Carrot Apple Muffins loaded with fruit and veggies. A deliciously spiced muffin that’s perfect for snacking or on the go breakfast made in one bowl! Gluten Free +Dairy Free + Refined Sugar Free
I’ve had more of these carrot apple muffins than I should probably admit today and I’m not mad about it. Sometimes you just need to sit down with a hot cup of coffee and a really bomb muffin, ya know?
And just look at those insides! So soft! So tasty! Not to mention so ready to be in and around your face!
Let’s do it.
I’ve got an ongoing list of recipes that I’d like make/share here on the blog…and when I say ‘list’ I mean that I haphazardly scribble down any recipe I think of on whatever nearby notebook or scrap of paper I’ve got within reach. I’m sure you can imagine the sheer amount of scraps I’ve accumulated over time. I’ve really got to come up with a better system.
A lot of recipes come and go. As much as I’d like to make everything, sometimes I just don’t have the time or the will to get to everything. One thing that has been on my list has been these carrot apple muffins. Well, not these muffins. It’s taken a few recipe evolutions before I finally landed on this particular recipe. Originally I wanted to share a paleo carrot cake type muffin, but then I remembered that I actually already have a paleo carrot cake that I shared last year. Not a muffin, but still close.
I played with the idea of making a nut based carrot muffin instead but shut down that idea fairly quickly after a trip to Costco yesterday. Mike & I were stocking up on essentials when I noticed that a 3 pound bag of almonds cost £17 then proceeded to nope my way down the aisle. Almonds have never been cheap but they’ve gone way up in price since the last time I bought a bag.
About This Recipe: Carrot Apple Muffins
So instead of making a paleo version of these carrot apple muffins with potentially inaccessible flours I decided to make these healthy-ish muffins instead. Â I really struggle to claim anything is ‘healthy’ because I truly believe that it looks different for everyone, though I do think these are a great healthier option since they’re made sans gluten, dairy, refined sugars and less oil than you’d normally see in a muffin.
To lighten up on the oil I decided to add in some grated carrot which works double time as a sweetener too. Any variety of apple will do – I used pink lady but use whatever you’ve got on hand. This recipe calls for 1/2 cup grated apple which was 1 medium sized apple for me.
This also calls for maple syrup as an added sweetener but you can swap that out for honey if you like. I originally tested these with half the amount of maple but those muffins came out pretty ‘meh’ so I wouldn’t recommend reducing the sweetness here.
As for the glaze it’s completely optional. Glazes on muffins just seem necessary to me. In order to keep this refined sugar free Mike gave me the idea to make powdered coconut sugar with our blender and now I’m pretty sure I’m going to be making coconut sugar glazes for days.
All in all this recipe is pretty simple and made in one bowl. Score.
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Carrot Apple Muffins with Flax
Carrot Apple Muffins loaded with fruit and veggies. A deliciously spiced muffin that's perfect for snacking or on the go breakfast made in one bowl! Gluten Free +Dairy Free + Refined Sugar Free
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup maple syrup | 160 grams, can sub with honey
- 2 tablespoons coconut sugar or brown sugar | 24 grams, optional if you like things a little sweeter
- 1/4 cup coconut oil | 56 grams, melted and cooled
- 1 1/2 cup All Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend | 210 grams, or your favourite GF flour blend
- 1/3 cup ground/milled flaxseed | 40 grams
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 1/2 cup grated carrot | 150 grams
- 1/2 cup grated apple | 115 grams, 1 medium apple
Optional Orange Glaze
- 6 tablespoons coconut sugar, or powdered sugar - see the recipe for more info on that
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin or line with silicon cupcake moulds. Since these muffins are lower in oil they'll stick more to paper liners.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the eggs, vanilla, maple, sugar and coconut oil until combined.
- Add the flour, flax, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger to the egg mixture and stir well until fully combined and evenly mixed. Add the carrot and apple and stir a couple more times to combine.
- Divide the batter between 9 muffin cups filling all the way to the top. Bake the muffins at 425°F/220°C for 5 minutes, then keeping them in the oven without opening the door, reduce the temperature down to 350°F/180°C and bake for another 15-18 minutes or until knife inserted into the centre of one comes out clean.
