Tender Morning Glory Muffins are a great way to start your day! This small batch of muffins are made with fruit, nuts, and other healthy ingredients.
Morning glory muffins are my husband's favorite kind of muffins. They're loaded with a little bit of just about everything - carrots, apples, raisins, nuts, coconut, and even orange juice! These cinnamon-spiced muffins are similar to a fruit-filled carrot cake and our small batch morning glory muffin recipe yields the perfect amount if you're preparing them for one or two people to enjoy.
It is worth noting that the morning glory batter can be used to make a delightful morning glory cake. Just pour the batter into a 5x7-inch baking dish.
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What Are Morning Glory Muffins?
Morning glory muffins are a substantial, healthy breakfast, snack, or post-workout treat. Although they're incredibly delicious the day they're made, I think they may taste even better a day after baking, when the flavors really come together.
Morning glory muffins were created by Chef Pam McKinstry, owner of the "Morning Glory Cafe" in Nantucket in the 1970s. Gourmet magazine printed the recipe and it was chosen by readers as one of the magazine's 25 favorite recipes from the past 50 years.
Why This Recipe Works
- Incredibly delicious: These morning glory muffins are deliciously moist and perfectly spiced. They're extremely flavorful with a delightful hint of orange.
- Easy to customize: Feel free to swap out ingredients with ones you love. This is a very forgiving muffin recipe. Consider using another type of nut or leave out the raisins if you're not a fan of them. The opportunities to customize this recipe are endless.
- Recipe doubles well: This small batch morning glory muffin recipe yields between 6 to 8 muffins. I fill my muffin wells to just below the rim but you can easily make more muffins if you don't fill yours as much as I do.
- Easy to make: Despite the long list of ingredients, morning glory muffins are very easy to make. Be sure to see below for ways to use up leftover ingredients.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes And Substitutions
See below for ways to use leftover ingredients.
- Fruits and vegetables: We use grated carrots and apples along with raisins in our muffins. You might like to consider adding chopped or crushed pineapple which is an ingredient found in many versions of this recipe.
- Flour: Use all-purpose flour. This recipe has also been tested with King Arthur Gluten Free Measure For Measure Flour with success. If you'd like to make gluten-free morning glory muffins, I recommend using this brand of gluten-free flour.
- Brown sugar: Adds the perfect sweet flavor to the muffins.
- Baking soda: Helps the muffins rise.
- Spices: We don't skimp on spices here, our recipe calls for using a good amount of ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and a touch of salt.
- Coconut: I use unsweetened shredded coconut but you can use sweetened instead.
- Nuts: Use walnuts or pecans and sunflower seeds. If you want to make nut-free morning glory muffins, replace them with dried cranberries or more raisins.
- Oil: I love using avocado oil in this recipe. Avocado oil is oil pressed from the avocado fruit. It's got a very mild taste and is similar to olive oil in terms of nutritional value. Feel free to use canola oil, vegetable oil, or melted butter instead.
- Orange juice: This ingredient adds such a delicious flavor. You can use pineapple juice or milk instead.
How To Make Morning Glory Muffins
See the recipe box below for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly grease 6 to 8 wells of a muffin tin or a 5x7-inch baking dish.
Pro Tip: The easiest way to grease muffin tins is to use melted butter or oil and a pastry brush. If you don't have a pastry brush, dip a paper towel into melted butter or oil and use it instead. You can also use cooking spray and lightly spray the wells of the pan.
- In a small bowl, cover the raisins with hot water, and set them aside to soak.
Pro Tip: It's always a good idea to soak raisins in hot water before adding them to baked goods. Raisins are dry and tend to absorb the liquid from baked goods which may cause what you're making to be less moist. Soaking raisins in hot water plumps them up and also prevents burning as they bake.
- Use a box grater or a food processor to grate the carrots and the apple. Set them aside.
Note: I have a small food processor so I had to grate the carrots and apple separately. If your food processor is larger you can grate them together.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, spices, and salt.
- Stir in the grated carrots, apple, coconut, walnuts, and sunflower seeds.
- In a separate bowl, beat together the egg, oil, vanilla, and orange juice.
- Add to the flour mixture and stir until combined.
- Drain the raisins and stir them in.
- Divide the batter among the wells of a lightly greased muffin pan.
Pro Tip: I fill the wells to just below the top.
- This step is optional but I love to sprinkle a few sunflower seeds over the tops.
- Bake the muffins for 18 to 20 minutes, until they've risen nicely and a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the muffins comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes in the pan on a rack.
- Transfer the muffins to a plate or a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Make A Morning Glory Cake
You can use a 5x7-inch baking dish instead of making muffins.
- Lightly grease a 5x7-inch baking dish and pour the batter inside. Sprinkle the top of the cake with sunflower seeds if desired, and place the baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any possible spills.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven to cool.
Frequently Asked Questions
The word healthy is relative but I would consider morning glory muffins to be healthier than other muffins. Even though they do contain some oil and sugar, these muffins are filled with fresh fruit and vegetables.
Yes. This recipe has been tested using King Arthur Gluten Free Measure For Measure Flour with success. If you'd like to make gluten-free morning glory muffins, I recommend using this brand of gluten-free flour.
