These Healthy Toddler Muffins are delicious for breakfast, but also work as a healthy snack or lunch. This is an easy muffin recipe for kids. Make one batter and choose from 4 different mix-ins to get variety, including a vegetable muffin!
Toddler Muffins that are healthy, quick, and tasty
Coming up with toddler breakfast ideas has been one of the trickier things in the household recently. But these toddler muffins have become a favorite recipe.
- It is quick to make;
- mama is happy because it’s healthy;
- the toddler likes the different varieties;
- and of course everyone devours them because they are tasty.
Sure, I often plop his favorite bowl of cereal (which I love, because it’s made from beans, so extra health benefits!) in front of him and get to my morning coffee ASAP.
But I love making breakfast a family affair, and our toddler loves getting involved in anything we are doing. So we try to have him help make his own breakfast.
How can your toddler help in the kitchen?
Our toddler often demands to make these Toddler Pancakes when he wakes up.
With these pancakes, he likes to pull out the ingredients from the cupboard, help measure out the ingredients, and mix the batter together. I do the stovetop cooking, but he likes watching me scoop on the batter and flip the pancakes.
Another favorite breakfast idea is to allow our toddler to choose his own porridge toppings from these 10 toddler friendly porridges.
Our toddler looks at the pictures, points to the one he wants, and mixes everything together in his favorite oatmeal bowl, which is conveniently shaped perfectly to hold everything in it.
Recently, we introduced him to these Toddler Muffins – and it was a hit!
With these Toddler Muffins, our toddler can do the following:
- help pull the ingredients out from the cupboard,
- measure out the ingredients,
- mix the batter together,
- line the muffin tin with the cups,
- and scoop the batter into the muffin cups.
TIP: We love these 12-cup mini muffin tins. Small enough to rotate around so he can line the entire muffin tin with paper cups and scoop muffin batter into each of the cups. (The 24 cup pans are too big to reach in the middle.)
TIP: A small cookie scoop is the best way for my toddler to scoop the muffin batter into the cups. I help him squeeze it to release it, but I’m sure he’ll figure it out soon!
It’s quite a fun and involved process (albeit much neater and quicker when I just do it myself – 10 minutes tops).
This is an easy muffin recipe for kids that they can help make
This easy muffin recipe for kids is as healthy and easy as you want it to be.
With one batter, you can get up to four different toddler muffins. You choose 1, 2, 3, or 4 favorite ingredient mix-in, and simply split the batter into separate bowls, then add in the mix-in of choice at the end.
If you think you have a winning combo that will have your kid proclaiming these as the best toddler muffins, then by all means make the entire batch with only one mix-in.
Regardless, this recipe for healthy kids muffins offers flexibility and variety. You can even get a vegetable muffin for your kids by using the carrot and raisins mix-in option.
The four mix-in’s I’ve made so far are:
- blueberry,
- apple cinnamon,
- carrot and raisins, and
- chocolate chips.
This Healthy Toddler Muffin is delicious for breakfast, but also works as a healthy snack or lunch
I chose what I thought were flavorful mix-in ingredients that were naturally sweet to make up for that fact that these kid muffins are made with little sugar added (you can leave out all the sugar if you prefer too). Instead, these Toddler Muffins use a grated apple in the batter as a natural sweetener.
After making this Toddler Muffin recipe a couple of times now, I have found my toddler’s favorites are apple cinnamon and carrot + raisins. (As he loves apple cinnamon so much, he also loves this healthy apple pancakes!)
A healthy kids muffin recipe that also packs well for lunch and snack
He would happily eat those for breakfast several times a week, and then eat them for lunch and snack. It works out conveniently too, because they pack so well into his yumbox.
For a healthy kids muffin, I found them pretty tasty. I even spied my husband taking the occasional bite off my son’s plate while he was feeding him.
The small size of these muffins makes it easy for our toddler to handle, while we eat eat them as if they were healthy donut holes. Enjoy these muffins with a cup of coffee, or in our toddler’s case, a glass of oat milk!
Our favorite tools for making these Toddler Muffins
Wilton Non-Stick Mini-Muffin Pan, 12-Cup (2-Pack)
Wilton Primary Baking Cups, Mini, 150-CountOXO Good Grips Cookie Scoop, SmallYumbox Leakproof Bento Lunch Box Container
Toddler Muffins
Print RecipeIngredients
Muffin Base
- 1 1/3 cups white whole wheat flour (also called golden wholegrain flour)
- 3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats (jumbo rolled oats)
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds (milled flax seeds)
- 1 small apple – grated with peel
- 2 medium eggs
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter – melted
Apple Cinnamon (enough for 1/4 of the muffin batter)
- 1/2 small apple – chopped into 1/2-cm pieces
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Blueberries (enough for 1/4 of the muffin batter)
- 1 handful blueberries (blueberries vary in size, but aim for about 2-3 blueberries in each muffin)
Carrot and Raisin (enough for 1/4 of the muffin batter)
- 1/4 medium carrot – grated
- 1 tablespoon raisins
Chocolate Chip (enough for 1/4 of the muffin batter)
- 2 tablespoons dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F / 190°C. Grease or line a 24-hole mini muffin tin.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, and flax seeds. Fold in the grated apples.
- In a small bowl, beat the eggs. Beat in the milk and butter.
- Pour the egg mixture into the batter, and fold together, being careful not to over mix.
- Split the muffin batter evenly between 4 bowls. In each bowl, gently mix in the mix-in ingredient. You can adapt the recipe to make 1, 2, 3 or 4 varieties. Adjust the amount of mix-in as required.
- Using a cookie scoop, evenly distribute the batter into the mini muffin tin, filling each muffin cup about 3/4 full. For each variety, you should be able to get 6 mini muffins.
- Bake for 10 minutes, or until cooked in the middle and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before transferring to a cooling rack.
Looking for Easy Toddler Breakfast Ideas? See more recipes!
Alison says
I’m not sure if I did something wrong or what but the consistency was off…I used rolled oats but I did not beat everything, I just mixed by hand, so the batter was lumpy and did not taste right. Was I supposed to use a mixer?? Also, all of the batter had the grated apples in it, which I think I did not do right either.
Christina says
I made this three times and they were awful and bitter. Did I do something wrong?
Tina Jui says
Hi – I’m sorry to hear that. It sounds like you might have used baking soda instead of baking powder. It’s a very common mistake that happens when baking. Baking soda would be the ingredient that makes it bitter.
Leah says
This recipe is great. I replaced sugar with birch xylitol and they came out perfect. Whole family loved them despite some being anti sugar-free substitutes and wholemeal flour. This will now be a go to.
Abby says
Think I can use vegan butter instead? My kiddo has a dairy allergy.
Trish says
Thank you so much for this recipe. My toddler has recently begun refusing all veggies (she would rather starve it seems) and this is good way to get some nutrients into her (she thinks all muffins are cakes and devours them!). She loves these muffins!!
Abigail Wenderson says
Amazing, Thank you for sharing this recipe, looking forward to trying this for tommorow breakfast.
Karlee says
Hi I was wondering if these are freezer friendly?
Tina Jui says
Hi Karlee – You can bake them first, let them cool completely, then freeze them. Enjoy the muffins!
Jerilin says
Thanks for the recipe!
Debbie says
What would the substitute b e if I used all purpose flour instead of whole wheat flour
Alicia says
I was gonna ask the same! I only have all purpose flour.
Amy says
With the mix-ins, this recipe definitely made more than 24 mini muffins. I filled my cups a little full trying to just get 6 of each flavor.