Soft, moist Banana Carrot Muffins with oats combine the best of carrot cake and banana bread in an easy, healthy muffin with no processed sugar. A delicious way to sneak extra veggies into your diet (and your kids').
Try Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins and Lemon Cake Mix Muffins next.
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✅Recipe at a Glance
🍽️Servings: 12
⏰Ready In: 35 minutes
🛒Main Ingredients: Overripe bananas, maple syrup, eggs, oil, carrots, oats, flour
⭐Featured review: I love this recipe and make it a couple of times a month. - cchris119
💻Summarize and Save This Content On
I make healthy banana carrot muffins when I want cake, but know I should probably eat fruits and vegetables instead.
They're soft and moist, with natural sweetness from carrots, bananas, and maple syrup, and taste like carrot spice cake with a subtle banana flavor.
It's an easy recipe to meal prep for the week for a quick grab-and-go breakfast or healthy snack.
Use up your extra bananas in Banana Bread with Pancake Mix, Thick, Fluffy Banana Pancakes, and Peanut Butter Banana Oat Muffins. And turn those carrots in the crisper drawer into Maple Balsamic Roasted Carrots, Roasted Carrot Hummus, or Easy Microwave Steamed Carrots.
🍌Ingredients
See recipe card at the bottom of the post for the full list of ingredients and exact amounts.
- Ripe bananas. Use overripe bananas with dark brown or black peels for the sweetest and most intense banana flavor. Learn how to ripen bananas in the oven and bake with frozen bananas.
- Maple syrup. Pure maple syrup adds rich flavor and sweetness without processed sugar.
- Oil. I prefer oil over melted butter because it makes muffins extra moist. Use any kind of vegetable oil, a neutral-flavored olive oil, or even melted coconut oil. I use canola oil.
- Finely grated carrots. Avoid large chunks or pre-shredded carrots, which can be dry and too large. Shred fresh carrots on the fine side of a box grater or in a food processor.
🥜Variations
- Stir-ins. Mix in up to a cup of chocolate chips, regular or golden raisins, walnuts or pecans, or toasted coconut.
- Toppings. For bakery-style muffins, sprinkle chopped pecans, a few more oats, and raw sugar on top of the batter before baking.
🥣How to Make Moist Banana Carrot Muffins
Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, whisk the banana, maple syrup, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract. Whisk the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices until well combined.
Step 2: Stir in the grated carrots. Add the oats and sift in the flour and fold them in until just combined.
Step 3: Spoon the banana carrot muffin batter into a 12-cup muffin pan prepared with muffin liners. Fill each muffin cup all the way to the top. If desired, sprinkle the tops of the muffin batter with chopped pecans, oats, and/or turbinado sugar.
Step 4: Bake in preheated oven at 425 for 5 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 and bake 13-15 more minutes. Cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
👉Helpful Hint: Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Overmixing can cause the muffins to become tough and dense.
✅Top Tips
- For the best texture, grate carrots into fine shreds using the fine side of a box grater.
- Stir the batter until just combined. Overmixing can make them dense.
- Five minutes at a high temperature helps create nice, tall muffins. So go ahead and fill the muffin cups all the way to the top!
- Bake to an internal temperature of 200 or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs.
🎁Storage
- Storage. Store banana carrot muffins in an airtight container for up to 2 days or in the fridge for up to one week.
- Freezer: Freeze banana carrot muffins for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature. Warm briefly in the microwave.
❓FAQs
For the best flavor and texture, use very finely grated carrots. Shredded carrots won't disperse into the batter quite as well, and you'll end up with big chunks of carrots.
No. Finely grated carrots add moisture to the muffins. Squeezing them can make the muffins drier unless the recipe specifically accounts for it.
The best way is with a digital thermometer. The internal temperature should reach 200 degrees. You can also do the toothpick test -- when inserted into the center, the toothpick should come out clean.
Yes. Chopped walnuts, pecans, or raisins work well. Stir in up to 1 cup total to avoid weighing down the batter.
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📖 Recipe
Banana Carrot Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed banana 2-3 medium bananas
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- ⅓ cup oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup finely grated carrots
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
- optional: chopped pecans or more rolled oats, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk the mashed banana, maple syrup, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract until well combined. Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg and stir well. Stir in the grated carrots. Add the oats and sift in the flour. Fold them in until just combined -- do not overmix.
- Fill the muffin cups all the way to the top with muffin batter. If desired, sprinkle the tops with chopped pecans, oats, or raw sugar.
- Bake at 425 for 5 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 and bake for 13-15 more minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The internal temperature should read 200 on a digital thermometer. Start checking on them a few minutes early to prevent overbaking.
- Cool muffins in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Enjoy warm or room temperature.
Notes
- For the best texture, grate carrots into fine shreds with the fine side of a box grater.
- Be careful not to overmix or the muffins can become tough and dense.
- You can fill the muffin cups all the way to the top! The initial blast at a high temperature ensures these muffins get nice and tall.
Chris says
This is my new “go to” muffin recipe. They’re healthy and delicious. I always add chopped pecans and raisins. I even grated up a bunch of carrots in my food processor and froze them in one cup bags so I have them handy for the next time I have a few ripe bananas!
Cara Lanz says
Oh, how wonderful, I'm so honored that this is your new go-to muffin recipe. So smart to pre-prep and freeze carrots, so they're ready when the bananas are! Thank you so much for the nice note :). Cara
Sherry says
Can this recipe work with gluten free flour? Thank you it looks like it would be delicious.
Sherry
Cara Lanz says
Hi, Sherry, I haven't tried it with this recipe, but I have made other muffin recipes (like these blueberry muffins) with Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour with excellent results. Let me know if you try it and how it goes! Cara