Morning Glory Muffins

Morning Glory Muffins breakfast Delicious granola and muffins perfect for a quick breakfast muffins, coconut, pecans, muffins, breakfast Morning Glory Muffins muffins, coconut, pecans

Updated. Originally 9th September 2019

These morning glory muffins are made with a little bit of everything and taste like spiced apple cake and moist carrot cake combined. They are chock-full of goodies like coconut, apple, carrots and nuts, seeds and yet don’t feel too loaded. All the flavours work together creating a fabulous little moist and tender muffin and great start to the day, a delicious grab-and-go snack or great “eat in the car” treat of convenience!

Morning Glory Muffins

Morning Glory Recipe Ingredients

  • EGGS: You will need 3 large eggs at room temperature.
  • VEGETABLE OIL: Feel free to use any one you prefer - I typically use canola oil or coconut oil
  • FLOUR: We make these with whole wheat flour making them slightly more nutrient dense and more depth of flavor. Replace up to half of the whole wheat flour with all-purpose flour for a lighter, fluffier muffin if you prefer.
  • SUGAR: Use brown sugar or granulated sugar - either works fine, but I don’t recommend using a liquid sweetener like honey as it will change the baking outcome.
  • BAKING SODA: For leavening.
  • SPICES: Ground cinnamon and ground ginger give these muffins a really nice warm flavor. Adjust amounts to taste and feel free to add in more warming spices if you wish like nutmeg or cardamom.
  • CARROTS: You will need 2 cups of shredded carrots. I like to use the small or medium grate, so that the carrot pieces are not too large. I recommend shredding your own carrots for best flavour and texture. I don’t recommend using pre-shredded carrots unless that is all you have.
  • APPLE: You will need one apple - any variety, typically we use a tart apple. Peeled and grated.
  • SHREDDED COCONUT: Use sweetened or unsweetened shredded coconut - both work fine and won’t make much of a difference when it comes to the overall sweetness of the muffins.
  • VANILLA EXTRACT: We use pure vanilla extract for best flavor.
  • ORANGE ZEST & ORANGE JUICE: This adds really nice flavor to the muffins. If you have orange extract and prefer to use that instead of the zest you can.
  • NUTS & SEEDS: Our go to combination is sunflower seeds and pecans but we also love to use pumpkin seeds and walnuts too.
  • DRIED FRUIT: We love to use dried cranberries because of the sweet tartness they add but you can use raisins or any other dried fruit like dried cherries, apricot, or dates but make sure to chop them up into smaller pieces.
  • VARIATIONS: Instead of shredded apple you can use pineapple tidbits from a can but well drained. You could make a crumb topping for the muffins if you prefer to do so use this recipe for the crumb topping.

Morning Glory Muffins

How To Make Morning Glory Muffins

Here are the basic instructions with more details in recipe card below.

  1. WHISK together dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking soda, spices and mix in pecans, sunflower seeds and cranberries
  2. WHISK together wet ingredients: vegetable oil, sugar, eggs, orange zest, orange juice and vanilla.
  3. FOLD in the shredded ingredients: carrots, apple, and coconut
  4. COMBINE the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients gradually and FOLD / gently stir until just about combined - do not over mix
  5. Gently SCOOP out batter evenly into prepared muffin cups right up to the brim or just under of each muffin tin, sprinkle coarse sugar or granola if using
  6. BAKE at 425°F for 5 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and continue to bake for another 12-18 minutes
  7. COOL in pan a few minutes then remove from pan, allow to cool and enjoy!

Morning Glory Muffins

Morning Glory Muffins

Muffin Tips

There are a lot of tips out there - here are a few that I implement often to get nice domed bakery style muffins! Of course these are optional but if possible are a great way to get a taller bakery style muffin top.

