Morning Glory Muffins
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Morning glory muffins are wholesome, delicious, and true to their name—a glorious way to start the day!
Morning glory muffins are brimming with wholesome goodness. Made with whole wheat flour, carrots, apples, raisins, walnuts, orange juice, coconut, and wheat germ, they were created decades ago by Chef Pam McKinstry for her Morning Glory Café on Nantucket Island. These muffins are a throwback to the 1970s “back-to-the-land” era, when wholesome hippie foods were all the rage. True to their name, they’re a glorious way to kick-start your day—a feel-good, homemade treat.
If you love the cozy flavors of carrots, raisins, and warm spices, you might also enjoy my classic carrot cake—it shares many of the same ingredients but in a more decadent dessert form. For more muffin inspiration, try my blueberry muffins or banana muffins—both are simple favorites that bake up beautifully.
“I’ve been making this recipe for a few years now and it never disappoints! The muffins are moist and delicious. I usually double the recipe and keep some in freezer so we always have them on hand!”
What You’ll Need To Make Morning Glory Muffins
- Raisins, carrots, apple, walnuts & coconut: This mix gives the muffins their signature balance of sweetness, moisture, and a subtle tropical note, with just the right amount of crunch from the nuts.
- White Whole Wheat Flour, brown sugar, wheat germ, and baking soda: This combination forms the dry base. The flour provides structure (I like King Arthur), the sugar adds depth with its hint of molasses, the wheat germ lends a subtle nuttiness and extra nutrition, and baking soda leavens the muffins.
- Eggs, oil, orange juice & vanilla extract: These wet ingredients bind the batter, add sweetness, and keep the muffins tender. The orange juice adds brightness, and the vanilla rounds out the flavor.
- Cinnamon & ginger: These spices add cozy warmth and just enough zing to balance the fruit and nuts.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1. Soak the raisins. Place them in hot water to soften and plump.
Pro Tip: If you’d like to experiment, try soaking the raisins in hot tea (like Earl Grey or chamomile) instead of plain water for a subtle flavor twist.
Step 2. Prep the produce. Grate the carrots and apple (a food processor makes quick work of this, but a box grater works just as well). If making your own orange juice, juice the orange now.
Pro Tip: If you’re using a box grater, grate the carrots first—it’ll keep the apple from sitting too long and getting watery.
Step 3. Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Use your fingers to break up any brown sugar lumps.
Pro Tip: Like regular whole wheat, white whole wheat flour is 100% whole grain—the difference comes from the lighter-colored wheat it’s milled from. It has the same nutrition but a milder flavor and color. If you can’t find it, use regular whole wheat flour, or go half whole wheat and half all-purpose for lighter muffins.
Step 4. Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, orange juice, and vanilla extract.
Step 5. Combine everything. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture, then stir in the apple, carrots, wheat germ, walnuts, coconut, and drained raisins. Mix until evenly moistened; the batter will be very thick.
Step 6. Bake. Divide the batter into the wells of a greased 12-cup muffin pan. The wells will be very full. Bake in a 375°F oven for about 25 minutes, until nicely domed.
Pro Tip: If you have an ice cream scoop, that works well to fill the muffin pan.
Step 7. Cool and serve. Let muffins cool in the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. The muffins keep nicely for several days; freeze for longer storage.
Morning Glory Muffins Mix-and-Match Swaps
These muffins are super flexible—here are a few easy substitutions to make them your own. Just be mindful of maintaining the overall moisture and texture of the batter when making substitutions:
- Wheat germ: Swap with wheat bran, ground flaxseed, or even finely ground oats.
- Raisins: Use dried cranberries, chopped dried apricots, or just leave them out.
- Coconut: Skip it, or replace with extra shredded carrots or apples for moisture.
- Walnuts: Try chopped pecans, almonds, or hazelnuts—or omit altogether.
My starting point for this recipe was the Morning Glory Muffins on the King Arthur Flour. I found their version to be a bit bland, so I increased the spices, raisins, walnuts, and sugar.
More Healthy Breakfast Recipes to Try
Morning Glory Muffins
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup raisins
- 2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour, or Whole Wheat Flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons (packed) light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup orange juice (if making your own, you'll need one orange)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups peeled and shredded carrots, from 4 to 5 large carrots
- 1 large tart apple, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored and shredded
- ½ cup shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened
- ⅔ cup chopped walnuts
- ⅓ cup wheat germ
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, cover the raisins with hot water. Set them aside to soak.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.
- Drain the raisins, squeezing out any excess water with your hands.
