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
These hearty morning glory muffins are a 1970s throwback, loaded with carrots, apples, raisins, and warm spices—a feel-good treat.
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup raisins
- 2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour (or Whole Wheat Flour), spooned and leveled
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
- 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 (you'll need 4-5 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. 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.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The muffins can be frozen in an airtight container or sealable plastic bag for up to 3 months. Thaw for 3 to 4 hours on the countertop before serving. To reheat, wrap individual muffins in aluminum foil and place in a preheated 350°F oven until warm.
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 367
- Fat: 18g
- Saturated fat: 3g
- Carbohydrates: 50g
- Sugar: 29g
- Fiber: 5g
- Protein: 6g
- Sodium: 346mg
- Cholesterol: 47mg
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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Another WONDERFUL and delicious recipe, Jenn! Thank you for always creating and sharing such yummy recipes with us. My 1 year old LOVES these muffins. I decided to cut the sugar in half, omit the coconut (we’re not big coconut fans), add 1/4 c flax seeds, and swap the raisins for cranberries because that’s what I had on hand. I also omitted the wheat germ because I didn’t have it in the pantry and added 1/3 c of wheat flour . I’ve already made these muffins twice in the past week and have shared the recipe with friends! I really liked the taste of the cranberries in these muffins. Since I cut the sugar in half, the sweetness of the cranberries is nice. Definitely try these muffins!! It’s a great way to incorporate healthy food into your children’s diet. They are our new favorite!!
Like all of your recipes.. this one was award winning!
Was wondering if you think I could try making it into a loaf so that there’s less chance of overbaking and losing moisture?
So glad you liked them! Sure, you can make a loaf instead. I’d lower the temperature to 350 degrees. It may take a little over an hour to bake – likely 65 to 75 minutes, but keep a close eye on it!
Jen,
Any chance you can help us reduce the sugar in this. It’s 29 grams per muffin!!! My husband is diabetic. No way could he enjoy these with me. I’d be left eating the whole shebang!
Hi Sera, There’s a fair amount of natural sugar in these muffins due to the raisins, orange juice, and apple, but you could reduce the brown sugar by about a quarter cup. You could also reduce the amount of (or omit the) raisins in the recipe. Hope that helps and that you enjoy if you make them!
You know this is a no-fail recipe when you do all kinds of substitutions and baked it at the wrong temp and it’s still amazing! So here’s what I did – no apples on hand but had leftover homemade apple danish filling and used a couple of big spoons of that. No whole-wheat but used a mix of artisan bread flour which has the bran in it still and mixed with AP. Used ground flax instead of wheat germ. No OJ or orange in the fridge but had guava nectar of all things. I used unsweetened coconut and left out the extra 2 tbsp sugar. Ditched the cinnamon because my dad hates it. About the only thing I had true to the recipe was sugar, raisins, carrots. Baked at 350F and wondered why it was still uncooked 25 minutes later but another 10 minutes fixed that. I sprinkled coconut chips on top before baking too. I think bran on top would also look nice. I don’t know if I can call this morning glory anymore, haha.
I just wanted to say that I used chia in place of the wheat germ and it worked great as well.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I needed to use up some frozen cherries so I used them instead of the raisins. Due to health issues I used half sugar and half monk fruit and 1/2 canola oil and half extra virgin olive oil. It still came out fabulous. I enjoy many of your recipes and can make the changes we need to make it more healthy for our family.
Hi Jenn,
These muffins look delicious and I hope to make them soon. Can you tell me what you use to scoop into the tins? I’ve used my ice cream scoop for other muffins unless a certain size measuring cup is better.
Thanks,
Chris
Hi Chris, an ice cream scoop is perfect. 😊
I love these muffins and have made them 3 or 4 times since finding your recipe. I gave one to my 5yo granddaughter who happily ate it until she encountered the walnuts and raisins, when she stopped, stating she prefers muffins that contain “only bread and flavor,” lol. I wonder if there’s a recipe you can point me to that’s similar to Morning Glories without the walnuts and raisins, or what the recipe might be like if I just excluded them? She mentioned also that she likes pumpkin muffins, so I’ll look to see if you have a recipe for those.
Only bread and flavor made me laugh! The muffins will be slightly smaller, but it’s fine to omit the nuts and raisins. 😊
Hi Jenn,
Love your site!!! I have tried many recipes on it. I have made 2 batches of these in the past week . Sharing them of course with others! I made a few substitutions – I did not have wheat germ or wheat flour. I used almond meal. I did, 1 1/2 c APF with 1/2 c almond meal. for the wheat flout and did 1/3 c almond meal for the wheat germ. I also did 1/3 c coconut oil and 1/3 c vegetable oil to put some healthy fat in the recipe. Lastly, I didn’t want to waste the orange rind so I zested it and put it in the muffin mix! It made it super yummy and delicious!
This is something I also do when I make bran muffins. Thanks so much!💐
Would using ground flax work the same as wheat germ?
Sure, Laurie, that should be fine. Enjoy!
So in Los Angeles we have a market called Gelson’s. They make my favorite muffin, and this is it! Thank you for posting, I’m making these tomorrow, they look yummy!