This toddler muffins recipe makes fluffy, perfectly moist muffins. They’re full of carrots and zucchini, and sweetened with flavors of cinnamon, maple syrup and vanilla. These mini muffins are sure to become a favorite of both kids and adults!
Looking for a toddler muffin recipe packed with wholesome ingredients? Check out this recipe for a gluten-free muffin all ages will love.
These mini muffins are a treat for toddlers, but they are an ideal choice for adults as well. Homemade muffins are great as a quick breakfast choice on busy mornings. In the afternoon, they make a convenient and nutritious snack for those on a gluten-free diet.
Kids love toddler muffins because their size makes them perfect for little hands to hold. Their light sweetness will make children forget they’re eating vegetables.
Meanwhile, adults won’t be able to stop reaching for veggie muffins.
While carrots and zucchini have a natural sweetness, there’s also an extra shot of flavor from cinnamon, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Who can resist?
Needless to say, you’ll definitely want to make a double batch!
You also might like this gluten-free zucchini bread or these gluten-free zucchini muffins! These gluten-free muffins, gluten-free donuts and gluten-free pancakes are more family favorites!
You also might like these oat flour muffins!
Ingredients in Mini Carrot Zucchini Muffins
A quick glance at the ingredient list will give you an idea of how delicious these healthy muffins are.
Aside from gluten-free flour and nutritious vegetables, there is also a fantastic balance of flavor! The end result is a delicious recipe that’s always an allergy-friendly hit.
- Ground cinnamon: Cinnamon adds a layer of delicious, comforting spice that’s reminiscent of your favorite carrot cake of zucchini bread.
- Coconut oil: Coconut oil adds healthy fats and brings moisture to these muffins.
- Maple syrup: No need for refined sugar in these muffins—maple syrup brings the perfect sweetness and depth of flavor.
- Egg: Egg acts as a binder and adds protein to these muffins.
- Vanilla extract: Every muffin recipe is made better with a bit of vanilla extract!
- Carrots: Even if your toddler doesn’t like to eat raw or cooked carrots, they’ll love these muffins—and won’t even know they’re there! Carrots add potassium, antioxidants, and beta-carotene to a toddler diet.
- Zucchini: Zucchini adds moisture and nutrients like vitamin A, manganese, and vitamin C.
- Almond flour: Almond flour is a gluten-free flour alternative that makes for delicious toddler muffins!
- Gluten-free 1:1 baking flour: Choose a high-quality 1:1 baking flour for this recipe, or use brown rice flour instead.
- Salt: Salt enhances the flavor of the muffins and actually makes them taste sweeter!
- Baking powder and baking soda: Both baking powder and baking soda help these muffins to rise and have a light, tender crumb.
How to Make Toddler Muffins
- Mix together the almond flour, brown rice flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
- Combine together (in a separate bowl) the coconut oil, maple syrup, egg, and vanilla extract, stirring until completely mixed.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until well combined. Then stir in the shredded vegetables.
- Fill the muffins cups 3/4 of the way full and bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly golden.
Storage Instructions
If you store them in an airtight container, the mini muffins will stay fresh up to two days at room temperature. Or, store them in the refrigerator for up to a week. If you want the muffins to last longer than a week, I recommend freezing them.
How Do You Freeze Muffins?
This is a great recipe to make ahead in large batches and freeze. This way, you can thaw a lot of muffins at one time, and have them ready for breakfast or as a handy snack.
To freeze the muffins:
- Prepare the batter and bake the muffins as instructed.
- Transfer the muffins to a rack and allow them to cool completely.
- Place the muffins in a single layer on a baking sheet and place the baking sheet into the freezer.
- Freeze for one to two hours, or until the muffins are solidly frozen.
- Transfer the muffins into a freezer bag. When closing the bag, be sure to remove as much air as possible. Store in the freezer for up to two months.
FAQs
Most babies can start eating muffins around 6 months old. At this stage, they should be able to pick up small pieces of the muffin and feed themselves. These muffins are packed with healthy ingredients like carrots and zucchini, making them a nutritious snack!
There are many quick, easy, and healthy things you can bake for a toddler—including these carrot zucchini toddler muffins, which are sweetened with natural sugars! My kids also love banana bread, zucchini bread, oatmeal breakfast cookies, baked oatmeal, and homemade granola bars.
Yes! Bran muffins are packed with fiber and can be a great snack option for toddlers—especially for picky eaters who may not be getting fiber from vegetables.
English muffins are usually a safe snack for a one-year-old. Depending on how many teeth they have, they can either suck on the muffin or use their pincer grasp to pick up small pieces of the muffin off of a tray.
These carrot zucchini muffins make a great breakfast for a 12-month-old. Some other healthy options include whole grain pancakes or waffles, oatmeal, eggs, or yogurt with berries.
Though toddlers should be eating a wide variety of nutritious foods, there are still certain foods they should avoid. Whole grapes, hot dogs, large pieces of meat, and cough drops can present choking hazard and should be avoided (or cut into small pieces). Hard foods like nuts, popcorn, chips, and seeds can also present a choking hazard.
By two years old, a toddler should be eating at least three nutritious meals per day, as well as a couple snacks. These foods can be the same as the adults—with modifications like cutting into bite-size pieces or limiting spices. Toddler muffins are a great way to pack in some nutrients and take on-the-go!
Expert Tips & Tricks
- I like to use mini muffin pans to make these muffins. It makes the perfect healthy muffin bites for babies and toddlers, and clean-up is a breeze! Alternatively, you could make larger muffins for adults.
