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!
Here's one more favorite toddler breakfast recipe that would fit in perfectly in that yumbox too: Easy Fruit Salad with Yogurt.
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 Recipe Save RecipeIngredients
Muffin Base
- 1 ⅓ cups white whole wheat flour (also called golden wholegrain flour)
- ¾ 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
- ¾ cup whole milk
- ¼ cup unsalted butter - melted
Apple Cinnamon (enough for ¼ of the muffin batter)
- ½ small apple - chopped into ½-cm pieces
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Blueberries (enough for ¼ 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 ¼ of the muffin batter)
- ¼ medium carrot - grated
- 1 tablespoon raisins
Chocolate Chip (enough for ¼ 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 ¾ 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!
Christina says
These were good but I'm not sure why the prep time states only 20 minutes when it took me a LOT longer than that. And they do taste good but I would have hoped to have exact measurements instead of 1/2 small apple or 1/4 of a carrot,etc. That part frustrated me a little.
Oh. The batter I had DOUBLED what was said to be so I'm lucky I had an extra pan and these muffin tins were stuffed to the top, not 3/4" so I could have made even more but I wouldn't have had the room. I have to say that the batter was a bit runny at first so I threw in the SMALLEST amount more possible of flour which barely made a dent.
Healthy, good muffins but I would have wished the prep was way quicker.
Rose Swarbrick says
These turned out ok...I think there is too much baking powder as there is a bitter after taste....they also didn’t brown up nicely In the oven yet dried out...not ideal. I love the idea of making the different flavors at once tho!
helen says
Hi can I please have metric measurements for accurate recipe please.
Helen
Tina Jui says
Hi Helen, there's a "Metric" link right under the list of ingredients. It will change the recipe over to metric measurements. Enjoy the muffins!
Sharon Carrington says
I've tried this recipe twice now with dried crancherries and both times they came out great i followed the directions as is and they both times they were soft and fluffy my kids and boyfriend loved them
Michelle says
My 14 month old and I made the blueberry muffins today and they came out very satisfying, thank you! I unfortunately didn’t have any apple (or applesauce) and just skipped it I’m so glad they still came out good I’m assuming they could be more moist if I had them in. Next time ...
Jill says
Do these need to be refrigerated after making?
Heather says
These turned out very dry. Any thoughts?
Tina Jui says
Hi Heather, oh no I'm sorry to hear! Did you follow the ingredients exactly? If you make it again, can you try following the metric measurements (weights), which is always a lot more accurate in terms of the amount of flour. I haven't had a problem with the muffins turning out dry before. I'd love to help you troubleshoot more.
Katie says
Can you sub grated apple for applesauce?
Dineeta Tamang says
Omg! I ended up using half baking soda by mistake so mine turned out a little funny flavor wise but otherwise it's awesome! I used apple sauce instead of butter and cottage cheese instead of milk and it still turned out well! Did a plain batch cuz I didn't have mixins on hand. Thank you for he recipe! I type this as I finish chewing on my third one. Oh! I also made some topping sauce that goes well. Butter, peanut butter and honey mix.
Erica says
We love these muffins!! Only change is that I add 1/2c grated zucchini to the batter for extra veggies. I make these for my kids (15m &2.5y) all the time and friends when they have a new baby and toddlers for easy snacks.
Pauline says
Love this recipe. I've made 3 batches today and last night for my girl and she is devouring them! I added chia seeds as well to the dry mixture and subbed in almond milk and vegan butter because of dairy allergies though and they turned out perfect! Thank you for this recipe! Super healthy and easy for my toddler. They did make more than 24 mini muffins for me. More like 28-30 each batch. I'm sure this will become a regular recipe for us.
Rachel says
Can you make these ahead of time and put them in the freezer for later?