Sunny Carrot Oats Mini Muffins +6M – Breakfast with love!

Jump to Recipe

I’m always happy when I find a lovely breakfast recipe like the Sunny Carrot Oats Mini Muffins. They are easy to prepare, the right size to be handled by little hands and naturally and delicately sweet. The whole family (adults included) gave thumbs up.

My little one loves smooth textures, he always complains when there are “chunks” in his muffins. That means that pieces of fruit or nuts inside will make him enjoy the muffin less or even not eat it at all. For this exact reason I wanted the texture of this Sunny Carrot Muffins to be smooth. He loved it! If you prefer more texture, no problem, I have an easy fix in the questions section here below. 😉

How to bake the muffins.

Let’s start preheating the oven to 350F and greasing a mini muffin tin with a tablespoon of coconut oil (or cooking spray or cooking oil). Set it aside.

Peel the carrots and grate them finely.

In a small bowl add the dry ingredients all together: whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine all the wet ingredients: eggs, applesauce, maple syrup, vanilla extract, coconut oil. Mix well.

Quickly add the dry mix too. Do not over mix the batter. This is the secret to get that gorgeous, fluffy bakery muffin texture.

Add the grated carrots and the oats.

Scoop the mix into the muffin tin and sprinkle few flakes of rolled oats on top.

Bake for 18 minutes to 350F until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely. Easy!

How to get more or less texture.

Every toddler/kid is different. My little one loves smooth texture, my older one is on the chunky team. With this recipe you can really decide the texture that you like!

For a smooth texture:

• Grate the carrots finely
• Add oat meal instead of old fashioned oats. Or blend the old fashioned oats for 30 sec to transform them into breadcrumbs texture.

For a chunkier texture:

• Grate the carrots with the medium holes or even chop them in small pieces with a knife.
• Add chopped nuts or raisins or seeds in the batter at the end when adding the carrots.

How to store the mini muffins.

These muffins freeze wonderfully and can be quickly thawed in the microwave. They will taste like they are fresh from the oven! You can also keep them on the countertop in an air tight container or cake dome to keep the moist inside: covered at room temperature for 2-3 days.

Can I bake regular muffin size and not mini muffins?

I tried three different muffin tins sizes for this recipe: regular, mini and jumbo muffins. To be honest the best result I got is with mini muffins. The batter is very moist so with regular size muffin tins the center tend to be a bit soft. It’s not a big problem, but I prefer the mini. Jumbo size is a no, I would not suggest it. They require a lot of time to bake and the center stays too moist. Also, mini muffins are great for toddlers. It’s the perfect size to handle and also as a portion.

Which kind of flour to use?

I used whole wheat flour but also a gluten free flour will work very well for this recipe and regular all-purpose too.

Out of applesauce, what can I do?

If you ran out of applesauce, don’t worry, you can still bake the muffins!

1. Turn apples into applesauce. Yes, I know, it might seem redundant, but the easiest substitute for applesauce is an apple. Core a medium apple, do not even peel it and place in a food processor. Blend for 1 min to obtain a smooth puree. That’s your applesauce for the recipe!
2. Use a fruit puree. Other fruit purees will work: pear, peach, plum. The overall quantity of fruit sauce in the recipe is not enough to taste the difference in the final muffin.
3. Mashed banana. It’s a wonderful substitution, also adds a bit more sweetness if you use a ripen banana with a lot of brown dots.
4. Mashed sweet potatoes. If you already have a boiled or steamed sweet potato you can simply mash it and add a bit of water to reach the applesauce consistency.

What can I substitute coconut oil with?

Coconut oil acts as a fat in this recipe so you can substitute it with other fats like avocado oil or butter.

Ready for another muffin recipe? You might like one of the below ideas!

• bakery chocolate muffins
• White Beans Chocolate Muffins – Dairy Free
• Blueberry Chickpea Vegan Muffins +9M
• Quinoa Banana Almond Baby Muffins – Vegan