These small batch banana carrot muffins are perfectly moist with high domed muffin tops and toasted pecans in each bite!

This banana carrot muffin recipe makes exactly 6 perfect muffins! The recipe is a simple muffin batter with ripe mashed banana, grated carrots, and chopped pecans folded in before being baked into high domed, bakery style muffins. They're the best of both worlds - combining banana bread and carrot cake to create the most incredibly moist & comforting muffins.
Ingredients
- Flour: You'll need just one cup of all-purpose flour.
- Leavening: You'll need both baking powder and baking soda to give these muffins the perfect texture and rise.
- Spices: To give these muffins a warm spiced flavor, add a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice.
- Sugars: You'll need both granulated and brown sugar.
- Egg: Just one egg for this recipe!
- Grated Carrots: You'll need about 2 large carrots to make up 1 cup or 113g.
- Banana: You should only need 1 very ripe medium banana.
- Pecans: If adding pecans, be sure to chop them very finely before adding to the batter. If pecans aren't your thing, you can swap them for a different nut or just leave them out.
- Turbinado Sugar: Sprinkle each muffin with a generous amount of turbinado (or raw) sugar before baking.
FAQ
No one likes a flat muffin top. To get that high dome muffin top, bake the muffins at 425 degrees F for 5 minutes, then lower heat to 350 degrees F for an additional 20 minutes. That 5 minutes blast of high heat will force the muffins to bake upward more rapidly, creating a domed top. Then, the temperature is lowered for the remaining 20 minutes to bake the muffins all the way through.
Yes! If you would like 12 muffins instead of 6, you can easily double the recipe. Simply multiply each ingredient by 2. The bake time will be the same.
Store the muffins in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
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Baking in grams
All of the recipes on this blog are carefully developed to create incredibly delicious baked goods that you can easily recreate in your own kitchen with success. The only way this is possible is to standardize the way ingredients are measured - by weight. Volume measurements are extremely inaccurate and leave room for significant errors. Not all measuring cups are made equally, so your one cup of flour will be different from my one cup of flour. By providing precise measurements in grams (aside from minor ingredients, which are given in tsp/tbsp), I can ensure that you can make the recipe accurately and with less cleanup! All you need is this kitchen scale.
If this still isn't enough to convince you, I have provided volume measurements in the recipe card. If you are interested in understanding the conversions, this is the best conversion chart.
But trust me, once you try baking in grams you'll never turn back!
Happy baking! x
Small Batch Banana Carrot Muffins
Ingredients
- 120 g 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- 90 g 6 ½ teaspoon unsalted butter (room temp)
- 66 g â…“ cup granulated sugar
- 53 g ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg, room temp
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 113 g ½ cup mashed banana (about 1 very ripe medium banana)
- 113 g 1 cup grated carrots (about 2 large carrots)
- 56 g ½ cup finely chopped pecans + more for topping
- turbinado sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and line a muffin tin with 6 parchment liners spaced apart.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Mix in the egg and vanilla until fully combined. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
- Fold in the dry ingredients until just combined.
- Lastly, gently fold in the mashed banana, grated carrots, and chopped pecans.
- Divide the batter between the 6 parchment liners. I used a 3 tablespoon cookie scoop to portion it and leave the batter domed on top. (See photo above)
- Sprinkle each muffin with turbinado sugar and more chopped pecans.
- Bake the muffins for 5 minutes, then turn the oven temperature down 10 350 degrees F and bake for an additional 18-20 minutes.
- Allow muffins to cool completely in the pan before removing.
Notes
- Store the muffins in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Mimi says
These are amazing! Other than cutting back the sugar a bit, I wouldn’t change the recipe next time. They’re moist and flavorful… I will be making these again and again for sure.
★★★★★
Michelle says
Made these the other day and loved them! So moist and comforting
★★★★★