Morning Glory Muffins are satisfyingly chunky with grated carrot and apple, toasted pecans, and golden raisins. Breakfast just got a lot more interesting!
Morning Glory muffins are a child of the 1970s. They were created by Pam McKinstry, who owned the Morning Glory Café on Nantucket Island. After the recipe was published in 1981 in Gourmet magazine it exploded in popularity (it was later selected as one of the magazine’s 25 favorite recipes from the past 50 years!) The Morning Glory craze faded by the 2000s, but these chunky muffins are too good to be lost to history. (I love these muffins so much I’ve also turned them into a Morning glory cake!)
love muffins?
Here are a few of my best…
- Triple Berry Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Muffins
- Apple Crisp Muffins
- Double Chocolate Muffins
- Perfect Lemon Muffins
- Perfect Rhubarb Muffins
- Fresh Cranberry Muffins
- Date Nut Muffins
Years ago my kids came back from one of their summer day camp clutching little spiral bound cookbooks full of recipes of the things they had learned to cook that summer. One of the recipes was Morning Glory Muffins, and it made a big impression on them. We kept the books, but rarely looked at them after that summer passed. To this day one daughter or other will mention these muffins out of the blue, and reminisce about how wonderful they were. Since my oldest daughter is coming up for the weekend I thought it would be fun to surprise her with those very same muffins.
what you’ll need for morning glory muffins
- all purpose flour
- make these healthier using whole wheat or white whole wheat flour. I love to sub 1/2 cup oat flour for some of the all purpose, it gives the muffins a nice flavor and a fabulous soft texture.
- sugar
- part white and part brown sugar. The brown sugar gives the muffins a warm caramel undertone, and makes them extra moist.
- eggs
- carrots
- pecans
- substitute walnuts if you prefer.
- golden raisins
- or regular raisins, currants or cranberries
- baking soda and salt
- cinnamon
- vanilla extract
best way to grate carrots for baking
Like most muffins this batter is a cinch to make, you don’t even need electric beaters, just a whisk. But I do like to grate my carrot and apple in my food processor fitted with the shredding blade. It’s the best and most efficient way to grate ingredients for baking because the shreds are sturdier and drier. When you grate carrots on a box grater the shreds are finer and wet, almost mushy.
can you use bagged shredded carrots?
You can, but make sure they’re nice and fresh (really get in there and inspect those bags!)
Morning Glory muffins faqs
You can use whole wheat flour or white whole wheat flour for all or half of the all purpose. You might choose extra virgin olive oil as a heart healthy choice. Or add a tablespoon or two of flax, chia, or hemp seeds for additional fiber.
Try substituting half of the oil with applesauce.
Yes, melt it and let it cool a bit before mixing with the eggs.
You can leave them out or sub sunflower seeds
I would add a 1/2 cup of shredded coconut.
Yes, they freeze really well. Make sure they’re completely cool, the wrap in plastic wrap, then in foil, and plan to use within a couple of months. To thaw frozen muffins, unwrap and leave at room temp, loosely covered for a couple of hours. You can also use the defrost setting on your microwave.
You can make gluten free Morning Glory muffins with a regular gf baking mix. I like Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur Baking Company.
Yes! It’s relatively easy to make these muffins vegan, you only have to substitute the eggs. The same 2 companies mentioned above make good egg replacers for baking.
Morning Glory Muffins
Equipment
- muffin pan
- paper muffin liners
Ingredients
dry ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
wet ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
additions
- 2 cups grated carrots
- 1 apple peeled, cored, and grated
- 1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped*
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
Instructions
- Preheat the oven 375F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk the eggs, oil, and vanilla.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet. When almost incorporated, add the carrots, apple, pecans, and raisins. Fold everything together just until completely combined, but don't over mix.
- Fill the muffin cups and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden and the muffins don't feel wet or jiggly in the center. You can use a toothpick to check for wet batter.
These look glorious and delicious! Funny thing; your post title says “Doing a little Hippie Era Baking Today” but I’m slightly dyslexic and often see a word and think it’s something else. So I read it as “Doing a Little Hippie ‘Bra’ Baking Today”🤔 Figured you weren’t in the mood to wear one, or just Baking commando or something🤣. Since this word issue occurs often, I knew to look again & read it correctly. But hey, it’s your kitchen, you can’t get your bake on however you want😄
I have been making these muffins for years. We really like them. I have substituted the golden raisins with dried cranberries, blueberries, cherries, chopped apricots. Really any fruit I happen to have in the cupboard.
Making these today. I just discovered drinkable yogurt so I’m going to use it!
We’re a little bit obsessed with drinkable yogurt right now, and I’m having fun using it in baking. Hope you love the muffins 🙂