  • BAKING MUFFINS AT INITIAL HIGH TEMPERATURE: The initial high blast of heat will help these beauties rise and dome/puff up really nicely
  • SPACING OUT BATTER: Or spacing out the liners in the muffin pan allows the heat from the oven to circulate around each muffin equally, helping muffins to rise, bake, and brown more evenly. Spacing them out also allows you to fill the liners to the brim without the tops overflowing. So that means for a standard 12 muffins tin you would make 6 muffins and would need 2 trays to bake the muffins. This definitely does work but most of the time I just use one single pan cause I simply want to make them all together - one and done!
  • DO NOT OVER-MIX BATTER: This will create a drier denser muffin - but at the same time make sure the ingredients are well incorporated and distributed within batter
  • DO NOT OVER-BAKE MUFFINS: as soon as the tester comes out with just a couple crumbs you are done - over baking will also create drier muffins (the muffins will continue to bake from heat of pan)
  • PREHEAT OVEN PROPERLY: Each oven heats and bakes differently so please take this into consideration and keep an eye on all baked good minutes before they are suppose to be done - and make sure your oven is properly preheated before baking - this will make all the difference. I have an oven thermometer that I rely on instead of relying on the oven to tell me.
  • MEASURE CAREFULLY: Measure all of the ingredients carefully before starting recipe.
  • CHECK FOR DONENESS A FEW MINS EARLY: Check the doneness at the 12 minute mark and feel free to tent with foil if tops of muffins are browning too quickly. There is always a range of baking times in recipes for a reason - because all ovens and baking pans are different and distribute heat differently.

Morning Glory Muffins

How to Store Muffins After Baking

Before storing or freezing muffins it’s important that muffins have fully cooled before storing them – otherwise they will end up soggy. After that you are set to store or freeze them as directed below:

  • Room temperature: Keeping muffins in an airtight container on your kitchen countertop is the best way to store muffins for up to 2-3 days. Line an airtight container or zip-lock bag with paper towel and store the muffins in a single layer. Place another layer of paper towel on top of the muffins as well. The paper towels act to absorb excess moisture. They can be stored in a container without paper towel, but are more likely to become soggy or more dense and moist the longer they’re in there.
  • Freezer: To freeze muffins, place them in a single layer in a freezer bag or wrap individually with plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag. Make sure you get as much air out of the bag as possible, to reduce the chance of freezer burn, place that sealed bag inside another bag and seal that one too. Freeze for up to 2-3 months. Thaw at room temperature, or in the fridge overnight or place them unwrapped on some paper towel in the microwave for 20-30 seconds
  • Refrigerator: Typically, avoid refrigerating muffins. Doing so tends to dry them out. They will keep up to a week refrigerated though if you must.

Morning Glory Muffins

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Recipe

Servings: Makes 12 muffins (using standard muffin tin)
Prep Time: 20 mins
Bake Time: 20 mins
Total Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup dried cranberries or raisins
  • ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts
  • ⅓ cup sunflower seeds (optional)
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • ⅔ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • ½ tsp of orange zest or orange extract (optional)
  • ¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
  • 2 cups grated carrots (approx 4-5 carrots)
  • 1 apple, peeled, cored, and grated (approx 1 cup)
  • ½ cup shredded coconut

Toppings (optional)

  • 2-3 tablespoons coarse sugar or turbinado sugar OR
  • 1-1½ cups Granola of choice (as shown in photos)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin / pan with paper liners.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Stir in the cranberries, pecans and sunflower seeds.
  3. In a separate large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, oil, orange juice, orange zest or extract, eggs, and vanilla until well combined.
  4. Add the carrots, apple, and coconut to wet ingredients and whisk.
  5. Add the dry ingredients (flour mixture) to the wet ingredients and gently mix or fold together just until combined and no streaks of flour remain.
  6. Scoop batter into prepared paper liners (I like to use a cookie or ice cream scoop). They will be completely full.
  7. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with coarse sugar or granola if desired (skip if you want them plain)
  8. Transfer pan to preheated oven and bake 5 minutes at 425 degrees F then without opening oven REDUCE temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking another 12-18 mins or until cake tester or toothpick inserted in one of the muffins comes out clean or with just a couple moist crumbs.
  9. Remove from the oven, let cool for a couple minutes in pan on a wire rack, then slip them out of the pan to finish cooling on rack.
  10. Wrap any leftovers or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2-3 days; freeze for longer storage.

Morning Glory Muffins