Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Slightly sweet with a warm spiciness and a bit of nuttiness.
Texture: The muffins are moist with some contrast of texture from the nuts and coconut.
Ease: They take a tad bit longer than most muffin recipes because you have to shred the apple and carrots and chop the nuts. Still super easy, though.
Appearance: Like a scrumptious, nourishing muffin.
Pros: 100% whole wheat with carrot and apple. There is sugar and oil, but these muffins are definitely a step-up nutrition wise than most. Plus they stay moist for a few days.
Cons: None that I could think up.
Would I make this again? Yes, these muffins make a great breakfast or snack. I might try to cut the sugar and/or substitute unrefined sugar next time. Also, I may try to replace the oil with applesauce.
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Morning Glory Muffins are slightly sweet with a warm spiciness and a hint of nuttiness. Perfect on-the-go breakfast!
These muffins are sneaky. They are made with 100% whole-wheat flour and have 2 cups of shredded carrot and a whole apple inside. You’d never know it, though, as they taste and smell wonderful. When I had these muffins baking in the oven my boyfriend remarked that the house smelled like Ikea – aka cinnamon spice. I knew these muffins had to be pretty darn good when my boyfriend, who doesn’t like carrot or coconut, had two of them as soon as they cooled. They are a perfect on-the-go breakfast or snack.
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Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 cups (7 ounces) peeled and grated carrots
- 1 large tart apple (like Granny Smith), peeled, cored, and grated
- 1/2 cup sweetened coconut
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 3 large eggs
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin or line with paper liners and coat the paper with nonstick spray.
- Whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Stir in the carrots, apple, coconut and walnuts. In a small bowl whisk the eggs, oil, orange juice, and vanilla extract. Stir into flour mixture until well incorporated.
- Divide the batter evenly between muffin cups, filling each cup almost to the top. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the tops are nicely domed, 25-28 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove muffins to a wire rack and cool completely. Store for up to 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
Just made these muffins this morning – great recipe. Love the muffins and will make them again. A few comments:
1) I used white whole wheat flour since I had it on hand, seems to have worked fine.
2) The prep time was WAY more than 15 minutes, since just peeling and shredding the carrots and apple by hand used that much time. I might get out my food processor to do the shredding next time.
3) Given the time and effort I was putting in, I wasn’t thrilled to think I’d have only 12 muffins to show for it. So I got out another muffin pan and found the recipe filled 16 muffins cups very nicely. Yay!
Thank you for a great recipe – the muffins are moist and delicious.
Hi Tessa,
I make Morning Glory Muffins often. We love everything about them. My recipe is a little different from yours in that I add half a cup of chopped dates to the mix and my carrot and apple ratio is a bit different – 375ml grated carrot and 375ml grated apple. My recipe does’nt have any orange juice and the oil is a full cup, but the rest is the same. I like the idea of trying apple sauce instead of the oil. I will definately try that next time. The dates make these muffins super morish, you should try that sometime! I am going to try your recipe as well – nice to know I can make them without the dates as well, because sometimes I just don’t have them in my pantry.
I am having a blast in the kitchen with all your recipes and my boys are smiling all the way! They are just to happy to taste test everything. It is the winter holidays here in South Africa, so I have 3 weeks to get through with 3 bored boys! So we are experimenting in the kitchen. They love helping to grate, sift en mix! We are having a ball! Thank you so much for helping with all your lovely recipes!
Can I substitute all purpose flour for the wheat flour?
Yes you can
The carrots and the apples in the mix make this more palatable. Thanks for sharing. Love these version of breakfast muffins.
i am going to make these today!my husband loves muffins that are healthy!he is a truck driver and always likes to eat healthy snacks!thanks for the recipe!
these look amazing! i'm pinning them so i can make them sometime soon 🙂 PS: your blog is fabulous!
Delicious. I cut the sugar to 2/3 cup.
So, I tried your suggestion with the applesauce and cutting the sugar. I cut the sugar in half and used unsweetened applesauce (I also snuck in a big scoop of flax seed) and they are delish! Still moist and super yummy! Thanks for the recipe. I am going to pass it on to my sisters!
I love your boyfriend's description of the baking smell! Also, I love Ikea apple cinnamon candles. Definitely adding these to my must make list, especially since it's so hard to find a truly healthy muffin recipe…
Morning glory muffins are one of my favorites, and these look wonderful! I adore that little basket, it always looks so cute in your photos 🙂
Thanks Tracey! The basket is from Sur la Table 🙂
These look delicious! I guess these were the muffins you were eating while researching on Saturday! I love that they have carrots in them–good way to sneak in some veggies in the am!
Mmm…you just can't bet the smell of Ikea. 😉 These look fabulous! Nothing like a good muffin and a cup of coffee for breakfast! 😀