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Start your day with Morning Glory muffins! This recipe is packed with goodness: carrots, raisins, nuts, and warm spices.
Looking for a cozy breakfast or snack? Try these Morning Glory muffins! This 1970’s muffin recipe is everything it’s cracked up to be. Each one is moist and warm-spiced, studded with carrots, pineapple, raisins, and pecans.
There’s a bit of whole wheat flour for a nutty body, and a hint of coconut sprinkled on top. It’s like a combination of Carrot Cake and Applesauce Cake, in muffin form! Here’s how to whip up a batch.
Why Are They Called Morning Glory Muffins?
Turns out, this famous flavor was born in the 1970’s in Nantucket. Chef Pam McKinstry created the muffin recipe for her restaurant, the Morning Glory Café, in 1978. They quickly became popular, and the recipe was published in Gourmet Magazine in 1981.
The original Morning Glory muffins recipe was a straightforward muffin. The batter featured all-purpose flour and cinnamon, and it was stuffed with raisins, carrots, apple, pineapple, pecans, and coconut.
Many riffs on the original have popped up in restaurants around the country, and the muffin started to take on a vaguely “health food” vibe. Sometimes the recipes include either bran or whole wheat flour.
Ingredients You’ll Need
For this Morning Glory muffins recipe, I wanted to stay true to the original character of the muffins while also celebrating their vaguely “healthy” history. I took inspiration from this Epicurious source and the former head of Tartine Bakery. They like to add whole-wheat flour and brown sugar to the mix to add that signature “brown” muffin texture.
Here’s what you’ll need for this Morning Glory muffins recipe:
- All-purpose and whole wheat flour
- Granulated and light brown sugar
- Cinnamon and allspice
- Baking powder and salt
- Canned pineapple
- Grated carrots
- Raisins
- Pecans
- Eggs
- Applesauce
- Vegetable oil
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
Mix-Ins and Variations
Morning Glory muffins have a variety of mix-in options, depending on the chef. If you’re used to this type of muffin, you may want to add one of the following:
- Walnuts: use chopped walnuts instead of pecans
- Coconut: add ¼ to ½ cup sweetened shredded coconut
- Apples: add ½ cup peeled and diced apples
- Orange zest: add 1 teaspoon orange zest for a beautifully zingy flavor
Tips for Success
This Morning Glory muffin recipe comes together quickly and simply: just mix the dry ingredients, mix the wet ingredients, and combine! Here are a few tips for making these muffins a success:
- Resist the urge to overmix. Overmixing muffin batter can cause holes in the crumb and a denser texture. Mix just until the flour streaks disappear.
- Chop the pineapple finely. You don’t want huge chunks of pineapple here.
- The muffin cups will be full to the brim. This is intentional; it makes for a hefty muffin with a generous muffin top.
- Baking at 400°F makes a taller muffin. This temperature makes a taller muffin and bakes it more quickly than 350°F, which is standard.
Storage Info
These Morning Glory muffins are even better the next day! Store them at room temperature overnight, and they will become even moister and more delicious. Here are a few pointers:
- Store up to 4 days at room temperature. Store in a sealed container, and they become even more moist over time.
- Store refrigerated for 1 week or more. Store refrigerated up to 1 week or more. Make sure to let them come to room temperature before serving; otherwise, they will be very dense.
- Frozen: Freeze the muffins in a sealed container for up to 3 months.
And that’s it! Let me know if you try these Morning Glory muffins and what you think.
Dietary Notes
This recipe is vegetarian.
Morning Glory Muffins
Start your day with Morning Glory muffins! This recipe is packed with goodness: carrots, raisins, nuts, and warm spices.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Muffin
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Breakfast
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 1 cup [140 g] all-purpose flour
- 1 cup [140 g] whole wheat flour
- ½ cup [100 g] granulated sugar
- ½ cup [100 g] light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup canned pineapple (in juice), drained and chopped into small pieces
- 1 cup peeled and grated carrots (2 medium)
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup chopped pecans, plus more for topping
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup applesauce
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup milk (or orange juice*)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Optional: Coconut flakes, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray a standard 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or add muffin cup papers.
- In a large bowl, whisk the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, baking powder, and kosher salt. Stir in the pineapple, carrots, raisins, and chopped pecans.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk the eggs, then whisk in the applesauce, vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a spatula until a thick, smooth batter forms.
- Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin cups; the cups will be full to the top. Sprinkle the tops with more chopped pecans and, if desired, coconut flakes.
- Bake the muffins for 20 to 23 minutes, until puffed and golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a rack to cool fully, about 1 hour. Eat immediately, or they taste even better the next day after storage in a sealed container at room temperature. Store up to 4 days in a sealed container at room temperature, refrigerated up to 1 week or more (allow to come to room temperature before serving), or frozen up to 3 months.
Notes
*Adding 1 teaspoon orange zest also brightens the flavor! Other mix-in ideas: add ½ cup shredded coconut, use walnuts instead of pecans, or golden raisins instead of raisins.
Recipe sounds so good & would like make it. Do you think I could use half of each sugar & they still be fine or is there another way to decrease the sugar for health as have many good healthy tasty ingredients? Thanks
Hi there! I think that you could possibly go down to 2/3 cup sugar overall (1/3 cup of each type), but sugar is essential to the structure of muffins. If you want something healthier, I’d try our Healthy Banana Muffins and add some of these mix ins! Here’s the link: https://www.acouplecooks.com/healthy-banana-muffins/
Delicious! I used golden raisins and topped with shredded coconut. Perfect right out of the oven
There’s ginger in the instructions but not in the ingredients list.
That should have been allspice! Thank you so much – typo corrected.
How big is a can of pineapple?