Banana Carrot Muffins

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These easy, homemade banana 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.

Banana carrot muffins on a serving board.

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Why This Recipe Works
Ingredients
Step-by-Step Instructions
Expert Tips for Tall Bakery-Style Muffins
More Tips for this Recipe
Storage and Freezing
Carrot Banana Muffin FAQ
📖 Recipe
Expert Tips for Tall Bakery-Style Muffins
Storage and Freezing
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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.

These carrot and banana muffins are light, moist, fluffy, and scrumptious! A perfect muffin for the weekend or a great addition to the weekly lunches or afternoon snacks.

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 a delicious additional crunch.
This recipe is simple, easy, and comes together quickly!
The perfect muffin for weekend activities or weekday lunches or afternoon snacks.
This a great recipe for the upcoming Easter celebrations!

Pile of banana and carrot muffins on a plate.

Ingredients

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

Butter adds flavour, softness, and moisture and sometimes aids in the leavening of baked goods. I use New Zealand butter in my recipes, which has approximately 82% butterfat and can be very yellow (similar to European or Irish butter). Butter cannot be substituted with butter or margarine spreads, but it can be substituted with baking margarine.

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.

Eggs bind and give a lift to this muffin batter.

Sugar - a mix of brown and white to add sweetness and a hint of caramelized flavors to the muffins to complement the carrots, bananas, and spices.

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, plain, or standard-grade flour.

Baking powder gives these muffins an additional lift during baking.

Freshly grated carrots, mashed bananas, ground cinnamon, ginger, and mixed spice gives these muffins that delicious mix of banana bread and carrot cake flavors.

Room Temperature Ingredients

Use room-temperature ingredients! Using room temperature ingredients ensures that ingredients in the batter or dough will incorporate easier. Take note that room temperature refers to around 20°C/68F.

To bring eggs to room temperature quickly, place them into warm water for about 10 to 15 minutes.
To bring butter to room temperature quickly, cut the butter into cubes and zap it in the microwave at 20% power in 10-second intervals. Or place the cubes in a bowl over warm water (such as with a double boiler) over low heat for 1 minute!
Milk, buttermilk, and cream can be brought to room temperature by zapping in the microwave at 20% power in 10-second intervals. Or on low heat for a minute or two swirling every 10-15 seconds.
If the butter is too warm/soft for baking - pop it into the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

Weighing Ingredients

Weighing ingredients is more accurate than measuring cups overall, and this is my recommendation for my recipes as they are all developed and tested using grams only.

However, I have activated the grams-to-cup conversions on the recipe card. Simply click on "cups" underneath the ingredient list. For these conversions, cups are equal to 236mL/8 fluid ounces, tablespoons are 15mL and teaspoons are 5mL.

Measuring cups and spoons are an essential addition to every kitchen! Especially if you don't use a kitchen scale. Invest in a set to ensure you add the correct ingredients for accurate measuring. When in doubt - always use a level spoon or cup measure.

Step-by-Step Instructions

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

Step 2 - Either using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until the mixture has lightened and has doubled in size. This takes about 3 to 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. Fold through to combine.

Step 3 - Oil and vanilla emulsified into the eggs and sugar.

Step 4 - spices, carrots and bananas added to the wet ingredients.

Step 5 - banana carrot muffin batter in a large mixing bowl.

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

Step 6 - Fill the cupcake liners 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 6 - muffin batter in cupcake liners, topped with sugar.

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 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 wired cooling rack to complete cooling.

Expert Tips for Tall Bakery-Style Muffins

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.

More Tips for this Recipe

If you have a food processor and don't feel like grating carrots - give them a whiz in the processor.

Ovens & Air Fryers

The temperatures stated are for conventional ovens. For convection, fan-forced, fan-assisted, or air-fryers, the temperature must be reduced by 20°C/25°F, or the gas mark by 1.

For baking, a general rule is to have the oven rack in the middle of the oven.

For best baking results invest in an oven thermometer, as the temperature dials on the oven may not be accurate. Place the thermometer in the middle of the center rack for the most accurate results. I hang my oven thermometer off the center of my oven rack.

Keep in mind that all ovens work slightly differently and bake times may need to be adjusted slightly for your specific oven.

Storage and Freezing

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

Alternatively, you can freeze the muffins by wrapping them in cling film and tin or aluminum foil for up to 3 months.

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

Carrot Banana Muffin FAQ

What is the secret to tall bakery-style muffins?

A hot preheated oven gives muffins their beautiful tall bakery-style domes. The blast of heat really activates the leaveners in the muffins. Use fresh baking soda or baking powder.

How do I make sure my muffins are moist and tender?

This recipe combines bananas, carrots, oil, and eggs which add a decent amount of moisture to the muffins. To keep the muffins tender, treat the muffin batter tenderly and mix until just combined and no more.

Can I leave out the nuts?

Yes, this muffin will be just as delicious sans nuts.

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Banana Carrot Muffins

Why This Recipe Works