Start the day off with a fresh and fragrant batch of morning glory muffins, filled with fruit and nuts!
These muffins are fully loaded with shredded apples, carrots, pineapple, nuts and more. Packed with goodness, they’re both healthy and delicious.
Make a big batch and freeze them for easy grab-and-go breakfasts!
What are Morning Glory Muffins?
This recipe adaptation comes from Gourmet magazine’s famous muffin of the same name. It’s one of their top recipes spanning over 50 years!
They are the perfect healthy breakfast, mid-morning snack, or post-workout treat!
Healthy & Hearty Muffins
- Light and moist morning glory muffins are packed with flavor, everyone loves them. They remind me of my favorite carrot cake recipe in muffin form!
- Full of fiber and healthy fruits, veggies, and nuts they will keep everyone full, happy, and energized for hours!
- They’re versatile so add in your favorite nuts, seeds, or dried fruits.
- Just like quick bread, morning glory muffins freeze beautifully! Double up the recipe and freeze some for later!
Ingredients in Morning Glory Muffins
Batter – Flour, eggs, oil, and a bit of baking soda create the base for these muffins. I replace some of the oil with unsweetened applesauce to make them a little bit healthier. You can use half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour if you’d like
Fruit – Pineapple and applesauce lock in the moisture of these muffins. Grated apples and carrots add moisture and flavor. Try adding dried fruit and raisins to this morning glory muffin recipe!
Nuts – Chopped toasted pecans, walnuts, almonds, or pistachios (or even pumpkin seeds) are great in these. Any combination will work.
Variations – Any of the following substitutions or additions work well in this recipe:
- swap out the coconut for a cup of raisins or dried cranberries
- add in some orange zest
- stir in a tablespoon or two of flax seed
How to Make Morning Glory Muffins
These muffins will come out moist and delicious when you follow these simple steps!
- Combine the eggs with pineapple, sugar, applesauce, oil, and vanilla in a large bowl (per the recipe below).
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together. Add the wet ingredients and stir.
- Gently fold in the remaining ingredients. Divide batter evenly into muffin tins and bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
Best Way to Store Muffins
- Morning glory muffins are extra moist and will stay fresh for about two days at room temperature or up to a week in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
- Freeze them for up to 4 months in a large zippered bag and thaw them at room temperature overnight or in the fridge.
- Looking for other delicious, hearty and healthy muffin recipes? Try soft, moist carrot muffins, zucchini muffins, or easy pumpkin muffins.
More Delicious Muffin Recipes
Did you make these Morning Glory Muffins? Leave us a rating and a comment below!
Morning Glory Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- 8 ounces crushed pineapple drained and squeezed very dry, 1 can
- 1 ⅓ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup applesauce
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups shredded carrot about 4-6 carrots
- 1 apple peeled and grated
- ½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts
- 2 tablespoons unsalted sunflower seeds optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a muffin pan (or line with paper liners).
- Combine eggs, pineapple, sugar, apple sauce, oil, and vanilla in a large bowl.
- Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a separate bowl.
- Add dry ingredients to egg mixture and combine just until moistened. Fold in remaining ingredients.
- Divide mixture over 16 muffin cups. Bake at 400°F for 5 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 350°F and bake for an additional 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Muffins
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
I can’t have pineapple (migraines). What could I substitute for it and still have a sweet, moist muffin? Zucchini? I have a hard time with diet restrictions and I love Morning Glory Muffins. Thanks for your ideas!
Susan
For the pineapple, you can replace it with whatever your favorite fruit it. Just make sure if it’s a juicy fruit that it is drained and squeezed dry.
Delicious. Made another batch after we devoured the first. A hit at my book club morning.
I love this recipe. My SIL wants whole wheat bran muffins, so I used WW flour, added 1 C of bran, didn’t have molasses so I did 1 C brown sugar and used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. Didn’t have any nuts this time. Sometimes I cook it in a bunt pan so it’s pretty to present. Thank you.
Your recipe states to “grate an apple” but your picture shows a shredded apple. Very different. A lot more juice with a grated apple. Please verify if it’s grated or shredded. Thanks.
I use the larger holes on a box grater. Enjoy!
I love morning glory muffins (with pineapple!) but am baking for someone who follows a vegan diet. Could you make any suggestions for egg substitutes? So many recipes call for eggs (understandably) and I don’t know enough of the science behind baking to understand how to swap ingredients out.
I haven’t tried this with egg substitutes but I would suggest a liquid egg substitute (available near the cartons of eggs) or a powdered egg substitute. Hope that helps!
These are delicious! The most tedious part is shredding the carrots and apple, but even that’s not bad! I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. I didn’t use an ice cream scoop, so I ended up with 12 nicely sized regular muffins and 9 that were a little smaller. No matter they taste wonderful. Will probably taste even better once they fully cool!
These muffins were very good. Made 24. Didn’t have the sunflower seeds, so used extra pecans instead.
I made the muffins today loved them super moist and delicious.,
made these morning glory muffins. easy and fast to make. I accidentally used 1cup regular apples sauce. I only used 1teasp cinnamon and I added raisins. no nuts. Can’t stop eating them will diffently make these again. did not use flax seeds used regular coconut.
So glad you enjoyed them! Thank you for trying our recipe, Rosa Maria!
Absolutely my go to. Am going to try to replace the Apple sauce with pumpkin. BTW if you haven’t already bought her cook book, order it now