A rich, moist carrot oatmeal muffin cooked with a surprise cream cheese filling in the middle, whole wheat, raisins, pineapple, and coconut. Kids adore them and they’re great for breakfast! Depending on what I have on hand, I alter the recipe, and it always turns out well. Hope you had fun!
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Total Time: | 45 mins |
| Servings: | 18 |
| Yield: | 18 muffins |
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ cup white sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup canola oil
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup uncooked rolled oats
- ½ cup flaked coconut
- ½ cup raisins
- 2 cups shredded carrots
- 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained with juice reserved
- ¼ cup softened cream cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease muffin tins.
- In a large bowl, mix all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Make a well in the center of the mixture, and add white sugar, brown sugar, canola oil, eggs, and vanilla. Mix just until evenly moist. Fold in oats, coconut, raisins, carrots, and pineapple.
- In a bowl, blend reserved pineapple juice and cream cheese. Fill each muffin cup about 1/2 full with muffin batter, reserving about 1/3 of the batter. Spoon approximately 1 teaspoon of cream cheese mixture into the muffin cups. Top with remaining batter, so that each muffin cup is about 2/3 full.
- Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 294 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 37 g |
| Cholesterol | 35 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 240 mg |
| Sugars | 23 g |
| Fat | 15 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Great recipe. I cut the sugar by 25% used 4tablespoons oil and 1/2 applesauce. Great texture. Still plenty sweet. omitted the coconut.
Great recipe. I was worried they would turn out too cakey, but they came out perfectly muffiny. I cut the white sugar down to 1/2 cup and will probably do the same with the brown sugar next time. Added a little nutmeg too. The cream cheese filling seemed too decadent for breakfast muffins, but they’re perfectly tasty without. Promise.
My family loved these. I’ve made these a few times with what I have on hand. I did make a few changes. I followed the tips from others and reduced the sugars. I also substituted the oil with 1/2 c of yogurt & 1/2 c pumpkin or applesauce. This is moist and delicious! Definitely a keeper. Thanks for posting.
I did as others did by using 1/2 the sugar and adding applesauce instead of so much oil! I also didn’t use any cream cheese. They would be good with cream cheese frosting though! Much like a carrot cake. A good healthier recipe!
I liked the recipe and the muffins came out good. The rolled oats didn’t work for me, they gave the muffins a “sandy” taste and they were awkward to chew. I made a substitute with well cooked oats (plain cooked oatmeal) and it made a huge difference! I tried it a second time without the oatmeal, and the muffins still tasted good. My 1 year old loved them! Not sure if the cream cheese filling is suppose to incorporate with the dough after baking, mine did every time. I also added more cream cheese then in the recipe, because the original filling was too “watery” and leaked everywhere. I doubled the cream cheese amount and that worked for me.
These are very taste as written. I new use less approx 1/4 cup of each sugar, all whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup oil and 3/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce. Not a fan of raisins so I use craisins. No cream cheese filling. Always have these in my freezer. They go very well with a nice slice of cheddar cheese.
Huge hit at the office. I used half for muffins and used the other half in a cake pan, which I added a Nutella and Peanut Butter frosting to.
YUM! I didn’t have pineapple and omitted the cream cheese centre, made 1/2 batch with coconut and 1/2 batch without (I do *not* like coconut but my wife does), and had to add a bit of water to compensate for the moisture not add with the pineapple. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly. They came very moist and flavorful. This recipe is definitely a keeper! Thanks for sharing!
Makes a vey moist cake . Recipe is very good. Will definetly make again. added the coconut and pineapple,oatmeal and some zuchinni
Just finished making these. It’s so versatile. I didnt realize we were out of carrot. So i added 1 ripe banana and all the juice from the pineapple. They turned out amazing
It’s an awesome recipe and I will make it again. Below are some modifications I made. I used 1 banana in place of 1/2 cup of oil. I replaced the eggs by using chia eggs 3 of them to replace the eggs in the recipe. (1 tbsp of chia seeds to 3 tbsps of water = 1 chia eggs). I reduced the sugar to 1 cup total, 1/2 a cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup coconut sugar. It is perfectly sweet. I skipped the coconut, raisins, pineapple and cream cheese. I did not use any frosting on the cupcakes. They were awesome as it.
Made these for my husband and he loves them. He said only change was to maybe sweeten the filling a bit.
The cream cheese part didn’t work out for me. I ended up with a liquid mess but the muffins were amazing. Per my daughters request I left out the coconut but I bet they are even better with it! Will def make these again.
I omitted the raisins and pineapple and cream cheese because I knew my kids wouldn’t eat them. I subbed the 1 C wheat flour for 1/2 C coconut flour. I also subbed coconut oil for the canola oil, 1:1. And at the suggestion of other reviewers, I decreased both sugars to 1/2 C each. For extra flavor I added ground clove and ginger and increased the cinnamon as well. These are so tasty and moist. Just like eating carrot cupcakes.
love it
I made some changes: No cream cheese, raisins, pineapple, or coconut. I used added everything else included in the recipe, and also added: a teaspoon of almond flavoring, 1/2 cup raisins, more cinnamon, some nutmeg, and one diced fuji apple. I substituted 1 cup apple sauce plus a small splash of vegetable oil for the full cup of vegetable oil, and used all brown sugar instead of white and brown. Came out moist and delicious! Next time I’ll decrease the sugar content to make it healthier.
I doubled the recipe to use up the carrots from my garden. This was delicious. I reduced the ingredients to 1 3/4 cup oil and 5 extra large eggs and it turned out fine and still a little oily. I didn’t do the cream cheese mixture, but I’m sure it would have been great. I also was out of wheat flour so I used all AP flour.
Appreciated the re views, as I also cut back on sugar . Substituted cranberries for raisins and increased the carrots. Ended up with 18 muffins and they are hearty!
Thank you to the submitter and the reviewers of this recipe! Once again you rock. I made the recipe “as is” except for reviewer suggestions (and one or two of my own) and created a carrot muffin star. I used only 1/4 cup oil with 3/4 cup apple sauce, decreased both brown and white sugars to 1/2 cup each, and bumped up the spices with 1/2 teaspoon extra cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, plus a tablespoon of molasses. I love pineapple so I was generous with that measurement. And since reviewers said the pineapple juice didn’t jazz up the cream cheese enough, I grated orange zest into the mixture as well. These muffins turned out light, moist, delicious and still healthy. It is not carrot cake in a muffin shape, but the real muffin deal, albeit with a cream cheese surprise. I liked that there was no icing on the top so they are easier to package for snacks. I am saving this recipe and will make it again and again. We are definitely better together 😉
I followed the advice of other commenters and substituted applesauce for 3/4 cup of the oil. I also reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup each to make it more healthy. They were not very sweet. I liked it that way, but I might increase it a little more next time just so my kids will like it more. I left out the raisins and cream cheese. Next time I think I will leave out the pineapple just to give it a smoother texture. This was a great way to use up the carrots from my garden!
Awesome muffins!! I used 1/2 cup of applesauce and 1/2 cup oil instead. I also took out the cream cheese centre. I made mini-muffins so the cook time was only 15 minutes. They turned out so yummy! Note: don’t overfill the muffin cups!