These Carrot Applesauce Muffins are lightly sweetened and kid-friendly. Made with pantry staples, they freeze well and are great for a healthy breakfast, lunch or snack!
Hi friends!
I can’t wait to share these Carrot Applesauce Muffins with you guys. You know I’m no stranger to adding things like vegetables, lentils, beans etc to bake goods. In fact, I recently put together a free PDF with some of my favorite Kid-Friendly Baking Recipes so that you can print them all out and stash them in your kitchen!
If you’ve been around away, you know my three-year-old’s favorite are the Carrot Oat Bars. We make them weekly and always have some on hand or in the freezer for her at snack time. Since we always seem to have carrots on hand around here since we buy them at Costco, I decided to use them in another baked good. While my Carrot Oat Bars call for roasted carrots, these Carrot Applesauce Muffins use raw carrots. I just chop mine in the food processor but you could also grate them by hand.
I had a little help with my photoshoot for these…a photoshoot which lasted just long enough for me to snap about 10 pictures before my youngest was double-fisting these muffins. My kids LOVE baked goods for snacks so I do my best to focus on a few things when I develop recipes like this.
Tips For Healthy Baked Goods:
- I always use white whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour. Regular whole wheat flour is very dense but white whole wheat flour is much lighter and very similar to AP flour.
- I make them lightly sweetened. Most of my muffin and bar recipes use 1/4 – 1/3 cup of sugar or maple syrup. Since I often mix in some chocoate chips, which add sweetness, it’s easier to make the muffins themselves less sweet.
- I try to add healthy additions. I usually aim to add a vegetable, lentils or beans to my recipes. And I almost always mix in hemp hearts, chia seeds or ground flax as well!
There’s nothing wrong with just a plain old bakery-style muffin, cinnamon roll, etc and my kids eat those as well…but when I’m making things they’re going to eat for snacks regularly, I aim to make them as nutrient-dense as possible most of the time.
Carrot Applesauce Muffins
Here’s how you make these:
PrintCarrot Applesauce Muffins
These Carrot Applesauce Muffins are lightly sweetened and kid-friendly. Made with pantry staples, they freeze well and are great for a healthy breakfast, lunch or snack!
- Prep Time: 5 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
Ingredients
1.5 cup shredded carrots (wrap in towel and squeeze to remove excess water. I chop mine in the food processor)
1/2 cup oil (i use avocado oil)
1/3 cup maple syrup*
1 egg
3/4 cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
optional mix-ins: shredded coconut, chocolate chips, dried fruit
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F
- Chop carrots in a food processor. Remove from food processor, squeeze to remove excess water and then measure so you have 1.5 cups. (Should take about 3/4 pound of carrots).
- In a food processor, combine finely chopped carrots, oil, maple syrup, egg, applesauce and vanilla and process until well combined.
- Add flour, flax, baking soda and cinnamon and process to mix.
- Add any mix-ins if using and pulse a few times.
- Scoop into 12 greased muffin tins and bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Notes
These are lightly sweetened. If you want a sweeter muffin, use 1/2 cup maple syrup. I use 1/4 cup and add some chocolate chips.
I make mine in a food processor because that’s how i shred my carrots but you could also shred by hand and make in a bowl, the carrots will just be more noticeable in the muffins. You could also shred carrots by hand, squeeze to remove water, measure and then make in a blender.
I make almost all my baked goods in the food processor because it’s so easy!
Do you prefer muffins or bars when it comes to baked goods?
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
Sounds so good and healthy. My husband Ed worked with your Mom and Dad in MN. We all became friends.
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Just made these today for a fun self-isolation activity and my 20 month old loved them! Me too. Thanks as always Lindsay for bringing good and easy food into our lives that we can make as a family. You’re the best!
Super easy recipe to follow and oh so yummy!! Made these this afternoon for Easter morning breakfast – can’t wait!! I am gluten free, so I subbed Cassava 1:1 for the Whole Wheat flour, did add in 1/4 cup Enjoy Life dark chocolate chips and sprinkled each muffin top before baking with a bit of unsweetened fine coconut. They look and smell amazing, thank you for posting this recipe!!
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Just made these with my 2 yo and he loves them (so do I)! I didn’t have any flaxseed so I left that out and they still came out delicious. Do you store these in the fridge?
Thanks for a great recipe!!
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yep! i keep them on the counter for maybe a day or two but then move to the fridge
Another home run recipe! We have made three batches of these already and they’ve turned out great each time.
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These look delicious, and I have everything but flaxseed. Would they turn out okay without it?
yep they’ll be fine!
I’ve made these a couple of times and they are GREAT, although somewhat addicting. I couldn’t find ground flax seed, so I just ground whole ones in a spice/coffee grinder. They are very easy to make.
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This was excellent. Made these for my 10 month old and my 3 year old and they were a big hit’. Very easy and very yummy! I also purées the carrot instead of shredding them and it worked really well.
Is there anything I can do to replace the maple syrup? I want to make this for my 9 month old who follows BLW and I’m trying to avoid sweeteners right now. Can I use banana in it’s place or just leave it out all together?
yep! you can sub banana or just leave it out!
Delicious recipe and looks mouth watering. i almost tried most of your recipes at home. Keep sharing good stuff.