- If you only have zucchini or only have carrots, you can just double the amount of one vegetable. You could also try making these healthy toddler muffins with yellow squash.
- Add chocolate chips to these muffins for an extra delicious treat!
- No need to use muffin liners, if you don’t have them. Just spray the muffin pan and they’ll come out of the pan easily.
Other Muffin Recipes to Try
With the recipe for the best toddler muffins under your belt, you may want to bake more muffins for a healthy snack!
For an easy, perfect breakfast choice, I definitely recommend my easy Coconut Flour Banana Muffins or my Buckwheat Muffins. And if you’re craving something a bit more sweet and decadent, how about a Chocolate Almond Butter Muffin?
More Muffin Recipes
I hope you love these family favorite muffins as much as we do! If you try these muffins, be sure to leave me a comment/rating below. I’d love to hear from you!
Toddler Muffins (with Carrots and Zucchini!)
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup gluten-free 1:1 baking flour or brown rice flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup grated carrots from 1 medium peeled carrot
- 1/2 cup grated zucchini from 1 medium unpeeled zucchini
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line a mini muffin pan with liners or oil lightly with coconut oil. I like to use a mini silicone muffin pan.
- In a large bowl, mix together the almond flour, brown rice flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine the coconut oil, maple syrup, egg, and vanilla extract. Pulse until thoroughly combined. Add the dry ingredients and pulse until well incorporated. Stir in the shredded vegetables with a wooden spoon.
- Fill the muffins cups 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly golden. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe originally published in August 2013. Updated in June 2022.
Hello Erin,
I stumbled upon your website while searching for muffins for toddlers and I gotta admit I AM BEYOND GLAD THAT I DID. I have to let you know that I used coconut flour and oat flour (blended) and also, I didn’t use maple syrup instead I used applesauce as I have only been giving natural sugars. WHAT A SUCCESS! To my surprise, my almost 16 months who’s a huge fan of purée foods loved these. I am saying surprised because he refuse to eat anything that has “texture” but these muffins were great. Thank you so much for this recipe and I will definitely keep making it for him.
Lots of love from Canada❤️
Tia
I’m so glad they turned out for you! Thanks for the comment 🙂
I did some substitutions since I didn’t have all of the ingredients, but they still turned out great! I have a very fussy toddler, so I was looking for something different for him to eat. I let my husband taste test the muffins. He said that he will be eating a bunch of them.
My baby really loves these and I love that they are high in fat so he is packing in the calories (he’s not a great eater). They’re moist, yummy, and easy to eat. However, I think they are really sweet, especially for kids. I’ll cut the maple syrup in half and then do half mashed banana or apple sauce instead. Also, I added about 1/4c chia seeds for extra nutrition and it turned out great!
Yay! I’m so happy you and your daughter enjoy them. Great idea to add chia seeds!
These look wonderful and I have everything to make them right now, but I don’t have A mini muffin pan— do you think I could maybe lower the heat and extend bake time, or…? I have no idea what I’m doing here♀️
I would actually just keep the oven temperature the same and cook the muffins for a little longer. I hope that helps!!
Thanks for this recipe.
I made them and added 1/4 cup coconut flour instead of rice flour. I also grated the veg super fine so miss 2 doesn’t pic it out.
Turned out amazing.
I can’t wait to make these muffins for my 11 month old! I don’t want to add maple syrup and I was wondering if homemade no sugar added apple sauce would work as a replacement? Thanks!
I think that would work great actually! Let me know how it turns out!
So good AND healthy!
I’m sorry – the name of these muffins is very misleading! They are tooooo delicious to be “toddler” muffins, cause mommy eats them as a healthy sweet treat too. AHHHH-MAZING! Good job Erin!!!!
Delicious! Easy to prepare. My grandchildren gobbled them right up (and so did their Granny).
Can I substitute out almond four to 100% brown rice flour? My kid has nut allergy.
Can i add spinach instead of zucchini?
Unfortunately, I don’t think that would add the same kind of moistness and texture.
I made these yesterday with a mix of buckwheat and whole rice flour (I didn’t have either flour mentioned in the recipe) I added milk chocolate chips and pecans, it was absolutely heavenly. I loved this recipe. I want to try it substituting part of the coconut oil with apple sauce to further reduce the caloric intake (given I want to keep the chocolate chiops) – these have made for that perfect sweet pang I get in the afternoon.
I have absolutely loved this recipe and so do my kids and our friends.
I was just about to make this recipe again but wanted to use up some frozen zucchini spirals I have from Costco. Do you think it would still work in this recipe? Or should I buy fresh?
I’m so glad you like the recipe! Unfortunately I don’t think those spirals will work. They will have too much water from being frozen and make the muffins mushy. Sorry about that!
Hi — My mom always froze her excess zucchini, and when she baked with it, it did not yield mushy baked goods such as breads and muffins, but rather, very moist.. Gotta try it to know. I would advise, always, “Try it.” How else will you know? Just let it thaw out and the water will drain off. 😉 She froze it after she grated it. This would be very similar to the spirals. (I would advise to experiment!! Try it both ways and see how you like it!) <3 All the best!!! <3
Thank you for your recipe!! I always read the comments and get ideas! — A fellow healthy eater!
That’s a great tip about freezing the zucchini! I’m going to try that. Thanks for the comment 🙂
Just a great hit with my almost 3 yr old granddaughter!! Finally she will eat something with carrots!! With a little cream cheese on top, she thinks they are dessert!!
So good! I used Bob’s red mill egg replacement and they still came out great!