Carrot Muffins With Marmalade

By Melissa Clark

Updated March 1, 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(250)
Comments
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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

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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.

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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.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
250 user ratings
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Comments

saga

I understand what you're saying, sometimes the recipe is perfect exactly as written, but from my perspective I enjoy reading how other people have approached the recipe. Sometimes ideas about how to substitute ingredients or tweak a little for personal preferences is helpful. Over the years, I have found such comments very beneficial in expanding my knowledge and creativity as a cook and baker.

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.

eliza383

Very good recipe! I am not a great baker but these came out with no drama. I found the marmalade slightly bitter and so might use a different preserve next time. I maybe should have grated the carrots more finely but they came out like muffins anyway haha

Robin

Very delicious. And it seems fairly bomb-proof, as all good muffin recipes are. I doubled the recipe. As per recommendations in the comments, I added raisins and shredded coconut. Halfway through I realized that a) the yogurt in my fridge was vanilla instead of plain, and b) I only had 3 eggs. So I made it with a mix of vanilla yogurt and sour cream, and 3 eggs plus one flax-seed "vegan egg." Turned out terrific!

Very sweet

Maybe it was the kind of marmalade I used, but they came out very sweet. Too much for my taste.

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