Technically you can have carrot cake any time of day because it’s healthy right?! It’s got a veggie in it! These Carrot Cake Muffins will ease that cake craving and keep you satisfied, and you really can have these any time of day. They are low in sugar and high in nutrients with the added carrots and walnuts.
Each Carrot Cake Muffin is only 100 calories and 3 Weight Watcher points. If you’re looking for a healthy carb focused snack, this is it! It’ll give you energy (our bodies love using carbs for energy) without a crash because it’s not high in sugar. Carrot Cake Muffins have 5 grams of sugar each, which is much better than a slice of carrot cake that has about 35 grams of sugar. You’ll love these Carrot Cake Muffins as a healthy swap.
Three reasons why you need to make this recipe!
It’s a perfect alternative to a high sugar slice of carrot cake.
You can eat these carrot cake muffins and still stay on track with your health goals. Sustainability is key when trying to stick to a diet, but you need food you enjoy to keep it sustainable. Carrot Cake Muffins are a great way to satisfy your sweet tooth and keep things sustainable.
Carrot Cake Muffins are a good way to sneak some veggies into your kids.
We all know kids are picky eaters, especially when it comes to vegetables. These muffins make it easy to sneak a serving of carrots into the kids’ diets because they will love eating these up!
A muffin with a hot cup of coffee is a great way to start your day.
Rain or shine, a muffin, and a hot cup of coffee is a classic breakfast combo that will put anyone in a good mood. Instead of stopping by a coffee shop and having a high sugar bakery muffin, stock these carrot cake muffins in your freezer so you can stick with your health goals!
Ingredients you need to make Carrot Cake Muffins:
- 2 eggs
- 4 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1.5 cups shredded carrots
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp chopped walnuts
How to make Carrot Cake Muffins (step by step):
- Preheat oven to 350F and spray a 12 hole muffin tin with some nonstick cooking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk the eggs and add 3 Tbsp of brown sugar. Leave the remaining Tbsp aside for the muffin topping.
- Mix in the apple sauce and vanilla.
- Stir in the all purpose flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder then fold in the shredded carrots.
- Spoon the batter into the 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the remaining brown sugar and walnuts.
- Bake in the oven for about 18 minutes or until baked through.
Makes 12 muffins. Nutrition info for 1 muffin: Calories 100, Fat 1 g, Saturated fat .3 g, Carbs 19 g, Fiber 1 g, Sugars 5.6 g, Sodium 60 mg, Protein 3 g.
WW Points
- Eggs 0 points
- Brown sugar 10 points
- Unsweetened apple sauce 0 points
- Vanilla 0 points
- Shredded carrots 0 points
- All-purpose flour 19 points
- Cinnamon 0 points
- Nutmeg 0 points
- Baking powder 0 points
- Chopped walnuts 2 points
3 points per muffin based on the WW app recipe creator.
If you’re using an older version of WW, check out these points below.
Points- 2
Personal Points- 2-3 depending on your 0PP foods
SP blue & purple- 2 using WW recipe builder
SP green- 3 using WW recipe builder
Points Plus- 2 using PP calculator
Different ways to change up this recipe:
- You can use shredded zucchini in place of the carrots if you’re not a carrot fan. The zucchini will keep the muffins moist without messing with the flavor.
- Use a pumpkin pie spice blend instead of cinnamon and nutmeg for a fall kick.
- Self-rising flour can be used in place of all-purpose flour and baking soda if that’s what you have.
- If you want more sweetness, you can use Swerve brown sugar to sprinkle on top of the muffins so you can use more than a tbsp of brown sugar. Mixing Swerve brown sugar with a bit of cinnamon and the chopped walnuts is a delicious topping.
- Slice a carrot cake muffin in half, and toast it in a toaster oven for a few minutes so the tops get a little crispy. Then serve the two halves with a dollop of light whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon. It’s absolutely delicious as a dessert or mid-morning snack. You could even drizzle on a bit of honey if you have the calories for it.
