Healthy Whole Wheat Morning Glory Muffins Recipe

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Start your day right with our Healthy Whole Wheat Morning Glory Muffins recipe! Packed with nutritious ingredients, these muffins are perfect for a wholesome breakfast or snack. And they freeze beautifully for easy meal prep!

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These Apple Carrot Muffins are my take on Morning Glory Muffins. A quick-bread batter, they mix up really quickly and you can add in any variety of shredded fruits and veggies, dried fruit, and chopped nuts that you want. Sweetened with honey, these muffins are the perfect on-the-go breakfast to keep you full all morning. They are also freezer friendly so perfect for meal prep and make-ahead snacks!

Ingredients for Morning Glory Muffins

Wet Ingredients

• Applesauce – applesauce keeps the muffins moist so that we don’t have to use as much oil
• Egg
• Honey – honey is our sweetener, so no refined sugar here
• Coconut Oil
• Vanilla Extract

Dry Ingredients

• Whole Wheat Flour
• Baking Soda
• Salt – Use table salt in baking – if you only have kosher salt, adjust measurement 3/4 teaspoon
• Ground Cinnamon

Mix-In Ingredients

This is where all the fun begins. Mix and match, substitute or leave out whatever you want:

• Orange (zest and juice)
• Shredded Carrot – you can buy these pre-shredded or use a box grater
• Chopped Pecans
• Raisins
• Grated Apple

Equipment

• Large Mixing Bowl
• Small Mixing Bowl
• Measuring Cup
• Measuring Spoons
• Knife and Cutting Board or Chopper
• Box Grater or Foot Processor with Grater Blade
• Microplane
• Standard 12-cup Muffin Pan
• Cooking Spray or Muffin Liners
• 2 ounce Cookie Scoop

How to Make Apple Carrot Muffins

1. This muffin batter is a quick bread, so the wet ingredients (applesauce, egg, coconut oil, honey, and vanilla extract) go in one bowl. Give it a quick mix to break up the egg and combine.
2. The dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon) go in a separate bowl. Whisk the dry ingredients to combine.
3. Now, pour the dry ingredients into the wet and stir to combine. At this point, toss in all of your add-ins and stir just to incorporate. Lastly, add the orange juice.
4. The batter will be very dense because of the sheer volume of stuff mixed in. This is normal. The egg and baking soda will provide plenty of lift when baking to get a fluffy muffin and the applesauce, oil and orange juice keeps the muffins nice and moist.
5. Portion the muffins using a 2 ounce scoop into baking liners. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. This should take 22-25 minutes.
6. Allow the muffins to cool completely on a cooling rack. At this point, you can store the muffins in a sealed container for up to 5 days or wrap in parchment and freeze in a freezer bag for up to three months.

How to Freeze Apple Carrot Muffins

I make a double batch of this recipe at a time to have a good amount in the freezer at all times. My daughter and I can grab them straight from the freezer on our way out the door every morning.

• To freeze muffins or any baked good, allow them to cool completely. I like to do what is called “Individually Quick Frozen (IQF)” method. To do this, I stick the whole muffin pan in the freezer and freeze the muffins in their muffin liners.
• Once frozen (this should take 2-4 hours), remove the muffins from the pan and wrap each muffin in a bit of parchment paper or wax paper and place all the muffins in a gallon-size freezer bag. Since the muffins are already frozen before being bagged together, they won’t stick together. You can easily grab one or two muffins as needed.

When you’re ready to eat your muffin, you can either allow it to thaw at room temperature for about 30 minutes or pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Variations

As I mentioned above, this recipe is perfectly customizable. Feel free to make any of the below substitutions with no change to the baking time. And I can attest that they are equally delicious!

• In place of coconut oil, feel free to use vegetable oil or melted butter
• Swap up to half the measurement of whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour
• Instead of shredded carrot, try zucchini or even sweet potato
• In place of grated apple, try grated pear or crushed pineapple
• Swap pecans for your favorite nut and the raisins for any dried fruit

Frequently Asked Questions

How long will these morning glory muffins stay fresh? These apple carrot muffins will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 3 months.

Are Morning Glory muffins healthy? It depends on the ingredients used. I made a point to use more healthful ingredients in this recipe so that you can feel good about feeding them to your family and they will keep you full and satisfied longer. By using whole wheat flour, coconut oil and applesauce, we are able to eliminate all butter or vegetable oil and we are using honey instead of refined cane sugar. In a nutshell, I’ve tried to make these as healthy as possible without sacrificing flavor. 🙂

How can I tell when the muffins are done? The easiest way to tell when baked good are baked through is to insert a toothpick into the middle muffin in the pan. If it comes out clean without any batter or crumbs, you’re good to go!

More Baking Recipes

• Banana Bread with Applesauce instead of Oil
• Cinnamon Apple Blondie Brownies
• Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins
• Apple Cinnamon Baked Oats

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4.87 from 69 votes

Apple Carrot Muffins

Morning Glory muffins are chock full of fruits, vegetables and nuts. They make the perfect portable, freezer-friendly breakfast. Keep a batch in the freezer for a quick, on-the-go snack or breakfast

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: apples, baking, breakfast, carrots, dairy free, freezer-friendly, healthy, meal prep, morning glory, muffins, snacks

Servings: 18 muffins

Calories: 150kcal

Author: Sarah Pyle

Equipment

• Nonstick Muffin Pan, Set of 2
• Pyrex Glass Mixing Bowl Set (3-Piece)
• 2 oz Portion Scoop

Ingredients

• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 orange zested and juiced
• 1 cup grated carrots approximately 3 carrots
• 1/2 cup pecans chopped
• 1/4 cup raisins soak in hot water for 10 minutes
• 1 medium apple grated

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350ºF.
• In a large bowl, combine the egg, applesauce, honey, coconut oil and vanilla extract. Stir until fully combined. Set aside.
• In a small bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
• Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until just blended.
• Add the orange zest, grated carrots, chopped pecans, raisins and grated apple to the batter and stir until well blended.
• Add the orange juice and stir to incorporate fully.
• Line a muffin pan with paper liners, and then portion 1/4 cup of batter into each liner.
• Bake for 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (If they brown too much on top, cover with aluminum foil to prevent burning.)
• Let cool in the muffin pan for 2 minutes.

Notes

This muffin is kind of a "kitchen sink" recipe in that so many different ingredients are added. Feel free to swap out or omit any of the fruit, nut and vegetable additions. For example, you can substitute grated zucchini for the grated carrot, you can use crushed pineapple instead of grated apple, mashed banana in place of the applesauce, and you can use any variety of nut or dried fruit. You can even add dried coconut if you like.

Feel free to substitute the one egg in this recipe with a flax egg mixture (1 Tablespoon of ground Flaxseed mixed with 3 Tablespoons of water) and swap the honey for agave nectar if you need to make it vegan.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 150kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 138mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 13g

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