- Allow the muffins to cool for 10 minutes in their tray before transferring them to a wire a rack to cool longer.
Optional Orange Glaze
- Add the coconut sugar to a high powdered blender (I used Blendtec) and process until you get a soft powdery sugar. You can also just use regular powdered sugar here instead.
- Add the sugar to a small bowl and add the orange juice. Whisk together with a fork until no lumps remain. Once the muffins have cooled drizzle the glaze over the tops and enjoy.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
10Serving Size:
gAmount Per Serving: Calories: 240Saturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 32mgSodium: 267mgCarbohydrates: 37gFiber: 4gSugar: 18gProtein: 4g
Hi! This looks so amazing that I decided to take a shot and make them this morning… These are superb… I used your GF four blend as my kids have lots of intolerances to additives… I have tried several muffins/cupcakes recipes from other sites with no succes at all, only frustration…
I made half recipe and it yeld for 6 muffins (was scare to waste again all ingredients In a recepy wouldn’t work now I regret I did only half batch… I needed to use baking powder as my baking soda was not so good anymore… So mine raised a little more than yours but this made them just so yummy…
Do you know how could I store this ones? As I’m planning to do more this afternoon for tomorrow’s lunch box for my kids… Both my kids just loved them and left 1 over I needed to share with my hubby hahahaha…
Thank you so much…
Hi Nathaly! I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much!
As for storing these I like to place them in a zip lock bag with paper towel lining the bottom to absorb excess moisture like explained in this post: https://www.adventuresnacks.com.au/blogs/news/how-to-store-muffins-so-they-stay-fresher-longer#:~:text=To%20store%20muffins%20up%20to,longer%20they're%20in%20there.
Since the muffins have quite a lot of moisture from the carrots and apples I find this method keeps them moist/fresh the best.
Hope that helps!
Hi Sarah!
Thanks so much for the recipe. I’ve been testing out a number of GF and Vegan goodies and this has been one of my favorites! I subbed out eggs for flax-eggs, and added an extra half cup of both grated carrots and grated apples to the batter. My batter ended up making 11 muffins total, which was a huge plus! Didn’t have ginger, so I just added an extra teaspoon of cinnamon. They tasted delicious and were a hit with my family. We’ve nearly finished all of them in just a day. Safe to say I’ll be making more of these soon. 🙂 Thanks again!
Steph
Ooh that’s great to know about the flax eggs! Thanks so much for coming back to share – so glad you enjoyed the muffins! 🙂
Hi Sarah,
I just made these. Didn’t have coconut oil so just used regular virgin oil. Also threw in 1/3 cup of raisins. they are yummy. Just had one without frosting. But feel Im going to add frosting to the rest. Thank you for this post.
Yay! So glad you liked them! Thanks Stephanie!
Hi. Id like to make these for my sins first birthday. Can they be frozen if I make ahead?
Hi Heidi! Happy Birthday to your little one! I have’t tried freezing these yet but I do think that would work just fine – I’ve frozen similar type of muffins easily. Usually you can just reheat it in the microwave from frozen in about 30 seconds to a minute. Hope you like them!
I’m in need of dairy and gluten free options for a party this weekend…these look perfect! I just wondered whether I could leave out the flaxseed or whether you think that would affect the outcome? Thanks!
Hi Hannah! I haven’t made this without the flax yet so I can’t say for sure but I’m also positive that you can just replace the flax with more flour and you’ll be alright.
Hi, could I substitute the coconut oil for another type of oil or non dairy spread?
Got to avoid dairy, gluten and nuts 🙄 and these look yummy!
Thanks
Hi Michelle! I haven’t tried it with other oils yet, but usually with coconut oil you can swap it out 1:1 for another type of oil. Pretty much any oil would do!
Could I use coconut flour? If so, how much? Thanks 🙂
Hi Heidi! I’m afraid I’m not sure. Coconut flour isn’t an easy flour to use in place of other flours and I think I’d need to do a lot of testing before I’d be able to recommend anything that I know would work