The past week my diet has consisted of chicken noodle soup, saltine crackers, hot chocolate, and popcorn. I was stuck in bed battling a terrible cold; and I think I ate about three giant bags of cough drops. At one point I even went to the grocery store in my pajamas because I was too lazy to change. I don’t know it was weird, I felt like if I didn’t have ginger ale my life would end or something. Clearly my fever made me a tiny delusional and a whole lot of dramatic.
Anyway I’m getting a little sidetracked here. All I really want to do is bring you healthy whole grain muffins to start your year off right.
These muffins are made with whole wheat flour, coconut flakes, carrots, raisins, and walnuts. I used applesauce instead a bunch of oil to save calories; this also keeps the muffins moist along with the almond milk.
I find these muffins necessary during those mornings when I find myself waking up 15 minutes before work. Usually I individually wrap mine in plastic wrap and freeze them so that all I have to do is pop them in the microwave in the morning.
Hold on, don’t skip to the recipe just yet. I have more to tell you!
There are only about 188 calories per muffin, plus you’re getting a bunch a ton of Vitamin A from the carrots! I’ve also added pineapple in these and found them to be fantastic so feel free to mix and match fruits and nuts to suit your taste preferences.
Who doesn’t like pretty, healthy morning muffins to start their morning right? Enjoy!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Healthy Whole Grain Carrot Coconut Morning Glory Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (or you can use whole wheat pastry flour/white whole wheat)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons olive, coconut, or canola oil
- 1 egg
- 2 egg whites
- 2 1/2 cups shredded carrots
- 1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (or you can use sweetened)
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with liners and spray the inside of the liners with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl sift together flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt; set aside.
- Beat brown sugar, vanilla, oil, egg, and egg whites together until creamy. Add in almond milk and beat again. With a wooden spoon fold in carrots, applesauce, raisins. Mix in flour mixture until just combined -- do not over mix! Fold in the walnuts and the coconut flakes.
- Spoon batter into the liners and bake for 23-28 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Oven temperatures vary so you may find you need more or less time depending on the flours you use. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Do these sound good to have NEW YEARS morning! YUMMY to me!
These look delicious! I hope you're feeling better now!
Morning glory indeed! How wonderful does these muffins sound? If I had time to make breakfast…I would definitely make these. I might just make them for dessert, because why not?
Hopefully you feel better now!
These look AMAZING. And definitely not healthy-looking at all (those sneaky ones are the best kind :)). Hope you feel better soon… and have a happy new year!
That’s a seriously gorgeous coconut topping! I’d eat that by the spoonful!
These look fantastic Monique! More like dessert than breakfast – hard to believe they’re healthy by looking at the photo!
I made these yesterday for New Year’s breakfast. They R fabulous! Passed the recipe on to my sissy. Love your Blog:-)
i am ALWAYS on the hunt for healthier recipes – especially recipes I can start my day with. I love carrot muffins. kind of like dessert first thing in the morning. 🙂
These look like a Noël/New Year’s vacation lazy morning breakfast fare!!…How much pineapple would you use (add or sub) in this recipe…I read that you had done a version of this with it…and I’ll bet it would be scrumptious with it!…Loving your blog and really loved your December Things post…It really put me in the “hangin’ with friends and family” mood. Thanks for all you share!
I would start with a 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple!
Hi there!
I am a midwife and am trying to get a nice collection of recipes on our website that are healthy and simple and appealing to families with small kids…like this recipe!
I'd like to encourage you to submit it (and as many others as you like) to our recipe contest. If we post your recipe(s) on our site (which will if you submit them…your recipes are awesome), we will post not only your name as you enter it but also a link to your blog.
Each recipe you enter earns you the chance to win a $50 gift certificate to a local restaurant of your choice. (Local = where you live, and locally owned, not some big chain) For full details on the contest, click here:
http://www.sacredpassagesmidwifery.com/portland-midwives-announce-recipe-contest/
PS – Any readers of this blog are also encouraged to enter the contest!
Just made these little beauties! They are soooo delicious! I substitued a few things, based on what I had. I used two whole eggs, regular milk and big flakes of unsweetened coconut. Also omitted the nuts, allergic 🙁 I used a mini muffin tin and it made 30 fluffy little muffins! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Awesome!
Is there anything on your blog that isn’t amazing??! I was stoked when I saw you had a recipe for morning glory muffins….my daughter loves them from the local bakery but at $2.50 a pop I felt like we were going to go broke buying them. I made these this past weekend and she loooooves them. Just so happens that I love them too (and so does the hubs). Super excited to have a new go-to for healthy breakfasts. Who am I kidding. I’d eat these all day long. Thanks for the recipe!
This comment made my day — you are so sweet. I’m happy your family loved them! xo
I have made these a few times now and they are amazing! I use all whole wheat party flour, 2 flax eggs instead of the egg whites and about a half cup of brown sugar. Thank you for this fabulous recipe!!
Wow! That sounds great. Thank you for sharing Dawn! 🙂
Mine won’t cook through the center 🙁
Just made these and they turned out good. I added dried figs instead of raisins. I suggest not to use silicon liners (as I did) because the bottoms end up having a rubbery texture.
Usually when I make her muffins in a silicone liner they turn out just fine. Do not grease liners cause the muffins come out really easy without doing that. It could be that there somethingg wrong with the liners or that you didn’t mix it well enough.
This looks amazing! Was just scouring the web for a muffin recipe to use up some coconut and this fits the bill! Can’t wait to try them!
sounded awesome! I used what i had–so i sub-ed–threw in half a cup of coconut flour to replace half a cup of wheat flour, used pumpkin in place of applesauce, coconut milk in place of almond milk (and used a bit more), craisins in place of raisins and added pumpkin seeds. All the substitutions fingers crossed they still turn out!! 🙂
FYI – your recipes are so good they make me excited to get in the kitchen – and I usually HATE cooking!
