Paleo morning glory muffins recipe made with almond flour are a healthy breakfast or snack, perfect for those with gluten and grain sensitivities. These classic muffins are easy to prepare and super comforting!
The morning glory muffin, a.k.a. the Something for Everyone Muff, is just so likable. A muffin jam packed with carrots, apples, shredded coconut, raisins and walnuts? I mean, who in Hades was smart enough to come up with this flavor infusion?!
Let me google it.
::Insert elevator music::
Okay, I have the answer.
Chef Pam McKinstry invented the morning glory muffin in 1978 on Nantucket Island for Earthbound Farm. In the kitchen with the whisk (or perhaps a wooden spoon, who knows?).
Here’s the original morning glory muffin recipe. Slash, Pam, I’d like to meet you, you cheeky muffin maven you.
Per usual, I did a little add and subtract magic and came up with a grain-free, oil-free, and refined sugar-free version of the recipe, which is also paleo-friendly.
Some people add pineapple. I don’t.
Do you ever say to yourself, “Wow. I should probably vacuum, wash my linens, scrub the tile, season my cast iron skillet, do my taxes, and take care of my fiscal and social responsibilities as a human” and then promptly bake muffins instead? Don’t answer that.
I’m gonna give it to you straight: these muffins require some work. There’s an above-average amount of grating, chopping, and ingredient measuring required for this recipe, but they’re soooo worth it. The recipe also includes ⅓ of a cup of mashed sweet potato, which I recognize not all of you have on-hand just any ol’ day, like me.
If you don’t feel like roasting a sweet potato for the sake of these muffins, I bet you could use a ripe banana instead…and then you’d end up with banana bread morning glory muffs, and there ain’t nothing wrong with that, son!
These grain-free, refined sugar-free dairy-free morning glory muffins are all sorts of nutritious and are perfect for the sharing. They’re well-worth the effort!
The everything muffin!
More Gluten-Free Muffin Recipe:
- Gluten-Free Chocolate Banana Muffins
- Paleo Carrot Cake Banana Muffins
- Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins
- Healthy Apple Muffins
- Gluten-Free Coconut Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!
If you make these Paleo Morning Glory Muffins, please feel free to share a photo and tag @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Grain-Free Morning Glory Muffins (Paleo)
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup mashed sweet potato
- 3 eggs
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup grated carrot 1 large
- 1 cup grated apple ½ large Fugi
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger peeled and grated, optional
- 2 cups almond flour/meal
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut or flaked coconut
- 2/3 cup raisins
- 2/3 cup raw walnuts chopped
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 12-muffin tray with baking cups.
- Whisk together the mashed sweet potato, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla extract, grated carrot, apple, and ginger until well-combined (wet ingredients).
- In a seperate mixing bowl, stir together the almond flour, shredded coconut, raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (dry ingredients).
- Pour the dry mixture into the bowl with the wet mixture and stir well until a thick batter forms.
- using an ice cream scoop or small measuring cup, scoop batter into the lined muffin tray, filling the cups 3/4 of the way up.
- Place muffin tray on the center rack in the preheated oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until muffins test clean when poked with a toothpick.
- Allow muffins to cool at least 20 minutes before mowing them down < - if you try to eat the muffins before letting them cool, they will stick to the muffin cups like whoa.
Nutrition
Sorry, better still cookies
Do you think I could make these into cookies. I travel a lot and cookies are easier for me.
Thanks
Hi Ann! I think it’s possible, but I think you’d need to tweak the recipe. It could be as simple as adding more almond flour. But now you have me curious, so I’ll work on a cookie recipe for ya. May take a month or two, though 😉 xo
Thank you, breakfast muffins and better still are my mainstay when traveling.
First of all, you are the bomb! LOVE your recipes! The stuffed squash was incredible. I was paleo for awhile and fell off and now boarding the wagon again hopefully to stay on for good. It is a life-changing journey and I have been educating myself on gut and brain health- it’s fascinating stuff. (Oh, and I am definitely turning into a healthy gut/ brain nerd? as well?.) Anyways, thank you for your wonderful recipies and website. I almost forgot, I started juicing (again) and am looking for recipies to use the leftover juice pulp. This one is perfect!
Hi Peggie,
This comment made my day! Thanks so much for your sweet words! I wish you all the best on your journey (cheers to geeking out on the gut/brain connection!). Always feel free to reach out if you have any questions, and Happy New Year!! xoxo
I just made these and they are delicious. I did make one major change: I used flax eggs instead of actual eggs. I knew that they were unlikely to rise much as a result, and so I filled the muffin cups just about to the top. Even so, I got 14 muffins out of the batch. The other changes I made were minor: a touch more sweet potato, so that what I had left over wouldn’t be wasted, more carrot than apple because I didn’t have enough apple (still 2 cups total), currants instead of raisins, and 2T coconut milk because the batter seemed a bit dry (although I think I would omit this next time). They really are delicious and I love that they don’t have any oil!! Thank you so much for the recipe!
