This easy carrot muffin recipe is made without a mixer and stirred by hand. The muffins are moist from shredded carrot and sour cream, topped with cinnamon sugar before baking.
Preheat the oven to 375 ºF (190 °C). Line two muffin pans with 12 muffin paper liners.
Make the muffin batter
In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
Add the cubes of softened butter and work it in with your hands, rubbing it in until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla.
Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir it in (takes about 20 stirs to get the batter mixed).
Fold in the shredded carrot and the walnuts into the batter gently with a wooden spoon or spatula to evenly distribute them.
Divide the batter between 12 paper-lined wells of two muffin pans.
Make the cinnamon sugar
Whisk the granulated sugar with the cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle generously over each muffin before baking. If you have extra, sprinkle it on buttered toast!
Bake at 375°F until a cake tester inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean to check if the muffins are baked. This takes about 25–30 minutes and the edges start to turn golden.
Let cool slightly in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
For a “puffy” muffin top: refrigerate the batter overnight, then scoop the batter into 8 to 10 muffin paper-lined wells of a muffin pan, sprinkle with streusel topping, and bake them at 350°F for about 30 minutes.For a more fluffy, caky muffin, you can increase the sour cream in the recipe, from 125 mL (½ cup) to 170 mL (⅔ cup) but the muffin top won't be as tall.