Carrot & Courgette Breakfast Muffins

Carrot and courgette breakfast muffins, flavoured with cinnamon spice and warm from the oven - a perfect start any morning of the week.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, setting us up for the day. Our carrot and courgette breakfast muffins are packed full of vegetables and flavoured with cinnamon for that added hint of spice.

These carrot and courgette breakfast muffins are a real breakfast treat, even more-so when served warm, straight from the oven.

However, made in advance they store for a few days, making them the ideal breakfast or snack on the go. That said, I would still far rather sit down and take my time to enjoy these muffins with a cup of tea!

Our healthy breakfast muffins are based on an American muffin style of muffin, not to be confused with an English muffin which is a different, a more bread like bake entirely.

What is an American Muffin?

An American muffin is a soft and springy sweet cake, made using the muffin method whereby dry ingredients and wet ingredients are placed into separate bowls before being mixed together and given a quick stir to combine.

Muffin batter does not contain much fat and the only fat in our recipe is a small amount of sunflower oil which keeps these cakes moist.

What is the difference between and American Muffin and a Cupcake?

The mixing methods and the consistency of the cake batters differ between an American muffin and a cupcake. Also, muffins tend to be more dense in texture than cupcakes.

Cupcake batter is made by first creaming together butter and sugar before the flour and eggs are added. This results in a smooth, light and fluffy batter. Once baked a cupcake has a light texture.

An American muffin batter is made by first combining the dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls. The wet ingredients are then added to the dry and the mixture is stirred to combine, but will still remain quite lumpy in texture.

How to make Breakfast Muffins

• Look out all your ingredients and prepare the baking tray with paper muffin cases.
• Add the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.

• Place the eggs, sugar, oil and the zest and juice from the lemon and orange into a separate bowl and whisk to combine.

• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir to combine ensuring there are no patches of dry flour in the muffin batter.

1. Grate the carrot and courgette and gently mix through the muffin batter - taking care not to over mix.

• Once combined fill the 12 muffin cases to the top with the muffin mixture.
• Sprinkle the sunflower and pumpkin seeds on top of the muffins (if using) and pop in the oven at 170CFan/190C for 25 minutes until baked.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before turning the muffins out of the tin and placing them on a wire cooling rack.

How to avoid dry and crumbly muffins?

The tricky to baking light and fluffy muffins is to ensure that you don't over mix the batter. Also remove the muffins from the oven as soon as they are cooked through and don't over bake them.

The sunflower oil used in the muffin batter will also add moisture into the muffins.

Recipe substitutions and variations

• Carrot and courgette are grated and added to these healthy breakfast muffins. You will not taste the vegetables in the muffins, but they do make really moist muffins. If you prefer to use only one vegetable, then double up on the other instead.
• Lemon and orange zest and juice add a burst of citrus fresh flavour to these muffins. If you prefer to only use one citrus fruit, simply double up on the quantity of the other.
• Ground cinnamon adds a warm spice to the muffins. You can substitute with other ground spices like ginger, nutmeg or a mixed spice.
• Light brown sugar adds a depth of flavour to the muffins, however you can substitute with regular or golden caster sugar if you prefer. But just be aware that you will lose some of that molasses flavour.
• Sunflower oil adds moisture to the muffins. If you don't have sunflower oil, replace with another low flavoured oil like vegetable oil.
• Pumpkin and sunflower seeds are sprinkled over the top of the muffins before they are baked in the oven. This is entirely optional but they do add a lovely toasty crunch to the top of the muffin.

Can I made Breakfast Muffins ahead of time?

These carrot and courgette muffins are delicious served warm from the oven, but they also make a great prep ahead breakfast.

• Store: Bake the muffins and allow them to cool. Place them in an airtight container on the kitchen counter and they will remain fresh for up to 5 days.

• Freezer: Alternatively, cool these healthy breakfast muffins, place them in an airtight container and pop them into the freezer. They will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. They defrost quickly making them the ideal breakfast or snack on the go.

Useful hints and tips

1. Fill the muffin cases to the top with batter this will result in good sized muffins.
2. A really easy way to fill the muffin cases is to use an ice-cream scoop with a release. However, if you don't have one a tablespoon will work just fine.
3. Allergy advice: these muffins are nut free, soya free and dairy free. For comprehensive and detailed allergy advice click on this link to Allergy UK.

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Additional recipe suggestions

If you like this recipe then try some of my other great bakes:

• Courgette & Cheese Bread with Walnuts
• Chocolate Pumpkin Streusel Muffins
• Apple & Cinnamon Cake
• Plum & Almond Galette
• Sticky Gingerbread Bundt Cake
• Spiced Pumpkin Cake

If you enjoy baking check out my Fun Baking with Kids post, which is full of recipe ideas, hints and tip to suit all level of the baker.