Morning Glory Muffins
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Morning glory muffins are good to eat and good for you. True to their name, they’re a glorious way to start your day.
Morning glory muffins are brimming with wholesome goodness. Packed with nourishing ingredients, like whole wheat flour, carrots, apples, raisins, walnuts, orange juice, coconut and wheat germ, these muffins were created decades ago by Chef Pam McKinstry for her Morning Glory Café on Nantucket Island. They’re a throwback to the 1970’s “back-to-the-land” movement, when wholesome hippie foods were all the rage. True to their name, these muffins are a glorious way to kick-start your day—a true testament to feel-good, homemade baking.
Table of Contents
“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: Add natural sweetness and bursts of flavor to the muffins.
- White Whole Wheat Flour: Provides a nutritious base for the muffins, offering fiber and whole-grain goodness. I recommend King Arthur brand. Measure by spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling it off to ensure accuracy.
- Brown Sugar: Sweetens the muffins while adding a hint of molasses flavor.
- Baking Soda: Act as leavening agents helping the muffins rise.
- Cinnamon and Ginger: Infuse the muffins with warm, aromatic spices.
- Eggs: Bind the ingredients together and provide structure to the muffins.
- Vegetable Oil: Adds moisture to the muffins, ensuring they are tender and moist.
- Orange Juice: Adds a hint of citrus brightness.
- Vanilla Extract: Adds depth of flavor and enhances the overall taste of the muffins.
- Shredded Carrots: Provide moisture, natural sweetness, and a pop of color to the muffins.
- Apple: Adds sweetness, moisture, and a fruity flavor to the muffins. Tart varieties, like Granny Smith, work best.
- Shredded Coconut: Adds texture and a tropical flavor to the muffins. Either sweetened or unsweetened coconut will work.
- Chopped Walnuts: Contribute crunch, texture, and nutty flavor to the muffins.
- Wheat Germ: Adds nuttiness, texture, and nutritional value to the muffins, enriching them with vitamins and minerals.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
Begin by soaking the raisins in hot water. This softens and plumps them up.
Meanwhile, grate the carrots and apple. I use a food processor but you can also use a box grater.
If you’re making your own orange juice, juice the orange.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt.
Combine, using your fingers to break up any lumps of brown sugar.
In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, oil, orange juice, and vanilla extract.
Add the liquid ingredients to the flour mixture, along with the grated apple, grated carrots, wheat germ, walnuts, coconut, and drained raisins.
Mix until evenly moistened and combined. The batter will be very thick.
Divide the batter into the wells of a greased 12-cup muffin pan. They will be very full.
Bake for about 25 minutes, until muffins are nicely domed. Cool in the pan for a few minutes, then turn the muffins out onto a rack to cool completely.
The muffins are best enjoyed fresh, but they will keep nicely for a few days and they also freeze well. Serve with butter and enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
Like it’s darker cousin, it is 100% whole wheat flour; the difference between the two is the color of the wheat it’s harvested from. White whole wheat is lighter and milder tasting than regular whole wheat flour yet just as nutritious. If you can’t find it, go ahead and use regular whole wheat flour — or, for lighter-tasting muffins, use half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour. (And if you’re wondering what else to do with that bag of whole wheat flour, try my apple muffins, Irish soda bread muffins, or Ovenly’s famous whole wheat banana bread.)
Absolutely! Feel free to customize the recipe to suit your preferences or dietary restrictions. No wheat germ? You can replace it with wheat bran, ground flaxseed, or ground oats. Also, you can omit the raisins, coconut, or walnuts if you don’t like them or substitute them with other ingredients like dried cranberries, chopped dried apricots, chopped pecans, or additional shredded carrots or apples. Just be mindful of maintaining the overall moisture and texture of the batter when making substitutions.
Sure, they will keep nicely, covered, at room temperature, for several days.
Definitely! 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.
