Whole grain & low sugar recipes

Sugar free baking

Recipes featuring whole grains and no refined sugar

Low Sugar Carrot Spice Muffins

These low sugar carrot spice muffins are naturally sweetened with carrots and applesauce, and delicately spiced with cinnamon.

These moist little treats give you a taste of carrot cake in muffin form.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Yield: 12 muffins

Mildly Sweet Recipe


Low Sugar Carrot Spice Muffins 2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large carrots, peeled and grated (1 1/2 cups)


  1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Grease a muffin pan or line with paper liners.


  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, applesauce, oil and vanilla until blended.

  4. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and using a spatula, mix just until blended. Fold in the carrots until evenly distributed. Do not overmix.

  5. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

  6. Let muffins cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Low Sugar carrot spice muffins nutrition

Sweeter Option

For a sweeter muffin, replace the 3/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce in the Mildly Sweet recipe above with 1/4 cup sugar. Whisk the sugar in with the eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla in step 3. Omit the unsweetened applesauce.


Low Sugar carrot spice muffins nutrition


Adapted from: Carrot Muffin from Muffins and More (Company's Coming).

Recipe Sweetness

Sweet Smart recipes offer 2 sweetness levels:

1. Mildly Sweet
  • Minimize potential blood sugar spikes
  • Reduce cravings for sweets

2. Sweeter Option


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