These morning glory muffins are packed with carrots, apples, raisins, and walnuts. Moist and flavorful, they're a delicious healthy breakfast or snack!
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These morning glory muffins might be my favorite muffins of all time. They’re wonderfully moist, warmly spiced, and packed full of shredded carrots, apples, raisins, and walnuts. In fact, I tested them four times to pack in as many mix-ins as I possibly could! I wanted them to feel like a breakfast twist on carrot cake, my family’s favorite spring dessert. Now with 3 full cups of carrots in the recipe—plus a cup of apple—I can confidently say that they absolutely do.
Lately, I’ve been loving these morning glory muffins for breakfast with coffee, but they’re also a great anytime snack. Try them the next time you’re in the mood for a wholesome treat. I think you’ll love them!
Why You’ll Love These Morning Glory Muffins
- They’re easy to make. No mixer required! These muffins are simple to mix up by hand.
- They’re pretty darn healthy, thanks to whole wheat flour and all those carrots and apples.
- They freeze perfectly. Bake a batch on the weekend for grab-and-go breakfasts all week!
- They’re moist and warmly spiced, just like your favorite carrot cake.
Morning Glory Muffins Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this morning glory muffin recipe:
- All-purpose flour and whole wheat flour – This combination of flours makes the muffins wholesome, but not too dense. Spoon and level your flour to avoid packing too much into your measuring cup.
- Baking powder, baking soda, and eggs – They help the muffins puff up as they bake.
- Brown sugar – For sweetness. I love its molasses-y flavor with the warm spices in these muffins.
- Vegetable oil and applesauce – For moisture. If you don’t have vegetable oil on hand, feel free to substitute another neutral oil, like avocado oil, canola oil, or melted coconut oil.
- Grated carrots and apple – They add natural sweetness and so much moisture to these morning glory muffins! The carrots pack in nutrients like fiber and vitamin A too. Shred them on the large holes of a box grater before adding them to the batter.
- Raisins – For sweetness and chewy texture.
- Walnuts – For crunch. They also add fiber and healthy fats!
- Cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla extract – They fill the muffins with warm, spiced flavor.
- And sea salt – To make all the flavors pop!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
Recipe Variations
- Use another dried fruit. Swap out the raisins for dried cranberries or chopped dates.
- Change up the nuts. Fold in chopped pecans or sunflower seeds instead of walnuts.
- Add pineapple. Replace the applesauce with canned crushed pineapple.
- Try different spices. Add a pinch of nutmeg or cardamom, or use one of them in place of the ginger.
Let me know what variations you try!
How to Make Morning Glory Muffins
You can find the complete muffin recipe with measurements below, but for now, here’s a quick overview of how it goes:
Start by making the batter. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, applesauce, oil, and vanilla. Add the shredded carrots and apples to the wet ingredients and mix to combine.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Be careful not to overmix, or the muffins will be dense.
Fold in the raisins and walnuts.
Evenly divide the batter into a greased 12-cup muffin tin. You’ll use about 1/2 cup batter per muffin.
Bake at 400°F for 15 to 20 minutes. The muffins are ready when the tops spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
How to Store and Freeze
Leftover morning glory muffins keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
They also freeze well. Seal cooled muffins in a freezer-safe container or bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Let frozen muffins sit at room temperature for an hour to thaw, or microwave one for 20 to 30 seconds. I love to keep a frozen stash on hand for quick breakfasts!
More Favorite Muffin Recipes
If you love these morning glory muffins, try one of these easy muffin recipes next:
Morning Glory Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 cup whole wheat flour, spooned and leveled
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup applesauce
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups grated carrots
- 1 cup grated apple
- ¾ cup chopped walnuts
- ¾ cup raisins
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line it with paper liners.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole wheat flours, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, ginger, and salt.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, applesauce, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Add the carrots and apple and mix to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in the walnuts and raisins.
- Evenly divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups, adding about ½ cup to each one.
- Bake the muffins for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the tops spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Hello! I would love to have weight measurements for this recipe. Does anyone have them?
Do you think you could substitute another kind of flour for the while flour?
Hi Amy, you could use more whole wheat! The muffins will just be a little denser and have a wheat-ier flavor.
These are so moist delicious! I think “easy” is relative because hand grating the carrots and apple was definitely a labor of love. I used currents and pecans instead of raisins and walnuts. Next time I will bake them without cupcake liners (sticking issue) and cut the brown sugar to 1/2 cup. Because I used a ceramic muffin pan, they took closer to 30 minutes to bake.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! If you want to make the grating step easier and have a food processor, the grating disk is a quick way to take care of the carrots and apples.
