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
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!
When they say it is forgiving they are RIGHT! Not only did I make substitutions, replace ingredients I baked it as a cake instead! And it still came out great! I substituted -half of oil w/ canola (bc I ran out of olive) - no raisins - added walnuts -used more carrot than asked for - added molasses and light b sugar I know I replaced another few and I am forgetting but it’s delicious! 350° for about 40 minutes in a circular pan.
Agree with a lot of comments on the versatility of this recipe. Whatever veggies we have that fit the bill go in. I've also made a savory version omitting the cinnamon and brown sugar and adding 1/2 to 1 c grated cheddar or gouda. Either way it's always yummy with a smear of cream cheese.
A half cup of chopped walnuts and the zest of lemon completely transform these muffins. I am not a huge fan of raisins or coconut, so I swapped them out. This recipe, as other have written, is very forgiving. I love the lemon flavor and the crunch from the walnuts.