Carrot Muffins With Marmalade

By Melissa Clark

Updated March 2, 2026

Carrot Muffins With Marmalade
Joseph De Leo for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich.
Total Time
45 minutes
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Rating
5(29)
Comments
Read comments

These tender muffins are like mini, not-too-sweet carrot cakes, with a dollop of marmalade tucked into the center of each one. They’re adaptable too. Play around with the spices, the marmalade flavors, even the carrot is negotiable — shredded butternut squash or apple will work just as well. They’re best served a day or two after baking, but leftover muffins freeze well for up to 6 months.

Featured in: Marmalade Is Sunshine in a Jar — And in Your Cooking

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: Give recipes to anyone

    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.

    Subscribe

  • Share this recipe

  • Print this recipe

Advertisement

Ingredients

Yield:12 muffins
  • Cooking spray or butter
  • 1¼cups/155 grams whole-wheat flour
  • ½cup/45 grams old-fashioned oats
  • 1teaspoon baking powder
  • 1teaspoon baking soda
  • 1teaspoon ground cardamom (or cinnamon or ginger)
  • ½teaspoon fine sea or table salt
  • ½cup/120 grams plain whole-milk yogurt
  • 2large eggs
  • ½cup neutral oil, such as grapeseed or avocado, or melted butter
  • ½packed cup/110 grams light brown sugar
  • 1teaspoon finely grated orange or lemon zest
  • 1packed cup/110 grams finely grated carrot (from 2 medium carrots)
  • ¼cup marmalade
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)

149 calories; 3 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 28 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 14 grams sugars; 4 grams protein; 166 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Powered by

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 425 degrees. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners or generously grease (with nonstick cooking spray or butter).

  2. Step 2

    In a large bowl, whisk the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the yogurt, eggs, ½ cup oil, sugar and zest until just smooth. Whisk in carrots.

  3. Step 3

    Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and gently stir with a flexible spatula just until no streaks of flour remain. Divide about two-thirds of the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Top each with a heaping teaspoon of marmalade, then cover the marmalade with remaining batter.

  4. Step 4

    Bake for 5 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake until the muffins spring back when lightly pressed, 13 to 18 minutes longer (a tester may emerge with crumbs attached, but there shouldn’t be any raw batter clinging).

  5. Step 5

    Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then unmold and serve warm or cool completely.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Comment on this recipe and see it here.

Ratings

5 out of 5
29 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Comments

Monika

These muffins are delicious! I used 1/2 tsp. ground ginger & 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, greek yogurt, Meyer lemon zest, threw in some chopped pecans and used my homemade Meyer lemon marmalade. Very tasty, the marmalade pocket gives it a sweet surprise! Will make these again.

Yum! Will make again.

I made these with white flour instead of whole wheat flour and they came out great. The recipe is spot on accurate for a dozen muffins. I cut back about 15g of the brown sugar and used pumpkin pie spice instead of just cardamom. I used the zest of a blood orange and regular Aldi brand marmalade and the marmalade made the muffins sweet enough. This is a nice alternative to a morning glory muffin or a bran muffin. I’m sure you could add nuts and raisins too, but being the first time I’ve made them I kept it to as close to the original recipe as possible.

L.K.

These were a winner! But then Melissa Clark’s recipes generally are.

Lili

I’m just enjoying one of these muffins right now. I love the little surprise hit of the marmalade. I’ll make these again and probably will add some chopped pecans.

Paul

I like muffins, carrots and marmalade. My take is that combining them diminishes each of the individual ingredients.

L.K.

These were a winner! But then Melissa Clark’s recipes generally are.

Private comments are only visible to you.

Recipe Tags

or to save this recipe.