Fabulous muffins! I trimmed the brown sugar to half a cup, packed. Sometimes we add a half cup of shredded sweetened coconut. But the recipe is perfect without any adjustments at all!
Outstanding! So moist and delicious. As soon as I tasted this muffin I knew I’d better write it down to keep. I do think it reminds you of carrot cake but better(if you can even make carrot cake better) this muffin is so flavorful. I’d give it 10 stars!
I made this recipe for a friend who has a dairy allergy. I decided to make it in a 9 inch loaf pan instead of as muffins. That way I could use a parchment paper sling to get it out of the pan. I normally use butter to grease muffin cups. I halved the recipe so the loaf pan wouldn’t be too full. Bake time was about 30 minutes. He was very grateful. Having a dairy allergy is hard on a person who loves baked goods.
Great to know the loaf worked well!
I used cupcake liners. They seemed to need more time than 20min and the bottom stuck to the paper. Otherwise, they are quite tasty. I used dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds and they are really good. Any helpful hints using the liners?
Hi Tiffini, I find that different brands of liners stick more than some others do—I personally think unbleached parchment liners work the best. You could also lightly grease them to help with sticking! So glad you enjoyed the muffins otherwise!
Made these yesterday using my homemade applesauce from our apples. Wow! Both my husband and I think these are the best muffins I’ve made yet. I love carrot cake, so this is satisfying in so many ways and easy to make. Thank you!
Oh yum, I’m so glad you loved them!
If you substitute crushed pineapple, should it be drained, or is it OK to include the juice?
Hi Nancy, I think pineapple will make these too wet to bake properly.
But pineapple is suggested in the recipe variations. I planned to try this as well.
Oh sorry, yes, if you’re replacing the applesauce, I would drain the pineapple.
Absolutely love these, so easy to make that my 10 yo son made them, very moist and delicious.
These came out great- I made the substitution of crushed pineapple for the applesauce, kept the grated apple, and also substituted 1.5 Cups of shredded (sweetened) coconut for the 3 Cups of grated carrots (to complement the pineapple).
Hi, Patrick! Did you drain the pineapple before adding?
Excellent recipe! I reduced sugar to 1/2 cup. I’ll be making these again soon, we loved them!
I’m so glad you loved them!
Hello, why the sea salt and not just normal salt? My muffins were unfortunately too salty hence disappointed. 🙁 Sea salt can be hard to measure as it has different sizes maybe that’s why.
Hi Ellen, we use fine grain sea salt in all of our recipes which should be a similar salty level to the Morton brand kosher salt. Did you use more of a finishing flaky salt?
I found this recipe to be excellent! I like the fact that it got its sweetness, mostly from the apple and carrot. I used oleic sunflower oil instead of “vegetable” oil. These muffins had a nice texture and great flavor.They did freeze nicely as well.
I’m so glad you loved them!
Made these yesterday – absolutely delicious!!!
These morning glory muffins are moist and unbelievably delicious!!! and easy to make but next time I will use my food processor to grate the carrots & apple – as my hand-held didn’t seem sharp enough….
Followed directions, didn’t change a thing.
Hi Joanne, I’m so glad you loved them so much!
Delicious! Great breakfast muffins. I used wheat bran in place of wheat flour, plain Greek yogurt in place of apple sauce, and dried cranberries in place of raisins. I skipped the ground ginger. All and all delicious. Next time I’d reduce the brown sugar to 1/2 c. from 3/4 c. They’re just a tad sweeter than I prefer. Also- I used Granny Smith for the grated apple. Really excited to make these again. Only problem was I couldn’t get all the batter into 12 muffins. Had a bit leftover.
I’m glad you enjoyed them! They are big muffins but they still baked (very full) in my muffin tin just fine.
Is it possible to add wheat bran to this recipe? Maybe as one of the flours being substituted? Always looking for fiber additions!
I haven’t tried, so I’m not sure!
Is it possible to make the MG muffins just using all purpose flour instead?
Thank you
Love your recipes! Do you think this one would work with coconut sugar instead of brown sugar?
Thanks!
Hi Joslin, yes! I think coconut sugar would work well.
I use coconut sugar and reduce it to 1/2 c and they are perfect!
Sounds wonderful. Any suggestions for replacing the eggs?
Hi Noreen, I haven’t tested this recipe without eggs, but you could try replacing them with 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed mixed with 10 tablespoons water. Let sit for 5 minutes before adding to the wet ingredients. I would go up to 1 tablespoon baking powder too. You may need to bake the muffins for a few minutes longer.
Thanks.