Grinch Mini Muffins for Baby + Toddler
These Grinch Mini Muffins are a great holiday treat for baby and toddler! Made with no added sugar and packed with spinach – these muffins can be served with breakfast, lunch, snack or even a festive dessert!
This post is sponsored by Happy Family Organics. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Baby FoodE possible.
Grinch Mini Muffins
These mini muffins for baby and toddler are so full of festive cheer that they might make your heart grow three sizes in a day ❤️❤️❤️!
Made with delicious ingredients and no added sugar but with 3 packed cups of spinach, these muffins are a delicious treat.
They can be served with breakfast, lunch, snack or even dessert.
But if you ask me, my favorite time to serve these holiday muffins is when you snuggle up with your little one and read the classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Sharing an experience together that is filled with joy and love (and delicious food;) is what the Grinch found this holiday season is all about.
Helpful Book Tip – If you find that the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas is too long for your little ones, you might want to try this flap board book version. I picked up this shorter version a couple of years ago when my girls were 1 and 3 and they loved how interactive the book was and it completely held their attention.
Reasons to love these healthy mini muffins
- great for baby, toddler and kids
- easy to use for baby-led weaning
- soft and chewy
- no added sugar
- filled with white whole wheat flour, spinach, banana and applesauce
- freezer-friendly
- hidden veggie – spinach!
- great with breakfast, lunch, snack or even dessert
- fits easily in a preschool lunch box
- makes 36 mini muffins – eat some now and freeze some for later
- muffin batter comes together in under 10 minutes
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Prep: Preheat oven and line a mini muffin tin with liners or grease.
- Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, prep the dry ingredients.
- Wet Ingredients: In a blender, add in the wet ingredients and spinach and blend until looks like a thin green smoothie with no green flecks.
- Combine: Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently stir until combined. Do not over mix.
- Bake: Spoon the batter into the muffin tin and pop the muffins into the oven until just cooked and golden brown.
- Cool: Let them cool completely.
- Prep Frosting: Add the cream cheese into a baggie and snip the corner off of it (so you can use it as a cheap piping bag;)
- Prep “Hearts”: Cut the raspberries in half, and then cut a V shape into the top of each half to make them into a heart shape. Place the raspberry, cut side down, onto a paper towel to absorb any moisture.
- Make “Hearts”: Pipe the cream cheese on top of each muffin the size of a quarter, then add the heart-shaped raspberry.
Tips for Making the Best Mini Muffins
- Blend the Wet Ingredients – to make sure the spinach gets completely incorporated into the batter, and you don’t get huge chunks of spinach in these muffins, I would recommend that you blend all the wet ingredients in a blender until smooth (roughly 1 minute).
- Gently Mix Together – for a fluffy and soft muffin, gently mix together the wet and dry ingredients until just incorporated. Over mixing the batter will make for a denser and harder muffin.
- Applesauce – to avoid including added sugar in this recipe, make sure the applesauce you use doesn’t have any added sugar in the ingredient list.
- No Sticking – make sure you generously grease the mini muffin molds or use mini muffin liners so that the muffins don’t stick to the pan.
- Dry the Raspberries – once you cut the raspberries in half and make the heart shape, I would place them on a paper towel or kitchen towel to dry up any juices from the raspberries. This will help the juices from running onto the cream cheese and muffin.
Gluten-Free Mini Muffins
You can easily makes these mini muffins gluten by using a cup-for-cup gluten free flour blend.
Three heart options
Besides raspberries, you can also use freeze-dried raspberries or dried cherries for the Grinch’s heart for this recipe. You will need to cut an indent at the top of either one.
Adding More Nutrients
To add in even more variety you can use either Happy Family Organics Apple, Kale & Avocado or Spinach, Apples & Kale baby food pouch instead of the applesauce.
