Let's make some incredible chocolate carrot muffins! Using cocoa powder and chocolate chips you will make a double chocolate muffin with grated raw carrots. This is a super simple recipe that comes together in 30 minutes.
I make muffins weekly at my house (ahem, toddler mom), they need to be delicious and they need to be nutrient-dense. After this recipe try these carrot pineapple muffins , these whole wheat banana apple sauce muffins, or these delicious chocolate chip whole wheat muffins!
Why you'll love this muffin recipe
- No mixer is needed to make these muffins.
- Less sugar makes these a great healthy snack.
- A veggie-packed muffin in chocolate form, great for toddlers and kiddos.
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Ingredients needed for healthy chocolate muffins
Here's a photo from my kitchen of what you need to make your homemade double chocolate muffins with carrots. Below I've shared some things to note about the ingredients and why we use them.
- Grated carrot: For this carrot muffin recipe you will need about 3 average-sized carrots. I find finely grated carrots are more subtle in these muffins.
- Eggs: Three eggs bind the muffin together and create a moist crumb.
- Oil (or melted butter): I use organic grapeseed oil, however, melted coconut oil, organic canola oil, cold-pressed olive oil, or melted butter can be used.
- Milk: Use whatever milk you like to use (cow milk, soy milk, oat milk, coconut milk, cashew milk). I like to use unsweetened almond milk, or water works too!
- Vanilla: For these muffins, vanilla makes them extra delicious. Did you know it's super easy to make your own vanilla?
- Cocoa powder: These chocolate muffins are made with lots of cocoa powder giving the muffins a dense chocolate flavor like brownies. Yum.
- Organic whole wheat flour: I like to use organic flour, however non-organic will work. I use whole wheat as it is more nutrient-dense than white flour.
- Organic cane sugar: Any white sugar, or granulated sugar will work for this recipe.
- Baking powder & baking soda: Baking powder and baking soda are both needed for this recipe to rise best.
- Salt: Adding a little salt pops the flavor in these muffins.
- Chocolate chips: This is optional however I think adding chocolate chips gives the best double chocolate healthy muffin vibes and it's delicious.
See the recipe card for quantities.
How to make carrot muffins with chocolate
1. Preheat the oven to 425 Fahrenheit. Grate the carrot. I use the food processor because it's so fast, however, I find the texture a bit bigger than I wish when using it. If you want the carrots to be more subtle in the muffins use a cheese grater or a finer blade on a food processor.
2. Mix the wet ingredients. This is the egg, oil, vanilla, and milk (or water which is what I used for these photos as I ran out of milk!). Use a whisk to mix everything together.
3. In another mixing bowl place the whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and sugar. Use a whisk to combine the mixture well.
4. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients, with the chocolate chips and carrots. Use a spatula to fold the mixture together, only 12-15 times. Avoid any overmixing so the muffins rise well.
5. Line the muffin pans with liners (I use silicone liners) or grease your pan well. Then place about ⅓ cup of chocolate muffin batter into each muffin cup, or until they are all the way full. Place chocolate chips on top.
6. Bake for 8 minutes at 425 Fahrenheit, then turn the oven down to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for another 5-7 minutes. Remove the muffin pan from the oven when they are not gooey inside. Let them sit in the muffin pan 5 minutes before removing them.
Top tips for the best carrot chocolate muffins
This muffin batter is thick, this is so the muffin cups can be filled all the way up, and make a nice-sized muffin.
Don't overmix the batter. If it's mixed too much the muffins will become dense and the muffins will come out squat. Even if there are a few streaks of flour after 12-15 folds - that's alright!
Dome muffins: The key to domed beautiful muffins, is to start the oven at a high temperature (425 Fahrenheit). This lifts the muffins and makes them golden, then turning the oven down (375 Fahrenheit) to finish cooking the muffins without drying them out is essential!
Add extras to your healthy chocolate muffins
A few ingredient ideas to add to personalize your muffins! Have fun.
- Add spinach: Replace one cup of grated carrots with one cup of finely chopped spinach for a loaded chocolate veggie muffin! (Still add 1 cup of grated carrot as well).
- Add nuts: Sprinkle walnuts, pecans, or Brazil nuts into the muffin batter along with the chocolate chips (or instead of them).
- More protein: Add ¼ cup protein powder with the dry ingredients. For a higher-protein chocolate muffin.
- Use zucchini: Swap out the carrots for zucchini. Use a towel to squeeze the grated zucchini before adding to the muffin batter. Healthy chocolate zucchini muffins sound delicious!
Other healthy muffins you may like
Did you make these chocolate carrot muffins? Would you take 5 seconds to give a star rating and review just below the recipe? That means a lot to me and helps the growth of Beside the Mountain blog.
Carrot Chocolate Muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- 2 cup grated carrot (about 4 average sized carrots)
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup oil or melted butter
- ¾ cup any milk or water
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
Dry Ingredients:
- ¾ cocoa powder
- 1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour I recommend using organic flour
- ½ cup cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chocolate chips (and some more for on top!)
Instructions
- Start by preheating the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Grate 2 cups of carrots and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl place the eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla. Whisk together until well combine.
- Place the whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, in a bowl. Whisk everything together until well combine.
- Pour the egg mixture, chocolate chips, and carrots into the flour mixture. Use a spatula to fold the batter together just until combine, about 12 -15 folds.
- In a greased muffin pan, fill each cup all the way up (about ⅓ cup each). Sprinkle each muffin with a few more chocolate chips. Bake for 8 minutes, then turn the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for another 5-7 minutes. Until they are not gooey inside. Let them sit in the muffin pan for 5 minutes before removing them.
Notes
Nutrition
Danika Vanderpyl, C.H.N
I create snack recipes with healthy ingredients that are mostly already in your kitchen. Let's make snacktime nutrient-dense, and well, easy.
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