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These Morning Glory Muffins is packed with carrots, apples, pineapple, raisins, coconut, and walnuts. Full of tropical flavor and a breeze to make, this easy muffin recipe might just inspire you to look forward to mornings!
In 1978, chef Pam McKinstry created the original Morning Glory Muffins to serve at her Morning Glory Cafe on Nantucket Island, and three years later, Gourmet magazine printed her recipe for readers to enjoy, too.
In 1991, it was chosen by Gourmet fans as one of the favorite recipes of the past 25 years. For good reason: This is like a Cinnamon Apple Cake, Hummingbird Cake, and Carrot Cake all in one totally-appropriate-for-breakfast muffin recipe.
For nearly 30 years, it’s been a favorite muffin recipe of my family, and I hope it now becomes an heirloom recipe in your family, too.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Raisins: If you’re not fond of regular raisins, golden raisins, dried cranberries, or chopped dried cherries would also work well. Or omit entirely.
- Apple: Peeled and grated apples (a box grater does the trick nicely) ensure the batter is moist while adding a hint of natural sweetness.
- Crushed pineapple: Crack open a small can, then pour into a strainer to drain off the excess liquid. Press dry with paper towels, then incorporate into the batter for even more moisture and some tropical flavor.
- Carrots: You’ll need about 4 carrots, which produces around 2 cups once peeled and grated. It may seem like a lot of work to grate the carrots by hand (rather than buying a bag of drier, less fresh shredded carrots at the supermarket), but trust me: juicy, freshly grated carrots make all the difference.
- Walnuts: To toast walnuts, on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan, roast the nuts a 350-degree oven for 7 to 10 minutes.
Step-by-step instructions
- Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients of sugar, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add coconut, raisins, apple, pineapple, carrots, and walnuts and stir to combine.
- In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, and pure vanilla extract until smooth. Gently add egg mixture to the dry mixture stir carefully to combine (do not overmix).
- Using a greased ⅓ cup measure, portion the batter into the paper liners.
- Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out with just a few crumbs attached, about 25-35 minutes, rotating the pan half-way through baking. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes then flip out onto a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
What is the best muffin pan?
When I bake my muffins, I always reach for my USA Pan 12-Cup Nonstick Muffin Pan. My muffins always come out easily and I like that it has a large overhang, so I can easily grip it with an oven mitt without squishing them. You can get it at Amazon for $29.95, and I also rounded up the best muffin pans if you’re looking for another option for your fluffiest muffins ever.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes 12 regular-sized muffins, ideal to add to a brunch buffet, to enjoy with a weekday breakfast, or pack as a mid-afternoon snack.
- Storage: Store these muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days.
- Freezer: Morning Glory Muffins can be cooled, wrapped in 2 layers of plastic, and frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.
- Mix up your mix-ins: Substitute dried cranberries for the raisins, raspberries or blueberries for the apples, or toasted pecans, roasted almonds, or pistachios for the walnuts. Flaxseed makes a great addition if you’re looking to add some protein.
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Morning Glory Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 3/4 cup raisins (see note 1)
- 1 large apple peeled and grated (see note 2)
- 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple drained and pressed dry with paper towels (see note 3)
- 4 medium carrots peeled and grated (about 2 cups, see note 4)
- 1/2 cup walnuts toasted and coarsely chopped (see note 5)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
- In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add coconut, raisins, apple, pineapple, carrots, and walnuts and stir to combine.
- In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, and vanilla until smooth. Gently add egg mixture to the dry mixture stir carefully to combine (do not overmix).
- Using a greased ⅓ cup measure, portion the batter into each muffin cup. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out with just a few crumbs attached, about 25-35 minutes, rotating the pan half-way through baking.
- Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes then flip out onto a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Raisins: If you’re not fond of regular raisins, golden raisins, dried cranberries, or chopped dried cherries would also work well. Or omit entirely.
- Apple: Peeled and grated apples (a box grater does the trick nicely) ensure the batter is moist while adding a hint of natural sweetness.
- Crushed pineapple: Crack open a small can, then pour into a strainer to drain off the excess liquid. Press dry with paper towels, then incorporate into the batter for even more moisture and some tropical flavor.
- Carrots: You’ll need about 4 carrots, which produces around 2 cups once peeled and grated. It may seem like a lot of work to grate the carrots by hand (rather than buying a bag of drier, less fresh shredded carrots at the supermarket), but trust me: juicy, freshly grated carrots make all the difference.
- Walnuts: To toast walnuts, on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan, roast the nuts a 350-degree oven for 7 to 10 minutes.
- Yield: This recipe makes 12 regular-sized muffins, ideal to add to a brunch buffet, to enjoy with a weekday breakfast, or pack as a mid-afternoon snack.
- Storage: Store these muffins at room temperature for 2 to 3 days.
- Freezer: Morning Glory Muffins can be cooled, wrapped in 2 layers of plastic, and frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.
- Mix up your mix-ins: Substitute dried cranberries for the raisins, raspberries or blueberries for the apples, or toasted pecans for the walnuts.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
This is a delicious recipe. I used dried cranberries instead of raisins. Also I only had regular sweetened coconut but I would frozen coconut next time or none.
Hi Nancy! I’m glad you liked the muffins! That sounds like a very good substitution! Thanks for sharing! -Meggan
Love these muffins. I did use a small snack container of unsweetened applesauce in a one cup measure and then filled up to the 1 cup mark with oil. Still very moist. Also added 1/2 tsp of ground ginger.
I’m so glad you loved them, Marian! – Meggan
I have the page from the 1981 Gourmet Magazine with the recipe for “Morning Glory Muffins – Morning Glory Cafe and pineapple isn’t listed in the ingredients. Did MGC provide a recipe and omit an ingredient (like my Italian grandmother who was happy to share her recipes, but not quite the EXACT recipe)?
No matter. We’ve always loved the recipe from the magazine
Can a cup cake pan be used for this recipe ?
Hi Judie, yes! – Meggan
I modify all my muffin recipes since I am diabetic and don’t want the extra calories from the sugar. I replace the sugar with Lakanto Monkfruit sweetener which is a erithritol and monkfruit blend, it has zero calories and in muffins and sweet breads cooks the same as sugar. I also use melted butter in place of the oil and cut the amount in half, adding an equal amount of plain nonfat greek yogurt. For the flour, I use 1/3 almond flour, 1/3 whole white wheat flour and 1/3 all purpose unbleached flour. This gives me a little more fiber by using 2/3 whole grain/nut flours. I add additional protein by adding Pure Protein Vanilla Cream Whey powder, 2 scoops (30 g protein) . These muffins came out perfectly even with these changes and have fast become one of my favorite muffin recipes. I get 18 muffins out of the batch. Thanks for this recipe and I hope my modifications may help others who are diabetic or looking to reduce the calories. With my changes the calories for each muffin is 202, and each contain 7.1 g of protein.