Carrot Muffins are a delicious and healthy treat. We are always on the look out for recipes that are great for lunch boxes and aren’t too sweet. We love to bake on the weekends and then freeze the results. Pop a frozen muffin in the lunch box in the morning, and they are defrosted and ready to eat by morning tea. That is, if they last that long! Carrot muffins are amazing to eat warm from the oven.
The great thing about this recipe is you can add whatever dried fruit you have on hand (sultanas, raisins, currants all work well). Nuts can be added if desired (chopped walnuts or pecans). We left the nuts out this time – as someone doesn’t like them in their baked goods.
Sarah baked the muffins and they were based on the Carrot Spiced Muffins recipe found in Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking – From My Home to Yours“. This is one of Sarah’s favourite baking books, so many excellent recipes and a great resource for bakers.
- 2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp mixed spice
- ¼ tsp salt
- ⅓ cup (packed) light brown sugar
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- ½ cup shredded sweetened coconut
- ⅓ cup sultanas (or raisins or currants)
- ⅓ cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)
- Preheat oven to 190 deg C (375 degrees F). Place cupcake liners in muffin pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, mixed spice, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the brown sugar. In another bowl, whisk the oil, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract, until it is well combined. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients, and gently but quickly stir to blend. Be careful not to overmix, a few lumps are fine. Stir in the carrots, sultanas, and nuts. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
- Bake for 20 minutes until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes, before carefully removing the muffins.
You can find more of our favourite lunch box treats here.
thankyou Sarah i am going to try these.xx
Hope you enjoy them as much as we do Shez!
Thank you, I might try these as we are over the wholemeal choc chip muffins I’ve been doing!
They area big favourite in our home Susie.
They look and sound delicious! Will have a go at these.
Hope your family love them Lisa.
Looks good, will definitely have to try them!
Thanks Joanne – hope you enjoy them.
Estos muffin se ven deliciosos, voy a probar haciendo esta receta.
Gracias.
Thanks Ciely 🙂
Curious on the “mixed spice”… We have “allspice” here in the States, but it’s not a mix — it’s from the allspice berry and sort of has a clovey cinnamon-nutmeg flavor going on. Would that work or should I be using something like our “apple pie” or “pumpkin pie” pre-made spice mixes?
Mixed spice is similar to allspice but the blend of spices is slightly different. Mixed spice commonly contains cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, cloves. It is similar to Pumpkin pie spice found in the US. You could use allspice and it would not make much difference to the flavour.