These morning glory muffins are a healthy and delicious way to start your day! If you’ve never had a morning glory muffin they taste somewhere between a carrot cake muffin and an apple muffin! This recipe in particular has been “healthed-up” a bit! We’re using minimal sugar (less than 1 tablespoon of added sugar per muffin!), whole grains, reduced the fat by cutting down on oil and adding Greek yogurt, plus we’ve got dried fruit, pecans, fresh orange zest and juice, and freshly grated apples and carrots!
Why am I soaking my dried fruit?
I always soak my dried cranberries or raisins in water before I add them into my baked goods! It rehydrates them some and gives them a really soft and juice texture. Seriously, no one likes getting a little raisin rock in the middle of their muffin.
I soak them for about ten minutes, or you can speed up the process by throwing them in the microwave with water. Just make sure you dry them off well, you don’t want to add extra liquid to the recipe.
Let’s Get Scientific: Baking Soda + Greek yogurt = Reaction
Okay, so you’ll see that in the recipe I have you mixing the baking soda and Greek yogurt separately. Now don’t roll your eyes, there actually is a good reason for it! So if you all remember that famous 6th grade science experiment of mixing baking soda and vinegar to make the volcano erupt, well, same principle here. Like vinegar, yogurt is acidic so it reacts with the baking soda. Now it’s not quite as dramatic as the volcano, but you’ll see your yogurt gets all bubbly and airy.
These morning glory muffins are pretty dense with all the fruits, carrots, nuts, and oats. So we’re trying to lighten these up a bit. Which is why we add the baking soda/Greek yogurt mixture and whole wheat flour in parts. We want to make sure we’re not losing any of the air we just got by getting the yogurt and baking soda to react!
Grating the Carrots & Apples
When you're grating your apples and carrots for this recipe I personally use a regular old box grater. But if you've got a food processor with a shredding attachment (most come with it) that would definitely speed up the process!
I leave the skin on when I grate my carrots and apples, but feel free to peel them if you have a particular distaste for the skin.
Can I use a different kind of apple? Does it have to be Granny Smith?
Of course other types of apple will work in this recipe just fine, but let me tell you why I prefer using Granny Smith Apples… Granny Smith apples, or green apples, have that extra tart flavor and I’ve found if you use other types of apples the flavor gets a little lost in the muffins. But the sharpness of the green apples really gives you that apples flavor that shines through even after you’ve added all the other ingredients.
12 Morning Glory Muffins? But my muffin tin is overflowing!
So this recipes makes 12-16 muffins depending on how high you stack the batter in your muffin. This batter is really thick so you’re not at risk of the batter spilling over everywhere and making a mess in the oven. I always make 12 and stack that batter high! Then you get that extra tall and delicious muffin top, which is always the best part of the muffin anyway!
Remember: if you do decide to make your muffins smaller, reduce your bake time! Over baking these muffins will make them dry, and we don’t want that.
Can I make substitutions in this recipe?
One thing I really love about this morning glory muffin recipe is how versatile it is!
Don’t like pecans? Swap it for walnuts, almonds, or even more dried fruit? Don’t like oats? Try adding shredded coconut!
It’s pretty hard to mess this one up guys.
Happy Baking!
Enjoy,
Alyssa
Try out some of our other favorite brunch ideas!
- Chocolate Pecan Cinnamon Rolls
- Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins
- Breakfast Pizza w/ Country Gravy
- Yogurt Berry Parfait
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Morning Glory Muffins
Ingredients
- ½ cup craisins or raisins soaked
- ⅓ cup plain Greek yogurt fat free or full fat
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ⅓ cup olive oil can substitute vegetable oil
- ¼ cup orange juice (Juice from 1 orange)
- zest of one orange
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¾ cup brown sugar packed
- 2 cup grated carrots about 2 ½ large carrots grated
- 1 cup Granny Smith Apple grated ( about one large apple)
- 2 cups whole wheat flour measured correctly
- ½ cup old fashioned oats
- ½ cup pecans chopped
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Take your dried cranberries or raisins, place them in a microwave safe bowl, cover them with water, and microwave them for 30 seconds. Set the bowl aside and let them continue to soak.
- Take you Greek yogurt and mix it with your baking soda, set it aside. This allows time for the yogurt and baking soda to react with each other.
- In a large mixing bowl mix together your oil, orange juice, and eggs until smooth. Then add in your vanilla, salt, cinnamon ground ginger, and sugar. Beat until smooth. Add in ⅓ of your yogurt baking soda mixture and mix until smooth, then add in ⅓ of your whole wheat flour, mix until smooth. Continue alternating adding the yogurt and the flour until all of it has been incorporated.
- Drain the water from your craisins or raisins and pat dry. Fold in your dried craisins/raisins, grated carrots, grated apples, chopped pecans, and old fashioned oats. Once the mix-ins have been thoroughly incorporated throughout the batter you are ready put them in your muffin tin.
- Take your muffin tin and either grease it or line it with muffin papers. This recipes makes 12-16 muffins depending on how high you fill your papers—I always overfill them and get 12.
- Fill up your muffin papers, it’s okay if they are kind of overflowing. The batter is thick and we want to stack it high so you get those beautiful tall muffins tops. Bake for 20-24 minutes until the muffin are no longer batter in the center and spring back when you push on them. Be careful not to over bake them or they’ll be dry and remember, if you're making smaller muffins then bake them for less time. Cool slightly and enjoy! Try them with butter, honey, or your favorite jam!
Hi! Can I use regular flour instead of whole wheat? Thanks!
Hi Nikki, yes you can use regular all-purpose flour if you prefer!
- Alyss