Banana and Carrot Muffins

These easy, homemade banana and carrot muffins combine the best of banana bread and carrot cake in a delicious treat. These muffins are light, soft, fluffy, moist, and flavored with fresh carrots, bananas, almonds, and a warm mix of spices.

This specific banana and carrot muffin recipe is a mash-up of my banana bread and carrot cake recipes, taking a few notes from my pistachio muffins and my blueberry and white chocolate muffins.

I really wanted to combine the warm spice flavors of my carrot cake with that of my banana bread and I think I struck a nice balance and created the best ever carrot banana muffins. 

These carrot and banana muffins are light, moist, fluffy, and scrumptious! 

Why This Recipe Works

• This recipe is the perfect combination of banana bread and carrot cake.
• The warm spices add a nice depth of flavor to the banana and carrot, with the almonds adding an additional crunch to a delicious muffin.
• This great recipe is simple, easy, and comes together with a few simple ingredients resulting in fluffy banana carrot muffins!
• These delicious banana carrot muffins are perfect for weekend activities or weekday lunches or an afternoon snack.
• These easy muffins are light, moist, fluffy, and scrumptious!
• This is a really great way to use up any extra bananas to create a treat the whole family will enjoy.   

Ingredients

Here are some notes on the ingredients used in this recipe. Please see the recipe card for quantities.

Oil - a plain neutral vegetable oil. I tend to use bran oil or canola oil. This is a traditional ingredient in a carrot cake, which I've 

White granulated sugar and light brown sugar to sweeten these muffins. The brown sugar adds a hint of caramelized flavors to the muffin which compliments the bananas, spices, and carrots. The sugar in this particular recipe also has a leavening or rising effect. 

Eggs - I use a New Zealand size 6 egg, which is around the same size as Australian and South African Large Eggs, but closer to a US/Europe Medium sized egg. The eggs in this recipe add to the leavening of the muffins, as well as help bind everything together. 

Salt is a crucial ingredient in all baked goods. I use table salt in all my recipes. One teaspoon of table salt equals 1.5 teaspoons of Morton Kosher Salt equals 2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal.

Vanilla extract enhances the flavors of the other ingredients in the recipe and is a cornerstone ingredient in baked goods and desserts containing eggs. 

Slivered almonds add a nice mild nutty flavor. The nuts can be left out of the cake if you want to or can be substituted with pecans. 

Flour - all-purpose flour, plain, or standard-grade flour.

Cornstarch adds a lightness to the muffins. 

Baking powder gives these muffins an additional lift during baking. 

Carrots - freshly grated carrots or pre-shredded carrots will work fine in this recipe. However, I highly recommend using fresh carrots! If you have a food processor and don't feel like grating carrots - give them a whiz in the processor.

Bananas - as with banana bread you really want to use overripe bananas.

The ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and mixed spices give these banana and carrot muffins that undeniable carrot cake flavor. 

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 - Preheat the oven to 200°/390°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners. This recipe makes between 12 to 14 muffins.

Step 2 - In a large mixing bowl, the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture has lightened and doubled in size (3-5 minutes). 

Step 3 - Add in the vanilla. Then with the mixer running, add the oil slowly down the side of the bowl, allowing it to emulsify into the sugar-egg mixture. 

Step 4 - Add the cinnamon, ginger, mixed spice, carrot, mashed bananas, and almonds to the wet ingredients. Fold through to combine.

Step 5 - Add in the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, salt, and cornstarch. Mix until just combined. 

Step 6 - Fill the muffin liners with muffin batter until they are ¾ filled. Sprinkle ½ teaspoon of raw or granulated sugar over each muffin (optional extra - leave out for a lower sugar variation of this muffin). 

Step 7 - Bake at 200°/390°F for 5 minutes. Then turn down the oven to 180°C/355°F and bake for a further 15 minutes. The muffins are finished when they are golden brown and a toothpick or cake tester comes out mostly clean. 

Step 8 - Allow the muffins to cool in the muffin pan for 10 minutes before lifting them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Expert Tips

A hot, preheated oven is key to a tall bakery-style muffin. The hot oven allows for the baking powder in this recipe to react very quickly which results in that tall domed muffin during the baking. 

Only mix the ingredients until just combined and no more! Overmixing will result in a tough muffin. 

Do not overbake the muffin. Once the temperature has been turned down, and the 15-minute mark has been reached, check the muffins. If a toothpick or cake tester comes out mostly clean then the muffins are done. 

Check more than 1 muffin when testing the doneness - just to make sure you haven't hit a pocket of banana. 

Storage and Freezing

Store these muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for ⅘ days.

Alternatively, you can freeze individual muffins by wrapping them in cling film or plastic wrap and tin/aluminum foil for up to 3 months. Alternatively, store them in an air-tight container in the freezer. 

To freshen up the muffin, pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds.

If you like this recipe you may like