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My favorite morning glory muffins are healthy, hearty, and so delicious! Loaded with shredded carrots, apples, raisins, nuts, and coconut, they’re bursting with flavor and texture. My original recipe does not have eggs, making them vegan friendly!
Epic Morning Glory Muffin Recipe
A lot of my friends and family are on health kicks right now. Which is keeping me hot on the hunt for healthy, satisfyingrecipes that are easy to make and freezer friendly. Enter: morning glory muffins!
Have you ever had a healthy morning glory muffin before? They’re an old school bakery favorite, and have been one of my favorites since I was a kid. They’re so moist and tender and sweet. Add a cup of coffee and oh mah gosh… HEAVEN.
These muffins are:
- Super moist and perfectly sweet
- Made with tons of fresh fruits and veggies
- Big on texture thanks to shredded carrot, nuts, coconut, apple, and raisins
- Vegan and dairy free, they’re safe for most diets
- Lightly spiced and bursting with flavor
- A hit with picky kids, teens, and adults (I always have a dozen in my freezer)
- Perfect for breakfast, snack, or even dessert
Morning Glory Muffins: Ingredients
These muffins are tailor-made to use up all those odds and ends you have hiding in the fridge. They’re loaded with:
- Carrots: Shredded carrots are a main ingredient in these muffins! I use a box grater to coarsely grate them. Shredded carrots add moisture and flavor.
- Apple: I also use a box grater to grate the apple. I like using honey crisp apples, but almost any apple variety will do. Unless you have a serious aversion to carrot/apple peels, there’s no need to take that extra step. These muffins are wonderfully rustic like that.
- Coconut: I use sweetened shredded coconut, but you can use flaked coconut or finely shredded coconut instead. If you don’t like coconut, feel free to omit.
- Walnuts: If you have a nut allergy, you may omit these. Or feel free to sub pecans.
- Raisins: During the holidays I sub raisins with dried cranberries, which is a nice swap. Feel free to do this – or use dried cherries – if you’re not a raisin fan.
- Oil: I use coconut oil because I love the flavor it adds to the muffins. If you’re not a fan, use a mild olive oil, canola oil, or vegetable oil. Or use refined coconut oil which has much less coconut flavor.
- Flour: I use whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour. You can use a 1 for 1 gluten free flour for gluten free morning glory muffins.
- Brown Sugar: Sweetens the morning glory muffins. White sugar (aka granulated sugar) or coconut sugar will work as a subs.
- Vanilla Extract: Adds its signature rich flavor while enhancing the other flavors in the muffins.
- Leavening Agents: Baking powder helps the muffins rise and baking soda helps the muffin batter spread in the muffin tin.
- Spices: Ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and salt enhance the flavors in these morning glory muffins.
- Applesauce: For best results use unsweetened unflavored applesauce. You can use an equal amount of ripe mashed bananas. But note that mashed bananas will add a strong banana flavor.
These muffins contain no eggs or any other animal products, so they’re vegan friendly. If you’d like to alter the original recipe, you may add an egg with the wet ingredients for extra moist muffins. You could also add a 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of grated zucchini.
Let’s Make Morning Glory Muffins
- Baking Prep: Line a muffin tin with paper liners and set aside. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees (F) at least 30 minutes prior to baking.
- Dry Ingredients: In large bowl whisk the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.
- Wet Ingredients: In a separate bowl combine the applesauce, oil, apple, and vanilla extract.
- Make the Muffin Batter: Fold in the shredded carrot, raisins, coconut, and walnuts.
- Fill the Muffin Tin: Divide the muffin batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. You want to fill the muffin tins all the way up to the top of the liners with batter.
- Bake the Muffins: You’ll bake the muffins at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat. Continue baking at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Baking the muffins at two temperatures allows them to rise high, get a crunchy muffin top, but fully bake through.
- Cool the Muffins: Cool the muffins in the muffin pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. These are delish warm, at room temperature, or chilled.
The History of Morning Glory Muffins
- Pam McKinstry created the original recipe for morning glory muffins in 1978.
- Pam owned the Morning Glory Cafe, a small restaurant on Nantucket Island.
- The publication of the recipe in Gourmet magazine propelled the muffins to statewide popularity. They featured as one of its 25 favorite recipes!
What are Morning Glory Muffins?
- Morning glory muffins are a cross between carrot cake, carrot muffins, and apple muffins.
- Most versions use a variety of fruits and vegetables. Most typically you’ll see shredded carrots, apples, raisins, pecans, and shredded coconut.
- But some bakers have made them gluten free or add crazy ingredients like pumpkin – hello, pumpkin morning glory muffins!
- You can serve morning glory muffins for breakfast because they are hearty and substantial enough.
- But they’re also a delicious snack or afternoon treat with tea or coffee. Delicious warm or at room temperature!
These hearty and homemade muffins are just the thing to fill you up when you need a quick breakfast or afternoon snack. Better than any muffin you’ll grab from the bakery… and way cheaper, too. You can thank me later!
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Best Morning Glory Muffins
My favorite morning glory muffins are healthy, hearty, and so delicious! Loaded with shredded carrots, apples, raisins, nuts, and coconut, they’re bursting with flavor and texture. My original recipe does not have eggs, making them vegan friendly!
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/4 cups (150g) whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup (60g) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (159g) brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup (114ml) coconut oil melted
- 1 large apple shredded
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups grated carrot (about 3 medium)
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup flaked coconut
- 1/3 cup walnuts chopped
Instructions
- Line a muffin tin with paper liners and set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F).
