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!
Coming up with toddler breakfast ideas has been one of the trickier things in the household recently. It has to be quick, I like it to be healthy, the toddler likes it to have variety, and of course it has to be tasty.
Sure, I often plop a bowl of cereal 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 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. 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!
Toddler Muffins
Print Recipe Pin 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
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!
Sheina says
Hi! What can I use instead of the grated apple?
Thanks!
Kim says
Can I use all purpose flour? I also don’t have flaxseeds can I just add an extra egg?
Tina Jui says
Hi Kim, I haven’t made these toddler muffins before with those exact substitutions. That being said, yes you can use all purpose flour. I would also think the muffins should be fine without the flax (no need to add an extra egg), but I haven’t done it before to be sure. With those changes, you might want to reduce the amount of milk.
Sym says
Hi, if I make them with gluten free flour do I need to add anything else in or will just that substitute alone work? Thanks
Tina Jui says
Hi Sym, I bake with the Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Baking Flour (this one). With that GF flour, you don’t need to add anything else.
Kausar says
Made the carrot muffins with my 2 year old who hates carrots. He loved them and so did I! Thanks so much for sharing this delicious recipe.
Tina Jui says
Hi – thanks so much for leaving the comment! It really makes my day to hear about other toddlers who love the muffins.
LP says
Can they be frozen and eaten at a later date?
Tina Jui says
Yes. After they cool, I throw them all in a freezer ziplock bag. Enjoy!
NICOLE REYNOLDS says
I can’t believe how delicious these are! I didnt have any cow milk so i did half sour cream and half almond milk, so yummy! Thank you, Thank you!
Tina Jui says
Your welcome! Thanks for leaving the comment, and sharing how you made it.
Elana says
This looks and sounds so easy, excited to make them.
are there other fruit or veggie options you would recommend?
Tina Jui says
Hmm.. we add chopped pears sometimes! If you try any other combinations, please do share :)