Tips and Tricks for Making Carrot Cake Muffins:
- I used my ninja blender to shred carrots. With the added carrots, the batter will be on the thicker side.
- Carrot Cake Muffins will freeze well. You can also store them in a tightly sealed container. It’s best to move them to the fridge after one day.
- Bagged shredded carrots don’t always work as well as freshly shredded carrots, because they can be too thick and they don’t add moisture. Freshly shredded carrots are the key to a moist carrot cake muffin.
- If you find that your carrots fall to the bottom of your muffin, mix them with the flour before folding them into the batter. Flour coating the shredded carrots helps them hold their place in the muffins.
Similar recipes you’ll enjoy:
- Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
- Amazing Weight Watchers 2 Point Banana Pumpkin Muffins
- Kodiak Cake Muffins with Sprinkles
Carrot cake muffins
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 4 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2/3 cups unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1.5 cups shredded carrots
- 1.5 cups flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and spray a 12 hole muffin tin with some cooking spray.
- In a bowl whisk the eggs and add in 3 Tbsp of brown sugar *leave remaining Tbsp aside for topping.
- Mix in the apple sauce and vanilla.
- Stir in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder then fold in shredded carrots *I used my ninja blender to shred carrots.. batter will be on the thicker side.
- Spoon the batter into the 12 muffin cups, sprinkle tops with the remaining brown sugar and walnuts
- Bake in the oven for 18 minutes or until baked through.
- Muffins will freeze well, store in a container and best in the fridge after day 1
I am so excited – a new muffin recipe! I just entered this into my WW create a recipe app and it came up as 3 points. I’m on blue. Would you know why?
Hi Connie… My App has it as 2SP on blue, points are 8 sugar, 19 flour and 2 walnuts, all the rest is 0 point foods and it gives me a 2 point value per muffin when making 12
Drizzle… when I put this in my app using Splenda blend brown sugar it ended up being 3 points on blue but when I put in Swerve brown sugar it reduced the points to 2 on blue. Thanks for the recipe. I am going to make them for sure.
Hi Arleen, are you sure you are putting it in as unpacked brown sugar? Mine is 8SP on the app for the sugar
Thank you Kate. I had plugged in 4 Tbsp PACKED brown sugar in error. I appreciate all your recipes!!!
No worries, glad you are enjoying the recipes 🙂
OMG will be making these today, My go to Muffins are the Gingerbread Banana Yogurt Muffins which I LOOOVVEE dearly and make carrot cake for my Husband as it his favourite now I can enjoy some Carrot muffin with him. Thank you
Yay, I hope you both enjoy them 🙂
on my WW calculator this recipe comes up as 3pts not 2pts
Hi Wendy, I can only go off my WW app.. maybe you used a different brand of something, here is my breakdown, brown sugar 8, flour 19, walnuts 2 (for blue & purple) all other ingredients are zero
Absolutely wonderful! Delicious , moist and SO chocolaty. Made a double batch on round 2. Can’t believe they are only 2points.
Glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Can paper muffin liners be used instead of the spray?
I don’t suggest them, with ingredients used they will likely stick to the liners and you’ll lose some of the muffin
Thank you for the response! I’ll let you know how they came out. 🙂
They cam out good without the muffin liners.
are the carrot cake muffins cake in reg. muffin tins or the mini ?
all muffins are regular size unless noted 🙂
First time I made these and they were dense and did not rise. Is this normal? Tasted good though.
Most of my muffin and loaf recipes are denser than your typically store-bought due to ingredients used however these carrot ones I did not find too dense but we are all different, so maybe more so for you
Anyone try adding crushed pineapple? I love crushed pineapple in carrot cake.
I substituted the apple sauce with mostly-drained crushed pineapple. It worked great.
Do you use self-rising or all-purpose flour?
all-purpose