting delicious, spiced muffins is the ground cinnamon and nutmeg! You do not want to skip these spices.
- Eggs– Fresh eggs help give you moist muffins and help bind all the ingredients together.
- Oil– You can use either vegetable oil, canola, or olive oil for these muffins. I like to use canola oil.
- Milk– Adding whole milk to the muffin batter, helps add flavor and gives more moisture to avoid dry muffins.
- Vanilla– Vanilla extract adds extra flavors to these muffins.
- Sugar– This recipe calls for granulated sugar to sweeten the muffin batter. One of the reasons why I love this muffin recipe is because they are not overly sweet!
- Carrots– You can’t have carrot cake muffins without the carrots! You want to use freshly shredded or grated carrots. I like to use this hand grater to get small, shredded carrots!
- Walnuts– For a crunch, you can add chopped walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts! This is totally optional.
- Streusel Topping– The added streusel topping totally elevates these carrot muffins! The crumbly topping is made with all purpose flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter. You do not have to add the streusel topping.
HOW TO MAKE CARROT CAKE MUFFINS
Skip all the work of making a carrot cake and make these simple carrot cake muffins instead!
- Preheat the oven and line the muffin tins with muffin liners.
- In a small bowl, combine the ingredients for the streusel topping. Set aside.
- Sift together the dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, milk, vanilla, sugar, shredded carrots and walnuts.
- Gently whisk in the dry ingredients, mixing only until combined.
- Using a cookie scoop or measuring cup, divide the muffin matter between the 12 muffin liners.
- Top with the streusel topping, dividing the mixture among all the muffins.
- Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat and finish baking until golden and toothpick runs clean through the center of the muffins.
- Remove the muffins from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.
- Serve warm or allow the muffins to completely cool.
TOPPING VARIATIONS-
There are several different toppings you can add to these carrot cake muffins! You can totally leave these plain without any topping, or try one of these toppings:
- Streusel Topping– This recipe calls for streusel topping, it adds additional sweetness and flavors!
- Sugar Icing– Make a sweet sugar icing to drizzle over your plain muffins or over your streusel muffins! Mix 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 ½ tsp milk together until a thick glaze forms. Once the muffins are cooled, drizzle the icing over the muffins and enjoy!
- Cream Cheese Frosting– Want to make these carrot cake muffins more like the classic carrot cake? Make a cream cheese frosting for these muffins! Pipe the frosting on top or stuff the muffins with the frosting. Use my frosting recipe from my cinnamon roll recipe!
- Coarse Sugar– Want to keep these muffins simple? Top the muffin batter with coarse sugar before baking.
QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE:
This recipe makes 12 classic sized muffins.
Yes! Use jumbo muffin tins to make 6 jumbo muffins. You will want to bake it at 425°F for 8 minutes, then 15-17 minutes. For mini muffins, use mini muffin tins and bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes! For mini muffins, you do not need to bake at 425°F first.
No, you can NOT skip this step. This step is vital to achieving the perfect fluffy muffins with a beautiful muffin top! The high heat helps activate the batter to rise then once you reduce the heat, the muffins finish baking.
Yes! These muffins freeze great! Once cooled, transfer to a freezer safe bag and freeze for up to 3 months! Thaw overnight and enjoy!
Store the carrot cake muffins in an airtight container or bag at room temp for 2-3 days or in the fridge for 1 week.
Muffin liners are not necessary, they just help prevent the muffins from sticking to the pan. You can totally skip the liners but be sure to spray the muffin tin with baking spray!
Depending on the liners you use, sometimes you will have muffins stick to the liner, so I like to lightly spray the liners with some baking spray.
OTHER DESSERT RECIPES
Have a sweet treat? Try some of these other delicious dessert recipes:
Carrot Cake Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour sifted
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 large eggs
- 2/3 cup oil canola, vegetable, or olive oil
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cups shredded carrots**
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts optional
Streusel Topping-
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 Tbsp brown sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 3 Tbsp butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F and line the muffin tin with liners or spray with baking spray.
- Make the streusel topping by combining the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Then pour in the cooled melted butter and mix until crumbly. Set aside.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Set aside.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, milk, vanilla, sugar, shredded carrots, and walnuts until well combined.
- Gently mix in the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and mix just enough to combine.
- Using a measuring cup or cookie scoop, divide the batter among the 12 muffin liners, filling just below the top. Divide the streusel topping mixture among the 12 muffins, adding onto the muffin batter.
- Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350F and continue baking for 12-15 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean from the center of the muffin.
- Remove the muffin tin from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a cooling rack and continue cooling or enjoy the muffins warm.
Leave a Reply