- In large bowl add the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt; whisk well to combine. Add in the applesauce, oil, apple and vanilla; whisk just until combined. Fold in the carrot, raisins, coconut and walnuts; stir until ingredients are combined. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 10 to 12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (or with just a few crumbs attached). Cool muffins in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled.
Notes
If you make these into mini muffins, decrease the bake time to about 10 minutes, or until the tops are golden and the centers are fully cooked.
Tried it and loved it?Snap a picture and share it with me on Instagram @Bakerbynature and by using the hashtag #BakerByNature
These look amazing! Can they be frozen?
I made this and absolutely loved them! They are perfect because I spend long days on campus and there’s nothing more filling and exciting than one of these muffins when I’m taking a break from studying. I’m making them again as I speak but I’m making a few changes to make them oil free. Let’s hope they turn out as good as the first round!
Great recipe!
So happy you’re loving this recipe, Annie! Let us know how your adaptions go 🙂
hi. What can I replace Applesauce with ?
Thank you
I didn’t have apple sauce on hand either, so I swapped it out for mashed banana and one peach I had that had gone soft. Mashed them both together and used maybe 1c total. They came out awesome! This recipe is a keeper!
I made your delicious recipe with a few changes. For the grains I used 1c. oats,1/4c. spelt flour,1/4c. garbanzo bean flour, 1/4c. almond meal, 1/8c. hemp hearts and 1/8c. ground flax seed. I changed out 4 medjool (with 2/3c. water) to sweeten instead of sugar and omitted the applesauce. Instead of muffins I made them in a baking pan and cut them into breakfast squares. They came out so moist and fluffy. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
Wow, that sounds wonderful, Heather! So happy this recipe, including your adaptions, worked for you 🙂
Oh my goodness. Literally. These muffins are perfection!!! I didn’t want to get my hopes up because a lot of times vegan muffins tend to be gooey or wet inside or dry, but these are absolutely wonderful! I tasted the batter because it smelled so good and I could tell it was going to be a winner. The flavor, the texture, the moistness, everything is perfect. I just added a little oats to mine because they’re morning muffins, and it seemed appropriate. I am in love with this recipe! Thank you!
Oats sound like a great idea! How much did you add?! Thanks!
Hi my name is Beverly Millimen,
How much oats did you put into the Muffin Mix because that does sound good to me too
Did you have to reduce the flour when you use oats
I’m hoping to be making it either tomorrow or this weekend
I just made these muffins… SO good! They are really moist and fluffy. I used a cup of whole wheat flour, half a cup of wheat bran and half a cup of chickpea flour, and the result is simply awesome. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Do you think I could use spelt flour instead?
Hi Sarah. I don’t have much experience with spelt flour, and I’ve never tried it in this recipe, so I honestly cannot say. If you decide to give it a go, I’d love to hear how it turns out 🙂
Love, love, love this recipe! Even my anti-healthy anything fiancé is hooked. They’ve been my go-to morning muffin for the past few weeks now . Only tweak I made was to use dried cranberries instead of raisins. Thanks for sharing the recipe. 🙂
Yay! So happy to hear you and your fiancé are loving this recipe 🙂 I will have to try them with dried cranberries soon!
These look yum! One question – my bf doesn’t like coconut, do you think I can skip the flakes or is there any replacement you can suggest?
Many thanks x
Hi Rosie. I think you can just leave them out, no need to add anything in 😉 Enjoy!
Thank you, I will definitely try the recipe this weekend. Might add some almond slivers. Can’t wait! 🙂
I would love the morning glory muffin recipe
Hi Judy! Great – it’s at the very bottom of this post!
Can applesauce replace oil in this recipe ?
Yes- I always use appplesauce in place of all – or some-of the oil. For best taste and texture and we can use a little bit of a oil and replace the rest with applesauce
What if I don’t have wheat flour?
Only regular flour
What brown sugar.???.theree are no eggs.xxxx
I have made these a few times and they come out great everytime.
I have used raisins and craisins, almonds and walnuts. You can switch up the add ins to whatever you like. This is a great recipe
Just stumbled across this recipe and made them this morning. They’re very very good! I was worried because the batter was super thick but they worked (though I do need to increase the bake time a bit). I don’t do raisins so swapped in chopped dates (next time will reduce the sugar due to this), spelt flour instead of whole wheat, pumpkins seeds instead of coconut and walnuts as my nut of choice. Even my husband has declared these fantastic! I can taste the baking soda a bit so I’m wondering if I messed up the measurements.
I just made these for the first time too. I can taste the baking soda too…. weird. I wonder if we did something wrong or why we can taste it so much. ??
Yum!! Made these today and I want to keep making them to have on hand at all times!! Thanks so much for the recipe! And my 10month old approves as well!!
Yay! Thank you for letting me know, Heather 🙂
Could you use Oat flour??
My daughter made these and shared. So delish! Going in my ” Go To” recipes.
Yay!!! So happy you and your daughter are enjoying this recipe, Susan 🙂
Excellent! Easy tout préparé with kids too!
Do you peel.the apple.before shredding?
I don’t, but it’s personal choice.
Hi, i really wanna make these, but no applesauce or apples at home right now due to the pandemic. What can i use as a substitute?
I used a mashed sweet potato. Random but it works!
Instead of applesauce, maybe yogurt would work. Mashed banana is another idea. Instead of shredded apple, use a pear.