These morning glory muffins made with gluten-free flour, carrots, apples, coconut, raisins, and a hint of orange are an easy recipe to start your day. Adding applesauce to the muffin batter means the crumb is extra moist without requiring a lot of oil. Plus, these one-bowl gluten-free morning glory muffins use my favorite, simple GF muffin trick, a quick 15-minute rest, so they bake up light and fluffy without a gummy, dense texture!
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My Best Gluten-Free Morning Glory Muffin Recipe
When I developed this gluten-free recipe for morning glory muffins, I leaned some of my tried-and-true baking tricks from developing tons of well-tested gluten-free muffin recipes. Morning glory carrot and apple muffins have a lot of moisture, and I wanted to make sure they didn’t come out sad, deflated, or dense.
The problem typically lies with gluten-free flour not absorbing liquids as well as wheat flour. This causes a disappointing gummy, dense crumb or tops that sink after baking.
My recipe for homemade morning glory muffins uses that extra moisture to its advantage. First of all, instead of using all oil for the fat, I opt for a oil and applesauce combo. Both ingredients retain moisture for a tender crumb, but unlike oil, applesauce more readily saturates GF starches. This easy trick comes in handy for donut shop-style gluten-free apple fritters as well.
Classic morning glory muffins have a hearty combination of grated carrots, apples, and a variety of other mix-ins, such as raisins, shredded coconut, and nuts. Due to the larger amount of mix-ins, it requires less GF flour to build structure.
A reduced amount of flour also means risking the muffins crumbling while enjoying. Therefore I used my favorite GF muffin hack – let the batter rest for 15 minutes before baking – to yield a softer, fluffier texture. Resting gives time for the gluten-free starches to hydrate, absorb moisture, and bind the ingredients.
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Ingredient Tid Bits
- Gluten-free Flour – Typically I recommend Cup4Cup GF flour for baked goods, but this recipe works well with a variety of gluten-free flour blends. The recipe won’t work with single starch GF flours, like oat flour or almond flour.
- Applesauce – I use unsweetened applesauce so they are wholesome, without being overly sweet.
- Oil – Use any preferred oil, such as melted coconut oil, canola, avocado, grapeseed, or olive oil.
- Sweetener – A combination of light brown sugar and honey is used for sweetness and structure. The honey may be replaced with pure maple syrup and brown sugar with coconut sugar, but for best results keep the combination of wet and dry or it will alter the texture.
- Orange – Another way this recipe edges out others for maximum flavor! You will only need 1 orange, zested and juiced to add a nice citrus flavor to the muffins.
Let’s Make This Together!
(Below shows step-by-step photos and modified instructions. For the complete recipe, along with ingredient amounts, scroll down to the recipe card.)
Grab a large bowl
This muffin recipe makes 16 servings, so you’ll probably have extra to freeze. (Bonus!) In a large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients – applesauce, brown sugar, oil, honey, eggs, orange zest, orange juice, and vanilla extract. Then stir in all that morning glory love – carrots, apples, pecans, raisins, and coconut.
Almost there – dry ingredients
If you don’t have to dirty up an extra bowl, why should you? Since there’s no gluten, you eliminate the risk of over-mixing. In fact, it only helps GF muffin recipes!
So I dump in all the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, spices, salt, and mix away. No need to whisk separately in a bowl before adding. The longer you mix, the more time you assist the GF starches to soften.
Quick rest and bake
This is when the muffin batter will rest slightly before baking. While the oven preheats, use a large trigger scoop to divide the batter between the liners, almost to the top. Set aside for 15 minutes (up to 30). Your muffins are doing all the hard work of soaking up moisture and setting the structure so they don’t sink. Bake for 25 minutes and enjoy!
Extra Yummy Modifications
When adapting apple carrot muffins, some ingredients need to stay the same for the recipe’s success, but many can be swapped out. Here’s some workable mix-ins and swaps.
- Nuts – Use any preferred nut or seed or simply omit.
- Raisins – This may also be left out or swapped with other dried fruit, such as dried cranberries, cherries, or chopped dates.
- Trail mix – For a variety of flavors replace the coconut, nuts, and raisins with an equal amount of trail mix. Read ingredient labels to make sure the mixture is gluten-free!
- Flaxseed – Classic morning glory muffins use whole wheat flour, which can’t be used in a gluten-free recipe. For a “whole grain” taste add up to 2 tablespoons whole or ground flaxseed. This is baking trick I also used when creating these classic gluten-free bran muffins as well.
- Crushed pineapple – To add to the recipe, I recommend replacing 1/2 cup shredded apples with well-drained crushed pineapple. Be sure to give the pineapple a squeeze to release excess juice. Measure the pineapple after it has been drained.
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Did you make this recipe? I love hearing from you! Leave a star rating and comment below the recipe card. It helps others when searching for recipes and I appreciate feedback from our community. You will always hear back from me! -Melissa
Moist Gluten-Free Morning Glory Muffins (One Bowl)
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup (117 g) packed light brown sugar
- ¼ cup (53 g) oil, any preferred
- ¼ cup (85 g) honey
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons orange zest
- ¼ cup (28 g) orange juice, squeezed from zested orange
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup (116 g) grated carrot, peeled first (about 1 large)
- 1 cup (118 g) grated apple, peeled first (about 1 large)
- ½ cup (85 g) raisins
- ½ cup (40 g) shredded coconut
- ½ cup (63 g) chopped pecans
- 1 ½ cup (214 g) gluten-free all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Line standard-size muffin cups with paper liners or grease with nonstick cooking spray. The oven preheats later while the muffin batter rests. (This allows time for the gluten-free starches to soften and hydrate with the liquids.)
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the applesauce, brown sugar, oil, honey, eggs, orange zest, orange juice, and vanilla extract.½ cup unsweetened applesauce, ½ cup packed light brown sugar, ