These vegan carrot cake muffins are the best vegan breakfast and vegan dessert recipe. Made with a warm and aromatic pairing of cinnamon and nutmeg, along with dried cranberries and pecans for some crunch, these vegan muffins are sure to be the highlight of your day. Use these for Easter desserts, a spring breakfast, or a snack anytime during late spring and fall when carrots are in season.
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My favorite part about this vegan breakfast is that it uses healthy ingredients, like ground flax, maple syrup (instead of pure sugar), and rolled oats. These vegan muffins are dense and moist, and are the perfect high fiber snack. They are reminiscent of the flavors of traditional carrot cake (minus the frosting) and are fully loaded with lots of yummy goodness! And, like this vegan snack, these vegan financiers and pear crumble bars are also delicious vegan breakfast ideas that are the perfect on-the-go snack.
How To Make These Vegan Carrot Cake Muffins
What you’ll need for this recipe:
Step-By-Step Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375°F/190 C. Grease wells of a ½ cup/120ml muffin tin (or line with paper liners).
2. In a large bowl, combine the flax and oat milk. Stir and allow it to sit for 5 minutes.
3. While the flax and oat milk sits, peel and shred the carrots.
4. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir until it is well distributed. This step helps reduce stirring time later and prevents tough muffins.
5. To the flax mixture, add the maple syrup and oil. Stir it until it is smooth.
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6. Add the flour to mixture and stir until it is just mixed. Do not over stir or it will create dry muffins.
7. Fold in the shredded carrot, oats, pecans, and cranberries.
8. Fill the greased muffin tins to 1/4”/6mm below the top. Filling the muffin tins higher will make the cooking time longer and can cause the muffins to spread.
9. Bake the vegan muffins for 25-30 minutes until a you can insert a skewer or toothpick and it comes out clean.
10. Allow the muffins to cool for at least 10 minutes before removing them from the muffin pan.
These vegan muffins are best if consumed the same day, but they can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for 2 days or be frozen for up to 1 month. Reheat them in the oven before eating.
Important Recipe Notes
Taste and texture notes: These fully-loaded vegan carrot muffins are naturally sweetened with maple syrup. They are reminiscent of the flavors of carrot cake (minus the cream cheese frosting) these dense and moist muffins are perfect for breakfast on the go or high fiber snacks. These muffins are boosted with add-ins of rolled oats, pecans, and dried cranberries as well as plenty of shredded carrots.
Add-ins: Add no more than 1 ½ cups of add-ins (besides the carrot). If adding more than ½ cup oats, add an additional 2 tbsp/30ml oat milk as they absorb moisture during baking. Mix and match dried fruits and nuts and seeds for the remaining volume.
Oil: Any neutral oil such as canola, sunflower, vegetable, or avocado will also work. Olive oil will also work but impart a distinct flavour. Do not use coconut oil.
Non-dairy milk: Most non-dairy milks work well for this recipe except coconut milk. The high fat content of coconut milk will interfere with the structure of the muffins and make them too heavy.
Vegan Carrot Cake Muffins
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Ingredients
- 3 tbsp/20g ground flax
- ¾ cup + 2 tbsp/210ml oat milk
- 2 cup/240g all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp/12g baking powder
- ½ tsp/3g salt
- ½ tsp/1g ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp/ ½ g ground nutmeg
- ½ cup/120ml maple syrup
- 6 tbsp/90ml vegetable oil
- 1 ½ cup/120g shredded carrot from 2-3 medium carrots
- 1/2 cup/55g chopped pecans or walnuts
- ½ cup/45g rolled oats
- 1/3 cup/45g dried cranberries or raisins
Method
- Preheat oven to 375°F/190 C. Grease wells of a ½ cup/120ml muffin tin (or line with paper liners).
- In a large bowl, combine the flax and oat milk. Stir and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
- Peel and shred the carrots.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir until well distributed. This step helps reduce stirring time later and prevents tough muffins.
- To the flax mixture, add the maple syrup and oil. Stir until smooth.
- Add the flour to the mixture. Stir until just mixed. Do not over stir.
- Fold in the shredded carrot, oats, pecans, and cranberries.
- Fill the grease muffin tins to 1/4”/6mm below the top.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from muffin pan.
- Best if consumed the same day but can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for 2 days or be frozen for up to 1 month. Reheat in the oven before eating.