Yes, it can. If you'd like to make additional muffins, just double the ingredient amounts. When I double this recipe, I get 12 muffins.
Absolutely! If you want to make morning glory muffins without nuts, simply leave them out and consider using extra raisins or dried cranberries instead.
Expert Tips
- Please read through the Ingredient Notes section in the recipe post. There is a lot of information about ingredient substitutions that you might find helpful.
- This morning glory muffin recipe can be used to make muffins or a small morning glory cake. If making a cake, I recommend using a 5x7-inch baking dish. If making the cake, bake it for 25-30 minutes.
- Reduce calories in this recipe by using Swerve brown sugar replacement instead of regular brown sugar.
- Substitutions: See the Ingredient Notes section for substitutions I've tested.
Make Ahead And Freezing Instructions
- These muffins freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm in the microwave, if desired.
- Store muffins in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Ways To Use Leftover Ingredients
If you have any ingredients leftover from this small batch morning glory muffin recipe, you might like to consider using them in any of these single serving and small batch recipes:
- Carrots: Mini Muffuletta, Split Pea Soup, Carrot Cake, Carrot Souffle, Chicken Tortellini Soup
- Apples: Apple Crisp, Dutch Apple Pie, Fried Apples, Apple Butter, Apple Fritters
- Raisins: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Cream Scones, Irish Soda Bread
- Walnuts: Maple Walnut Muffin, Overnight Oats, Fudge, Pineapple Lime Jello Salad, Flourless Chocolate Cookies
- Sunflower seeds: Peanut Butter Toast with Apples, scatter a handful over a salad or into yogurt.
- Vanilla: Boston Cream Pie, Buckeyes, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Banana Pudding, Banana Bread
- Orange juice: Orange Oatmeal Cake, Cranberry Orange Scones, Slow Cooker Orange Chicken, Sangria, Tequila Sunrise
- Ground cinnamon: Hummingbird Cake, Peaches and Cream Rice Pudding, Snickerdoodles, Apple Dutch Baby, French Toast Casserole
- Ground ginger: Ginger Cookies, Gingerbread, Peach Crisp, Pork Stir Fry, Molasses Cookies
- Shredded coconut: Coconut Macaroons, Coconut Cream Pie, Cowboy Cookies, Butter Pecan Granola, Gingerbread Granola
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Recipe
Small Batch Morning Glory Muffins
See the post above for expert tips,
FAQs and ways to use leftover ingredients.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup raisins
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup brown sugar , packed
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup shredded carrots , (about 2 large)
- ½ cup shredded/grated apples , (about 1 small apple, peeled and cored)
- ¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts , or pecans
- 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds , plus 1 tablespoon more for sprinkling over the tops of the muffins
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup avocado oil , or vegetable oil, canola oil, or melted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons orange juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly grease 6 to 8 wells of a muffin tin or a 5x7-inch baking dish.
- In a small bowl, cover the raisins with hot water, and set them aside to soak.
- Use a box grater or a food processor to grate the carrots and the apple. Set them aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.
- Stir in the grated carrots, apple, coconut, walnuts, and 2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds.
- In a separate bowl, beat together the egg, oil, vanilla, and orange juice. Add to the flour mixture and stir until combined.
- Drain the raisins and stir them in.
- Divide the batter among the wells of a lightly greased muffin pan. Sprinkle sunflower seeds over the tops of the muffins.
- Bake the muffins for 18 to 20 minutes, until they've risen nicely and a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the muffins comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes in the pan on a rack.
- Transfer the muffins to a plate or a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Notes
- Please read through the Ingredient Notes section in the recipe post. There is a lot of information about ingredient substitutions that you might find helpful.
- This morning glory muffin recipe can be used to make muffins or a small morning glory cake. If making a cake, I recommend using a 5x7-inch baking dish. If making the cake, bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Reduce calories in this recipe by using Swerve brown sugar replacement instead of regular brown sugar.
- Substitutions: See the Ingredient Notes section for substitutions I've tested.
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Rose says
Delicious!! This is definitely a winner! This is a great recipe. It’s so moist and tasty. The balance of flavors, the fruit, coconut and carrots, makes it flavorsome. I used dried cherries instead of raisins. I soaked them in water as you suggested with the raisins. I’m going to try dried blueberries next time. Thank you for all your fantastic recipes.
Toni says
Looking forward to trying these muffins. Have you ever made them with whole wheat flour ? Must say, you write "the most complete" recipe .... the only other author I've run across who is as thorough writes "recipetineats" from Australia or New Zealand. Kudos !
Joanie Zisk says
Hi Toni, thanks so much! I haven't made Morning Glory Muffins with whole wheat flour but another reader just emailed me that she used half all-purpose and half whole wheat flour with success. If you want to use only whole wheat flour, you will probably need to add more liquid (orange juice) and I would actually add more grated apples and/or carrots to give the muffins more moisture.
Tracy says
Made these Morning Glories today! WOW! Fantastically delish!! Thank you.. and they looked just like yours! You’ll have to trust me.. they are all gone already!!!
J. Hegyi says
Good recipe.