Not only that – now I have healthy solutions for breakfast on the go, that don’t involve buying expensive unhealthy pastries… THANK YOU!
FYI due to lack of ingredients I substituted almond milk for rice milk with a little almond extract, and while wheat pastry flour for regular whole wheat flour… They were still delicious!
These are so delicious and moist! I left out the walnuts and substituted half the sugar for plain greek yogurt with wonderful results! Thank you!
Very taste!!
Are making it
I can see you making this it even has coconut on the top.
I’ve made these a few times now and they are a hit with everyone – they are even boyfriend approved! I use 1 3/4 cups of wholemeal flour (no pastry flour), 2 eggs and lite milk as substitutions and they turn out a treat every time. These muffins are healthy, filling and delicious; thank you for this wonderful recipe!
So glad you love them! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment – made my day 🙂
Do I have to use pastry flour?
I would love your suggestion on what kind of flour I could substitute to make these gluten free so I can enjoy them too 🙂
You could use almond flour , coconut flour and buckwheat flour. Also, you could do a mixture of the flours. Just remember for every 1/4 cup coconut flour , you”ll need to a an egg to the recipe. Do worry about having to more eggs the coconut flour will absorb it.
Gm! I made these muffins last night for this mornings breakfast I did the glaze too they are absolutely delicious!! and they’re not loaded with butter!
I would like to make these gluten free! I have oat bran, coconut flour and almond flour…would prefer not to use oats as my 10 year old won’t eat them then. Any suggestions?
Sure you can try using oat bran or oat flour instead, but I’m not really sure how they’ll turn out! Let me know!
Oh, and one more substitution I would like to make… what can I trade the sugar in for? Honey? Maple? And how much???
We’ve used this recipe time and again as a “base”. It’s so great! Mine are always more dense, but not sure if it’s because of my modifications. This morning I added blueberries (instead of raisins), ripe banana (instead of applesauce), flax meal, and wheat germ. I leave out the sugar and nuts, otherwise everything else is essentially the same. My 4 and 1.5 year old boys LOVE them! So, that’s a win!
Thanks for the idea. In ‘healthy’ recipes apple sauce is used to replace oil and banana is more of a sweetener, so perhaps than is why it they are denser (on top of the extra wheat germ/flax meal)
Another awesome recipe! Made with normal whole wheat flour and no raisins, and in a bread tin (about 55-60mins- just cover with foil at some point to keep from burning). Didn’t apply icing. The consistency is more bran muffin-like than traditional carrot cake-like. Not very sweet. Great ‘house cake’ for family breakfast or snack.
I made these yesterday for my breakfasts this week and they are great! I did tweak the recipe by adding more vanilla and cinnamon, halving the raisins, and adding chopped cashews, sunflower seeds, and hemp seeds, in addition to the walnuts. Definitely a keeper and I have already passed on the recipe. Thank you!
I baked these muffins for a brunch at my office and they were a huge hit. I did modify the recipe slightly: used only whole wheat flour, grated an apple instead of using applesauce, added an 8oz can of crushed pineapple (drained) to the mix, and I had to increase the quantity of flour by 1/2 cup so the batter was the right consistency. I was asked for the recipe by a number of people and will definitely make these muffins again.
That’s awesome. I’m glad your substitutions worked out well!
I really like it when you amp up a recipe with protein powder. Can you tell me how to add it to some of your other recipes that don’t currently have it?
I really like it when you amp up a recipe with protein powder. Can you tell me how to add it to some of your other recipes that don’t currently have it? Like muffins….
Hi! I am a baking novice and my family and I have enjoyed your black bean and avocado brownie along with the chickpea peanut butter brownies and out of curiosity can I use an alternative type of flour like almond flour?
Thank you!
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Just baked these today on my day off and they are simply delicious! The right amount of sweetness and the coconut pairs perfectly with the carrot and raisins. Such a yummy fall treat, I will definitely be making this one again!
Amazing! The perfect treat for a day off 🙂
These look amazing! If I wanted to use gluten free flour would I need to make any modifications? And when you add pineapple, do you decrease the carrots? I want to try these!! :0)
Hi Susan! I wouldn’t recommend swapping flours in this one as I’ve only tested them this way. You could try this carrot cake muffin recipe (and see the gluten-free option in the notes!)
Made these last night and had one for breakfast this morning and they are just scrumptious! I omitted the coconut for some picky family members sake. We will be enjoying these all week long. Thanks Monique!
Love these for breakfast! So glad you all enjoyed 🙂
Am I reading this right you use 1 cup of whole-wheat pastry flour and 1 cup of all purpose for 2 cups of flour?
Correct!
These turned out amazing! We have an egg allergy in our family so I used flax eggs and they are delicious!
Great! Glad that swap worked out 🙂
simply fabulous!!
Just put these in the oven 3 minutes ago and already the fragrance is permeating the cabin! I substituted strawberry yogurt for 1/2 the oil so hope it still turns out.
Hope you love them!
One of our go to breakfast muffins! A little sweet and a little savoury. I love making these with my daughter!
5 STARS! So tasty! Feels like a treat every time! I do substitute pure Stevia for some of the brown sugar. Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe! Lucille
So glad you love it, Lucille! Thanks so much for commenting 🙂
These sound amazing! Looking forward to making… I love the idea of adding pineapple. Did you use canned? How much? Did you replace the applesauce with crushed pineapple? Love your site, and all your healthy delicious recipes!
Yes, you will want to use canned pineapple and I would start with a 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple! I hope you love these muffins 😍
These are the perfect muffin. They have great texture with the variety of mix-ins and are dense enough to be a filling breakfast. Thank you!