Almond flour Gluten-free Carrot Muffins are delicious, easy to make and freezer friendly. You’ll love these grain-free carrot cake muffins that are naturally sweetened with banana and a touch of maple syrup. They’re made with simple ingredients, perfect for a Passover Breakfast or Snack and you can enjoy them year round!
This post has been updated from the original, posted March 19, 2018.
Baked goods like these gluten-free carrot cake muffins, made with almond flour are my kryptonite so I’m always happy to have a grain-free muffin recipe that’s kosher for passover (and year round) up my sleeve. I’ll make a double batch before the holiday and freeze them to make grab and go breakfasts and snack a cinch!
If you’re looking for vegan carrot muffins with pineapple or zucchini, check out this Vegan Morning Glory Muffin Recipe. If you’re not eating these for Passover, you can definitely use flax eggs as a substitute for the eggs for a vegan carrot muffin with delicious results.
Ingredients
- Banana: Helps to build texture and add some natural sweetness, plus fiber.
- Eggs: During Passover, it’s hard to find a good substitute to make this recipe vegan. Other times of the year you can definitely make flax eggs and use them in this recipe.
- Olive oil: You can substitute drippy tahini if you prefer oil-free baking with whole foods.
- Maple syrup: Just a touch is all that’s needed to perfectly sweeten these muffins without any refined sugar.
- Carrots: The star of the show…they’re naturally sweet and I love the texture when you use a box grater, but I sometimes throw them in the food processor to save time.
- Fresh Ginger: Just a bit gives these a warm, cozy vibe with a bit of pizzazz.
- Raisins: I’m all about the texture and chewy raisins are the bomb in this recipe.
- Walnuts: More texture with the crunch factor…plus omega 3s and plant based protein.
- Cinnamon: I’m all in with the cozy spices…sometimes I sprinkle in a bit of nutmeg too!
- Almond flour: I buy super fine to keep the muffins from becoming too dense.
How to make them
Preheat oven to 350. Choose to line muffin tins with unbleached parchment paper liners or grease the tins with olive oil.
Mash banana with a fork into a medium sized mixing bowl. Continue mashing until uniform and smooth in texture, without any clumps.
Use fork to incorporate oil and maple syrup into the banana.
Next, add the ginger. I use a microplane to get it nice and liquidy. You can also mince with a knife, just be careful it doesn’t get stringy.
Whisk the eggs until nice a fluffy. Then pour into liquid ingredients and mix well.
Add in the shredded carrots and raisins. Mix well.
Stir in the almond flour, until JUST mixed in, pulling up from the bottom to avoid patches of flour in the batter later.
Finely chop walnuts with the salt and cinnamon.
Set aside a small amount of the walnut mixture to sprinkle onto top of muffins and gently stir in the rest to the batter.
Evenly distribute into 9 of the muffin tins. These carrot muffins won’t rise much to fill them generously.
Sprinkle the tops with the walnut/cinnamon mixture previously set aside.
Bake for 30 minutes in preheated 350 degree oven. Inserted toothpick will come out clean and sides of muffins will be golden.
Transfer to wire rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Debra’s Pro Tips
If you’ve been trying to eliminate refined sugar in your diet, these muffins are a great choice. Using a banana, carrots and raisins makes these carrot muffins naturally sweet. A small amount of maple syrup is all that’s needed to produce a sweet and delicious muffin. Plus, almond flour contains protein and fiber, which helps reduce blood sugar spikes.
- Save time: buy already shredded carrots at the grocery store, and you can also find grated ginger in the freezer section in 1 teaspoon cubes, or in a jar in the produce aisle.
- I used olive oil spray for my muffin tins and they came out clean with no waste….sometimes when I use cupcake liners, some of the muffin sticks to the paper and I feel like I’m missing out on some of the actual muffin goodness…just thinking out loud here.
- Cool completely on a wire rack. Super important to avoid moisture build up when storing in an airtight container.
MEAL PREP AND STORAGE
- SERVE: Perfect for a healthy breakfast or snack.
- PREP AHEAD: Yes! These healthy carrot muffins are totally meal prep friendly.
- STORE: Store in a tightly sealed container. They’ll stay good at room temp for 3 days, in the fridge for 5 days or freezer for 3 months.
- FREEZE: Make sure muffins are completely cool. Use freezer safe container or freezer zip top bags to avoid freezer burn.
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📖 Recipe
Gluten free Carrot Muffins
Equipment
- Unbleached muffin liners optional
Ingredients
- 1 banana
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 3 large carrots about 1 cup grated
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- ¼ cup raisins
- ⅓ cup chopped walnuts
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 cups almond flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tins with parchment liners.
- In a large bowl, mash banana with a fork. Mix in egg, oil and maple syrup. Stir until everything is well mixed.
- Use the side of a box grater to shred carrots into the bowl. Use the smallest holes to grate the ginger. Mix carrot and ginger into the banana mixture. Then add raisins, walnuts, cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Stir in almond flour until just incorporated.
- Scoop muffin mixture into lined muffin tin. Muffins will not rise much, so fill all the way to the top.
- OPTIONAL: Finely chop 2 tablespoon walnuts and mix with ½ teaspoon cinnamon and a pinch of sea salt. Sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.
- Bake muffins for 30 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Notes
Nutrition
Note
The nutrition calculations were done using online tools. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients you used. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information is accurate, complete and useful.
Simi
These look amazing! I have a child who can’t eat banana. If I omit the banana, should I compensate for that in some way? Please advise – I really want to make these.
Debra Klein
You can use 1/2 cup applesauce in place of the mashed banana. They may be a bit less sweet, but the consistency should be fine.
Virginia
These carrot muffins are the most delicious muffins that I have made.
I made them vegan, tho’, by substituting applesauce for the oil and making flax eggs.
Debra Klein
So glad you enjoyed them. Those are great substitutions.
Glenda King
I can’t seem to find the number of eggs required for this recipe. There is no mention of eggs in the ingredient list. Please let me know as I’m right in the middle of making them. Thank you.
Debra Klein
Hi….it’s 2 eggs for this carrot muffin recipe.