Lunchbox Harvest Muffins

By Melissa Clark

Updated Aug. 12, 2025

Lunchbox Harvest Muffins
Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Vivian Lui.
Total Time
35 minutes
Rating
5(3,081)
Comments
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These diminutive muffins make the rotation at least twice a week in my daughter's lunchbox. Although they are filled with plenty of good-for-you ingredients (whole-wheat flour, olive oil, apple and grated vegetables), they are moist and just sweet enough to ensure that they don’t end up coming back home, which is the sad fate of many a salami sandwich.

Featured in: Healthful Muffins, Moist and Sweet, for Anytime

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Ingredients

Yield:About 2½ dozen mini-muffins (or 1 dozen regular muffins)
  • 140grams (1⅛ cups) whole-wheat pastry flour
  • 5grams (1 teaspoon) baking soda
  • 1teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼teaspoon salt
  • 2large eggs
  • ½cup olive oil
  • 1tablespoon honey
  • 70grams (⅓ cup) packed dark brown sugar
  • 1small apple, grated, and juices reserved (½ cup)
  • ½cup grated carrots or butternut squash or parsnips
  • ½cup grated zucchini or beets
  • 55grams (⅓ cup) raisins
  • 40grams (½ cup) unsweetened shredded coconut
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (30 servings)

79 calories; 5 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 9 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 4 grams sugars; 1 gram protein; 54 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.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease mini-muffin tins.

  2. Step 2

    In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

  3. Step 3

    In a large bowl, combine the eggs, olive oil, honey, brown sugar, grated apple and juices and grated vegetables.

  4. Step 4

    Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until just combined. Gently fold in the raisins and coconut.

  5. Step 5

    Fill each muffin cup ¾ of the way up, and bake for about 15 to 18 minutes for mini-muffins and about 20 to 22 minutes for regular muffins. The muffins are finished baking when an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
3,081 user ratings
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Comments

Pasture

I encourage the gentle writers citing calories and fat to relax just a wee li'l smidge. These are not sinful muffins. They are fine, upstanding, nutritious and ,may I say, outasite muffins.

Jen Braun

I make these about once a week now. Very forgiving recipe -- I've messed with it all kinds of ways: Used regular flour instead of whole wheat, all carrots for the veg (and all zucchini too), accidentally doubled the amount of veggies, on-purpose doubled the amount of raisins, and skipped the coconut. It's always come out fine. And my kids vacuum them up.

Erika

I took the olive oil down to 1/3 cup and the brown sugar down to 1/4 cup and they were delicious and moist. Thank you!

Heather

I wanted to share my tweaks if anyone else is trying to increase the protein content - as others have noted, this recipe is forgiving! I get great results subbing the pastry flour with a third each of: (1) all purpose flour [I always have it on hand], (2) almond flour, and (3) unflavored almond protein powder [Bob's Red Mill]. I eat these for breakfast and pop them in my son's snack bag, so having a bit more protein is useful! I bulk-batch these, making 4x at a time and freezing.

Joy Hebert

Have made several times- do substitutions for various fruit and veg and they always comes out great. Almost always sub chopped walnuts for the coconut and usually sub applesauce for the beets. Highly recommend!

CO

This recipe is super adaptable just like the comments said. I pretty much subbed out all the fruit/veg ingredients except for the apple. I used one ripe banana, one half cup of baked sweet potato, one half cup chopped and pitted dates, and a half cup of dried cherries. I left out the coconut as my kids are allergic. So good! I think I’ll add these into my weekly baking rotation!

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