Makes 1 dozen super easy carrot banana muffins that taste just like carrot cake with a creamy drizzle of icing on top in less than 30 minutes!
This is SUCH an easy carrot cake muffin recipe, NO mixer needed! We love to make a double batch and freeze some to eat throughout the week for breakfast. It's another creative way to use ripe bananas, along with easy Banana Sourdough Muffins which we also love to make and freeze for breakfast!
This is one of our favorite Easter brunch recipes, served with Ham and Cheese Hash Brown Casserole or Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls if you want to go a little fancier. We love to eat them for an easy on the go breakfast or a relaxed weekend brunch, they're so nice to make ahead and have ready.
The mashed bananas and shredded carrots along with the sour cream make the muffins nice and tender, it's a very forgiving recipe and easy to customize!
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What To Expect
- Taste: Cinnamon spice with the texture from the carrots and pecans, and not a lot of banana flavor since it acts mostly as a sweetener and to keep the muffins nice and tender.
- Ease: A beginner recipe that requires mixing together wet ingredients, then adding in the dry ingredients and baking.
- Time: 5-10 minutes to whip up the carrot cake banana muffin batter, then 16-18 minutes to bake the muffins. I LOVE THIS RECIPE because I have delicious carrot and banana muffins in under 30 minutes!
🛒 Key Ingredients
- Carrots - I like to use large carrots because they seem to have more flavor and are easier for me to grate.
- Brown Sugar - I use only brown sugar in the recipe to make the muffins nice and moist.
- Spices - I use a classic mixture of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves to make the muffins taste like carrot spice cake.
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
✏️ Substitutions & Variations
- Add ½ cup of shredded coconut for a fun twist.
- Raisins are a must for some people in carrot cake, go ahead and add ½ cup of raisins to the batter if you wish!
- This recipe uses pecans but you can always leave them out or use walnuts or almonds instead.
🧑🍳 Instructions
Make sure you preheat the oven to 375℉, and prepare your muffin tin with baking spray or liners.
- Step 1. Mash bananas into a puree (measure to be accurate).
- Step 2. Transfer the mashed bananas to a mixing bowl, and combine with brown sugar, milk, sour cream (or plain greek yogurt) egg, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Whisk until everything mixed together well.
- Step 3. Add in the shredded carrots and spices, and mix well.
- Step 4. Add in the flour, salt, and baking powder on top of the wet ingredients, and mix until just combined. Then gently stir in the chopped pecans if you wish to add nuts.
- Step 5. Prepare a 12 slot muffin tin with liners or baking spray. Scoop in equal portions filling each about ¾ full.
- Step 6. Optional: place a pecan half on each muffin. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Step 7. Optional but delicious: make a light icing by combining powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk and drizzling over the muffins after cooling them for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy warm!
📌 Top Tips & Hacks
- Double the recipe to make 2 dozen muffins and save some to freeze for later! Delicious.
- Use paper muffin tin liners for easy cleanup.
- Use a muffin scoop for perfect, equal sized muffins every time.
❓Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! In this carrot banana muffin recipe, the bananas are used more as a natural sweetener than a flavoring, and you can barely taste them. They make the muffins moist and tender!
Yes, you can leave the nuts out. Sometimes smaller children or allergy needs require it, it's fine!
A combination of the right amount of liquid to dry ingredients, fat content, acid (like sour cream or baking powder) and not overbaking or overmixing.
Room Temperature: 3-4 days in an airtight container
Freeze: up to 3 months
🥕 More Easter Recipes
Did You Try This Recipe? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Make sure to leave a star rating and a comment below the recipe card. I love hearing from you, and it is so helpful to other readers! Better yet, share it with family and friends. Thank you!!
📝 Printable Recipe
Carrot Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 medium bananas (about ¾ cup mashed) 240 g
- ½ cup packed brown sugar 112 g
- ¼ cup milk 60 mL
- ¼ cup sour cream or greek yogurt 64 g
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup salted butter 57 g
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup shredded carrot, packed (1 large carrot) 75 g
- ½ teaspoon salt 4 g
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1½ cup all purpose flour 205 g
- 2 teaspoons baking powder 6.5 g
- ½ cup chopped pecans, plus 12 halves
Optional Glaze:
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon milk of choice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375℉ and prepare a 12 slot muffin tin with paper liners or baking spray.
- Mash bananas into a puree (measure to be accurate).
- Transfer the mashed bananas to a mixing bowl, and combine with brown sugar, milk, sour cream (or plain greek yogurt) egg, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Whisk until everything mixed together well.
- Add in the shredded carrots and spices, and mix well.
- Add in the flour, and baking powder on top of the wet ingredients, and mix until just combined. Then gently stir in the chopped pecans if you wish to add nuts.
- Scoop in equal portions into a 12 slot muffin tin, filling each slot about ¾ full.
- Place a pecan half on each muffin. Bake for 16-18 minutes on a middle shelf, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Optional but delicious: make a light icing by combining powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk and drizzling over the muffins after cooling for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy warm!
Notes
Nutrition
Hi, I'm Sara!
Registered Nurse by day, food blogger by weekend. Perfect dip tester & snack quester. I love short walks on the beach and long naps. Sharing my love for food, one bite at a time.
Sara says
I like these with the frosting on top! So cute for brunch.