Lunchbox Harvest Muffins
Updated August 12, 2025
Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Vivian Lui.
- Total Time
- 35 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
140 grams (1 ⅛ cups) whole-wheat pastry flour
5 grams (1 teaspoon) baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
½ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
70 grams (⅓ cup) packed dark brown sugar
1 small apple, grated, and juices reserved (½ cup)
½ cup grated carrots or butternut squash or parsnips
½ cup grated zucchini or beets
55 grams (⅓ cup) raisins
40 grams (½ cup) unsweetened shredded coconut
Nutritional analysis per serving
9 grams carbs; 12 milligrams cholesterol; 79 calories; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 5 grams fat; 1 gram fiber; 54 milligrams sodium; 1 gram protein; 4 grams sugar
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
- Step 1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease mini-muffin tins.
- Step 2
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
- Step 3
In a large bowl, combine the eggs, olive oil, honey, brown sugar, grated apple and juices and grated vegetables.
- Step 4
Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until just combined. Gently fold in the raisins and coconut.
- 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.
Private Notes
Comments
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.
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!
Ditto. Once the dough was in the muffin tins, I realized I forgot to add the coconut and raisins. I ended up stirring them in to each little muffin cup that was already filled. I was sure they would never release once the muffins were baked, but they popped out no problem. This is a keeper!
This recipe is very similar to one sold at my favorite bakery. Two things they do differently: they add sunflower seeds and pepitas (pumpkin seeds), and they rehydrate raisins. Since sunflower seeds and pepitas are both seeds, and not nuts, they do not trigger tree nut allergies, unlike walnuts or pecans. Rehydrating raisins is easy: just pour enough boiling water over them to cover, and let them sit for 15-20 minutes, or until most of the water is absorbed, before adding them to the batter. I did not used to like raisins in cookies or muffins until I tried these.
These are kitchen sink muffins—just really, superbly versatile. I freeze all those half eaten apples my pack of gremlins (toddlers) leave lying around the house, slightly thaw and blitz when it’s time to make a big batch of these. Carrots are great in these, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, banana are all good as well. I toss in cranberries occasionally, big scoops of chia seeds, walnuts, chocolate chips—you get the picture. Love this recipe!
I made these with an almost 2yo so safe to say there was a lot of chaos going on. We guesstimated the vegetable amount and the mixing and measurements were definitely not thorough, but despite all of the raisins being picked out and eaten from the raw batter and forgetting to ad the coconut, these turned out delicious and nutritious!