- In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, orange juice, and vanilla extract. Add to the flour mixture, along with the drained raisins, carrots, apple, coconut, walnuts, and wheat germ. Mix until the batter is evenly moistened and combined.
- Divide the batter among the wells of the prepared pan. They will be very full.
- Bake the muffins for about 25 minutes, until they're nicely domed and a cake tester inserted in the center of one of the inner muffins comes out clean.
- Remove the muffins from the oven and let cool in the pan on a rack for about 5 minutes. Turn the muffins out onto the rack to cool completely. Cover and store at room temperature for several days.
Notes
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Just what I was looking for. Thank you for skipping the pineapple: it is such a treat to be able to bake with ingredients on hand. I made three edits: added the zest from the orange; cut down the sugar to about 3/4 cup because of the sweetness of the carrots, raisins and apples; used oat bran instead of wheat germ (as that’s what I had on hand). My one recommendation for the recipe writer is to also include weights, esp for things like flour, as that is more accurate than volume.
After a quick review of the other comments I was surprised not to find a single one mentioning the overwhelmingly strong soda flavor. I followed the recipe to a T (except I didn’t add the raisins) and I baked them in a mini-muffin tin. I bit into one and it had that strong baking soda flavor, so I figured I didn’t blend the dry ingredients enough. But then my sister tried one, same. We both picked two more random ones, same. I finally realized that it was probably due to the altitude–we live in CO, 5000′ above sea level so not mountain high but it’s the only thing I can think of. I also checked a couple of other mornig glory muffin recipes and most of them call for only 1 tsp baking soda. SO If you’re baking at HIGH ALTITUDE, decrease the baking soda in this recipe and maybe add a touch more liquid, they’re also a bit on the dry side. I ended up throwing out the entire batch, oh well, lesson learned.
Thank you! I’m new to high altitude baking and will try your adjustment:)
What would be a good substitute for the gluten? One to one flour, but what about the wheat germ?? Thanks
Hi Deb, You can sub flaxseed or more gluten-free flour for the wheat germ.
I love these. Hands down crowd pleaser
Very good recipe. We are enjoying them and sharing with friends.
Excellent recipe. So moist and tasty.
These turned out amazing! I got up on a Sunday morning and realized I had everything here to make these for my husband and me, plus extra!
We had just picked apples, and I added in some pear from our little tree plus 4 heaping spoons of paw paw purée that a friend brought us at our farmers market booth.
Truly a perfect recipe for a healthy breakfast..thank you!
Catherine
Blue Lotus Ranch
Jenny,
I have high cholesterol. Any suggestions for modifying the eggs? Whites only! Egg substitute?
Thanks!
Margot
Hi Margot, these should work with an egg substitute. I’ve never baked with just egg whites; I just googled it and it looks like it’s possible. This article provides some more info on getting good results. Hope that helps!
Can you add pineapple to this recipe? If so, how much and do I need to change anything else?
Thanks
Hi Judy, I haven’t tried it, but I think you could replace either 1 cup of the carrots or the apple with 1 cup of diced pineapple. Just make sure it’s drained of any juice. Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!
I’ve been wanting to try these muffins for a while now, and finally did this past Sunday (Easter 4/17/22). Muffins are one of my favorite things when baking — there are a million ways to make them, tons of different recipes to follow, and ingredients you can use, and they tend to go together pretty quickly and easily. Almost foolproof!
These reminded me very much of carrot cake, with the exception of the apple. They came out very good — not dry or too dense, still moist, and very tasty. I didn’t find them overly sweet, as some have suggested, possibly because I left out the coconut. I used only the cup of brown sugar, and left out the extra couple of tablespoons, so maybe that made the difference. I didn’t use the walnuts (not a big fan of any kind of nut, so I typically leave them out in whatever recipe calls for them), and used only half of the apple. Didn’t see the need for the wheat germ either. But leaving those things out didn’t seem to change the results at all. Next time, I may leave out the apple, may try some pineapple in lieu of the coconut, and use the pineapple juice in place of the orange.
They were a bit labor-intensive, but certainly worth the extra bit of work. I baked them at 350, didn’t really time them (I don’t usually, preferring to go by the look, and use a cake tester to check for doneness). Not sure how long they cooked, but they browned up nicely, and were perfectly done when I took them out of the oven. I did use baking cups, and sprayed the insides of them before filling. The cups peeled right off once the muffins were cool — no problem with sticking.
For me, this recipe made a batch of 12 medium-size muffins. I froze six of them for later use, so we’ll see how they hold up. A good hearty muffin that can be eaten for breakfast, but also make a good lunch with a cup of yogurt, or you could even pair them with a cup of soup.
All in all, a great recipe, and I will make these again.