Sourdough Carrot Cake Muffins
Moist, tender sourdough carrot cake muffins are the perfect start to your day. Topped with a cream cheese frosting, these muffins are great for an Easter brunch or a quick breakfast or snack to go.
Why you will love our sourdough carrot cake muffins recipe
- They are super easy to make. No need for fancy ingredients or waiting for your starter to become active. These muffins are ready in under 30 minutes!
- They are perfect for your Easter brunch. We love spring recipes and these little muffins with a creamy topping bring a little bit of sunshine to your table.
- Sourdough carrot cake muffins are a great way to sneak in extra veggies. Who doesn’t love recipes that will help you and your children eat extra vegetables without even trying.
Ingredient notes
Flour: For this recipe, we like to use a mixture of all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. The whole wheat flour gives a mild nutty flavor and fiber to the muffins, while the white flour makes them incredibly tender and moist. You can use gluten-free, spelt, or swap the whole wheat for all-purpose flour if you want.
Sourdough discard: To give the muffins the signature sourdough flavor, we don’t use an active sourdough starter; we add discard. Sourdough discard is the part you take out during the feeding process. This means you don’t have to feed your starter before you begin. If you have a whole wheat sourdough starter, this is a great recipe to use it.
Carrot: Shredded carrots not only add flavor but also moisture to the muffins. This is why they have an incredible texture. For the best results, grate your carrots yourself, as store-bought grated carrots tend to be too dry.
Walnuts: You can’t make carrot cake-flavored muffins without crunchy walnuts. At least that’s how we feel. If you don’t have them, you can skip them or replace them with nuts such as pecans and hazelnuts.
Cream Cheese: We love to use mascarpone for the topping, but any type of cream cheese will work. Make sure it is a neutral flavor for the best results.
Sugar: We always use brown sugar when we make sourdough carrot cake muffins, but you can make this recipe with any type of sugar you like. Brown sugar adds more depth of flavor and mild caramel notes to the batter, plus it gives the muffins a beautiful brown color.
How to make sourdough carrot cake muffins
To make this recipe, you start by grating the carrots and chopping the walnuts into small pieces. Mix the wet and dry ingredients in two separate bowls until combined before adding the wet into the dry mixture.
Gently stir them together until the ingredients are combined and there is no dry flour left. It is fine if there are a few lumps left.
Add the grated carrots and walnuts and gently fold them into the batter. Don’t add them before you’ve mixed the batter because it will make it harder to incorporate everything if you add the carrots right away.
Divide the batter over your lined muffin tin and bake your sourdough carrot cake muffins for 22-25 minutes until golden. Let them cool completely before adding the cream cheese topping.
How to make the cream cheese topping
Mix together all the ingredients for the cream cheese frosting in a bowl. We like to use a whisk or fork for this step.
Transfer the cheese topping to a piping bag and pipe it onto your cooled muffins, or use a spoon or palette knife to spread it onto the muffins.
Our tips for the best carrot cake sourdough muffins
- Let your ingredients come to room temperature before you begin. Room temperature ingredients are much easier to work with.
- Use grams instead of cups. This gives a better and more accurate result.
- Never overwork the batter. Overmixing the batter will result in dry, rubbery muffins.
Frequently asked questions
Absolutely! You can let the batter ferment for 24 hours in the fridge before continuing with the recipe. We so like to let the batter come to temperature before scooping it into the muffin liners.
There are a few reasons muffins turn out dry. Most often you’ve worked the batter too long. Other reasons include an oven temperature that’s too high, a bake time that’s too long, or measuring the ingredients incorrectly. This is one of the reasons we always recommend using a kitchen scale instead of cups.
Yes, you can use a few sourdough starters to make these carrot cake muffins, but the flavor won’t be as strong as when you use discard.
Storage
Sourdough carrot cake muffins stay fresh for about three to four days. You do need to store the cream cheese topping desperately to prevent the muffins from becoming a gooey mess. You can store them at room temperature in a bag or wrapped in plastic wrap, so there’s no need to place them in the fridge.
The muffins are also suitable for freezing. Frozen, they will last for three to six months. You can freeze the topping separately in a freezer bag. Let them thaw overnight and add the topping when you are ready to serve.
More of our favorite sourdough muffin recipes
Sourdough Carrot Cake Muffins
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup sourdough discard
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup Greek yogurt
- 2 cups finely grated carrot
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
For the cream cheese topping
- ½ cup cream cheese
- ¼ cup butter cold
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, vanilla extract, and milk or yogurt.
- Add the sourdough starter and mix until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix just until combined.
- Gently fold in the grated carrots and chopped pecans.
- Pour the batter into the lined muffin tin.
- Bake for 22-25 minutes.
- Let the cake cool completelyon a cooling rack before decorating the muffins for the cream cheese mixture.
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese and cold butter until smooth and creamy.
- Add the powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled cake before serving.
