These Gluten-Free Vegan Carrot Muffins are moist and fluffy, fragrant and fruity and perfect for a healthy breakfast!
What better way to start the day than with a sweet, fruity muffin? And how much better if the muffin happens to be healthy and low in sugar? Well, these Gluten-Free Vegan Carrot Muffins have got you covered!
These muffins were inspired by my favourite carrot cake recipe: it’s easy, versatile and requires just one bowl! Plus, it happens to be undetectably vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar free.
These muffins differ slightly as I’ve halved the amount of maple syrup and added plenty of raisins instead. You could even omit the maple syrup entirely if you prefer, and if raisins aren’t your thing, they can be substituted with chopped dates, dried figs, dried mango, dried pineapple or dried papaya.
The batter also includes plenty of warming spices, earthy walnuts and sweet desiccated coconut. I also decided to sprinkle over some coconut flakes before baking for extra fragrant, nutty sweetness.
These muffins make a great dessert, healthy snack or breakfast. They’re filling and energising as they contain a nice amount of protein, fibre and natural sweetness.
Though these muffins do taste best when fresh, they work well for batch cooking and meal prep as they keep well covered in the fridge for up to a few days, and freeze well too. If you have just taken them out of the fridge of freezer, I’d recommend warming them up in an oven toaster if you have one.
For more carrot cake recipes, check out my:
- Carrot Cake Mug Cake
- Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Tropical Carrot Cake
- Carrot Cake Cookies
- Purple Carrot Cake
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Helpful tools to make this Gluten-Free Vegan Carrot Muffins:
box grater
glass mixing bowl
measuring jug
muffin/cupcake tin
Gluten-Free Vegan Carrot Muffins
Ingredients
- 60 g (1/4 cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
- 230 ml (1 cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice (or sub a mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves)
- Pinch of salt
- 100 g (3.5oz) grated carrot (one medium-sized carrot)
- 100 g (2/3 cup) raisins or sultanas
- 30 g (1/4 cup) walnuts, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons desiccated coconut
- 150 g (1 1/4 cups) ground almonds* (almond meal)
- 150 g (1 1/4 cups) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
To decorate:
- Coconut flakes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit)
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil)
- Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the lemon juice, maple syrup, vanilla, ginger, mixed spice, salt, grated carrot, raisins, walnuts, desiccated coconut and ground almonds
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda
- Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it's looking too dry
- Transfer the mixture between 8 muffin cases in a muffin tin
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean
- Tastes best when fresh, but keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days
Notes
almond flourDisclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you click through and purchase any of the products, a small percentage will come to me, with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Dorothy Aofolaju
I really like the muffin paper used.
Please where can I get it from?
I bought a chocolate colour on Amazon but I’ve used It for your delicious Blueberry muffin. I need a change.
Thank you
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much! I actually bought these muffin cases in Japan so not sure where you’d be able to get them. So sorry! I’ll let you know if I find anything similar online though!
Shaz
How can i make these nut free?
Rhian Williams
You can substitute the ground almonds with ground sunflower seeds, or chickpea flour (and use 350ml (1 1/2 cup) plant-based milk as chickpea flour can suck up quite a lot of water!)
Carole A Mallinson
I would have loved to have made these but when I worked out the calories for 8 muffins, I worked it out at 910 per muffin, having omitted the desiccated coconut. It is obviously the ground almonds that have bumped up the calories. I was wondering how you came out with 322 per muffin?
Thank you
Rhian Williams
Hi! I’m so sorry about this – I use an online calorie calculator to provide a rough guideline, but suggest readers do their own calorie checking if they require the information to be completely accurate, as different brands can vary and there are natural fluctuations between produce. To decrease the number of calories, I would suggest omitting the walnuts, halving the amount of coconut oil and using less of either the raisins or the maple syrup. Hope that helps! Also if you’re not keen on the ground almonds as they are quite calorific, you could swap it for chickpea flour and use 350ml (1 1/2 cups) plant-based milk (chickpea flour requires more milk as it’s quite dry). Hope that helps!
I will re-do the calculations and see if 322 per muffin is still accurate!
Sarah
Delicious reipe and never seen carrot muffins before, my friends love them 🙂
Rhian Williams
Yay thank you!
Jade
Lovely recipe! Made with dried mango instead of raisins.
Rhian Williams
Thank you!
Selina Posthumus
Just thought I would write and say that you need 2 heaping teaspoons baking powDer!! I didn’t know you needed power for this recipe : )
Rhian Williams
Haha oh dear, so sorry about the typo. Thank you for letting me know!!