More fun holiday recipes
- Dark Chocolate Cherry + Almond Clusters
- Easy Chocolate Fondue for Toddlers + Kids (Dairy-Free)
- Healthy Hot Turmeric Cocoa for Toddlers + Kids
- Cranberry Snowballs with Cashew + Coconut
Tools You Need
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas (flap-book version)
- Blender
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
- Mixing Bowls
- Mini Muffin Pan
- Mini Muffin Foil Liners
- White Whole Wheat Flour
Get the recipe: Grinch Mini Muffins for Baby + Toddler
Ingredients
Grinch Muffins
- 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (all-purpose, whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached flour also work)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2-3 cups spinach, packed
- 3/4 cup milk, regular whole milk or a plain plant-based milk
- 1/2 cup applesauce or Happy Family Organics baby food pouch (see notes)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1 ripe banana
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Grinch Hearts
- 1/2 cup raspberries
- 3 tbsp cream cheese
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a mini muffin tray with liners or grease.
- Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- Wet Ingredients: In a blender, add in the spinach, milk, applesauce or baby food puree, coconut oil, banana, egg and vanilla extract and blend on medium speed for 1 minute or until all of the spinach is completely broken down, scraping sides of the blender as needed.
- Combine: Pour the wet ingredients into the medium bowl of dry ingredients and gently mix together until just combined, do not over mix.
- Bake: Fill the muffin molds 3/4 way full, and bake for 12-15 minutes or until they are just golden brown. Let cool completely on a wire baking rack.
- Prep Frosting: To add the Grinch Hearts – spoon the cream cheese into a piping bag or a small zip lock baggie (that is what i used above). Use a rubber band to secure the top of the baggie and then cut the very corner of the baggie off to create a hole for the cream cheese to come out of.
- Prep "Hearts": On a cutting board, gently cut the raspberries in half lengthwise. Then place one half of the raspberry on the cutting board, outside-facing down, and cut a small V into the top of the raspberry to make a heart shape. Place the cut side of the raspberry onto a paper towel or kitchen towel to soak up any moisture.
- Decorate: With the piping bag, on the top of the muffin make a quarter size circle of cream cheese. Then add one raspberry heart on top. Repeat until all of the muffins are decorated.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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13 Comments on “Grinch Mini Muffins for Baby + Toddler”
I had a lot of batter left over that filled 4 large muffins, should it have been 1 cup and not 1 1/2 cup flour?
These are fantastic! Made them today for my little – they were so easy to whip together and used ingredients that we often have on hand. I swapped in a flax egg for a regular egg and they came out perfectly.
Will definitely add these to our regular rotation of snack foods! Thanks for this lovely recipe!
So happy to hear you liked this recipe! It’s amazing how flax eggs always work just the same as regular!
Fantastic! Used egg the first time and later used flax substitute for egg , perfect both times. Baby loved it! Will be trying the other muffin recipes too!
So glad to hear that your baby is loving these muffins!! Spinach for the win!
Can I swap Coconut oil for something else? If so, what would you suggest?
You can substitute olive oil, melted butter or avocado oil for the coconut oil.
These muffins are perfect! We send two to daycare as part of our 18 month old’s snack and they are inhaled. We use the full 3 cups of spinach (~90g), whole wheat pastry flour, and applesauce or a pouch depending on what we have at home. We freeze the batch after baking/cooling and pull them out as needed. I do NOT recommend using liners unless you spray them first with oil; otherwise the liners stick terribly. We just grease the pan and get a 24 mini muffin yield. I wish I could find more no sugar added muffin recipe that incorporate veggies.
So happy to hear that your little one loves these muffins! And love that you freeze them and pull them out when needed – so smart! Thanks for your comment.
So excited to make these! What kind of coconut oil do you use though: virgin or refined? I haven’t cooked with coconut oil before and wanted to make sure.
We’ve loved all of the recipes we have tried so far!
I usually use refined coconut oil, but any oil will work in these – olive, avocado, vegetable or even melted butter. Hope that helps!
My picky toddler loves these muffins! I make them using half all purpose, half whole wheat flour because that’s what is in the pantry and the full 3 cups of spinach. I haven’t been adding any topping. They freeze great!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Victoria! 💕