My starting point for this recipe was the Morning Glory Muffins on the King Arthur Flour website — a fantastic baking resource. I found their version to be a bit bland, so I increased the spices, raisins, walnuts, and sugar.
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Morning Glory Muffins
Morning glory muffins are good to eat and good for you. True to their name, they’re a glorious way to start your day.
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.
These are amazing! Hearty and delicious without being overly sweet. They’re best warm from the oven with a nice smear of Kerrygold.
Hi Jenn,
Love love love your recipes! I feel like our families have the same taste buds. I want to try this recipe out. 1. My husband can eat nuts lately. I wanted to make half the batch without nuts, but should I substitute anything in the meantime, or is a plain omission okay? 2. We are gluten free, and typically I just substitute 1:1 GF flour for the all-purpose and it works out fine (I’ll never know how much better it could’ve been!). From other comments, it looks like that might work here for the whole wheat flour and I should use ground flax seed for the wheat germ?
BTW, I made your lemon bars last night—yum! And I love your arugula salad recipe— I eat it with breakfast, lunch, and dinner every time I have a batch!
Best,
Patricia
Hi Patricia, so glad you like the recipes! Yes, it’s fine to omit the nuts without any other modifications. Gluten-free flour, should work just fine, and ground flaxseed would make a good substitute for the wheat germ. Hope that helps and that you enjoy!
QUESTION
Hi Jenn:
First off – so grateful to have discovered your website & will be purchasing your cookbook!
Ok …question
I’m having trouble locating wheat germ ( and I know what it is ). Can I leave it out, or would the muffins turn out dry?
Thank you again for sharing your gift.
Lisa
Glad you came upon the blog and thanks in advance for purchasing the cookbook! 🙂
You can easily replace the wheat germ with wheat bran, ground flaxseed, or ground oats. Hope you enjoy!
Thank you !
I have a lot of flaxseed, and like the suggestion.
Will be making these this morning.
Thank you!
Lisa
I love these muffins so much! The first time I made them with the full amount of sugar and sweetened coconut and the second time I didn’t pack the sugar and I used unsweetened coconut. Both were delicious. My husband and 1 year old like them too. I’m thinking about trying different variations like dried cherries or blueberries next time.
I made this recipe , no substutions. It was delicious. Compliments all around…
For some reason my muffins didn’t raise very much. Instead they just spread quite a bit over the muffin pan. I used a standard muffin pan. Tasted very good but wondering what I did wrong. I followed the recipe exactly but couldn’t find white wheat flour and instead used whole wheat. Could that have affected the outcome? Can you use regular King Arthur flour instead of wheat? Will try again but will make more muffins so they don’t overflow.
Hi Deb, sorry you had a problem with these! It’s fine that you used regular whole wheat flour and, yes, King Arthur all-purpose flour would work here as well. Is there any chance you made a measuring error? Or is your baking soda very old?
I love this recipe! Whenever I make them for friends, they always ask for the recipe. Though the original recipe is excellent, I also have substituted one cup of Monkfruit, plus two teaspoons of molasses for the sugar to reduce the calories and make it healthier and they still tasted great.
Instead of muffins, can I bake this as a loaf? If so, for how long?
Sure, I’d lower the temperature to 350 degrees. It may take a little over an hour in the oven – likely 65 to 75 minutes, but keep a close eye on it!
I have everything but the wheatgerm. Can I leave it out?
Hi Jeanne, You can omit the wheat germ, but you’ll need to keep the ratio of wet to dry ingredients the same, so you could replace it with wheat bran, ground flaxseed, or ground oats. Hope you enjoy!
Jenn, can I incorporate ripe bananas into this recipe? I have a couple I need to use up. Thanks!!
Hi Carolyn, These muffins are quite moist as is, so I wouldn’t recommend adding more moisture to them with the banana. One reader commented that used one ripe banana in place of the grated apples, so you could give that a try (please keep in mind I haven’t tried it myself). I’d love to hear how they turn out if you try it! 🙂