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Healthy Morning Glory Muffins

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These easy Morning Glory Muffins are a vintage-inspired recipe from the original 60s-era muffins. While simplified, they are still utterly delicious, healthy, and filled with fruit, veggies, and whole grains. Lightly sweetened, these muffins are tender, moist, and perfect for hectic, on-the-go mornings or a wholesome snack for later.

Unwrapped Morning Glory Muffin on a Plate with Orange Juice

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History of Morning Glory Muffins

Chef Pam McKinstry created the original Morning Glory Muffins for her Morning Glory Café on Nantucket Island. They resonated with the 1970s pop culture and continue their fame to this day.

If you’ve never had Morning Glory Muffins — just think “carrot cake.” And like carrot cake, they’re a tiny bit addictive!

A tin of just baked Morning Glory Muffins

Ingredients for Morning Glory Muffins

This is not the original Morning Glory muffin recipe, which has a long but delicious ingredient list that includes apples, pineapples, and nuts. In an effort to make them more pantry-friendly, we’ve deviated from the original recipe with ingredient swaps. 

With this simplified recipe, I would imagine you already have most of these ingredients on hand. Just in case you get inspired to make them today!

The ingredient measurements are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, but here is a list of what you will need:

  • Whole wheat flour (or white whole wheat flour)
  • Rolled old fashioned oats plus more for sprinkling
  • Baking soda for leavening
  • Large eggs for structure
  • Brown sugar and unsweetened applesauce for sweetening
  • Spices: ground cinnamon, ginger, and salt
  • Cooking oil: use your favorite
  • Orange juice
  • Vanilla extract
  • Add ins: shredded carrots, apple, coconut (sweetened or unsweetened) and raisins.
3 Morning Glory Muffins on a Stand

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Cut open Morning Glory Muffin
Morning Glory Muffins on a Brown Plate

Easy Morning Glory Muffins

These easy Morning Glory Muffins are a vintage-inspired recipe from the original 60s-era muffins. While simplified, they are still utterly delicious, healthy, and filled with fruit, veggies, and whole grains. Lightly sweetened, these muffins are tender, moist, and perfect for hectic, on-the-go mornings or a wholesome snack for later.
4.7 from 7 votes
Print Pin Save
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 12 muffins
Author: Stephanie Wilson

Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/3 cup old fashioned oats plus more for sprinkling
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup cooking oil
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups shredded carrots
  • 1 cup shredded apple (about 1 large)
  • 1/4 cup shredded coconut sweetened or unsweetened
  • 1/2 cup raisins

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375°F and lightly grease a 12-cup standard muffin tin. Or line with paper cups.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, brown sugar, oil, applesauce, orange juice, and vanilla together. Stir in the carrots, shredded coconut, and apples. Pour this mixture into the flour mixture and stir to combine and then fold in the raisins.
  • Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, which will fill almost to the top. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until domed and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.
  • Remove from the oven, let cool slightly before turning out on to a rack to finish cooling.

Notes

Gluten-Free:

Substitute gluten-free flour for the flour. Be sure to bake thoroughly as gluten-free flour requires a bit more baking time.

Storage:

Store muffins in an air-tight container at room temperature for several days. Or freeze for longer storage!

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 237kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 47mg | Sodium: 318mg | Potassium: 271mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 3653IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 37mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.

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Course: Muffins
Cuisine: American
Keyword: easy muffins, morning glory muffins, muffins, pantry meals

3 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    We made these together for brunch, hoping to save some for later – but they vanished! Thanks, will make again soon!

4.72 from 7 votes (5 ratings without comment)

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