Thanks so much for letting us know your changes, Aimee! I’m so glad you like the muffins! xo
Wow, these are amazing!! We have made them many times by now! Each time I tweak the addtions a little. Zucchini is good as are dried, unsweetened cherries or apricots. Looking forward to playing with this idea more. I also make a double batch and bake them in the giant muffin tins. Makes for a substantial breakfast on their own. Thanks again!
I’m so happy to hear it, Kim!! Adding zucchini and dried cherries sounds amazing as well – I’ll have to try this! Thanks for the sweet note! xo
Wow, these are excellent! Thank you!
I would like to add pineapple to this recipe…can you guide as to how I could do this? For example how much pineapple, and would I use fresh or canned? Thanks
I’d like to try pineapple too did you receive a response?
Is there a reason you don’t include the vanilla extract or the coconut flakes in the instructions? I caught the coconut flakes omission, but not the vanilla extract. Hopefully they’ll still taste decent.
Hi Martia,
My mistake – I went ahead and updated the recipe. Thanks for letting me know about the errors. I bet your muffins will still taste great 😉
Thanks! And yes, they still tasted amazing. I’ll be making these on a regular basis 🙂
Oh man, these look awesome! So since they have carrots, they count as a veggie, right? Haha .. .
I love your style of writing! It sounds just like you’re talking to me through the screen. I actually started laughing out loud while I was reading this post — you really got me with the pizza thing!
Thanks for sharing this recipe! Cheers!
Thanks so much, Brynn! I’m glad you found it humorous! I definitely count the muffins as at least one serving of veggies, lol! 😀
Hi there! Any chance you have a calorie count, carbohydrate count, etc. for the recipe as written? I just baked a batch and am trying to figure out what to enter into my food diary on MyFitnessPal app.
Thanks!
Hi Colleen! I updated the recipe with nutritional information. Let me know if you need anything else!
I hate to use that much energy to roast a half of a sweet potato, but I do want to use a sweet potato. Do you think if I grated it with the carrots that it would come out the same? or somewhat similar?
Connie
That’s a great question – I’ve never tries grating the sweet potato, but my guess is it may work. The muffins would definitely have more texture to them and may be a little less moist. If you want to replace the mashed sweet potato with a banana or applesauce, you could certainly go that route instead! Let me know what you end up trying! xo
Use your microwave to cook the sweet potato, I never put my white potatoes or sweet potatoes in the oven, always in the microwave, and they turn out great.
Can I add this to my bread machine and make it into a bread?
Hi Wanda,
I’ve never tested the muffin batter in a bread machine, so I’m not sure it would work out very well. You could try baking it in a loaf pan, but I haven’t tested this method either. Let me know if you end up trying it!
Thank you so much for this recipe! I was searching for a grain free muffin recipe loaded with lots of stuff, and I happened upon this one. So glad I did 🙂
Didn’t have sweet potato, but had some canned pumpkin puree, so I used that. I had two small zucchini to use up, so those went in instead of carrot (I squeezed out the excess water), and I had Gala apple. I forgot the vanilla, but I didn’t miss it. I used dried cranberries instead of raisins, pecans instead of walnuts, and I threw in about 1/3 cup of Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips-mmmmm!!
Once the batter was all mixed up, it seemed like it still needed moisture, so I added 3 Tbsp. melted coconut oil. I think that was a good decision, because they were a tad crumbly on top, so without I think they may have crumbled apart. I baked them for 30 minutes and the toothpick came out clean (except for chocolate :)), but when eating they were just a tad undone in the middle. Next time I will bake longer, but perhaps lower to 325, because they had already started to brown on the top.
I recommend using a food processor, Ninja or something comparable to shred fruits and veggies, which will make prep time much faster. I used my food processor with the shredding blade and it was a breeze.
This is a great recipe: easy to whip up, chock full of healthy things, and very forgiving to substitutions- granted you keep the ratios approximately the same.
My loaded muffin craving is officially satiated!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Hi Sandy,
Your version of the morning glory muffins sounds fabulous! Thanks for all the tips and suggestions! Now I’m itching to try the recipe using pumpkin and zucchini! xo
These turned out so great. I randomly did not realize I was out of apple but I had a persimmon (go figure). I will be making these again and again.
Ooooooh persimmon sounds amazing!! So happy the muffins worked out and thanks so much for your feedback, Heather!! xo
love the recipe, I changed the the sweet potatoes for mashed bananas.
would you know approx the carb count per muffin?
Is “20 minute prep time” part of the joke? Took me much longer to measure, grate and chop. But it was worth it. They turned out great and are packed full of flavor.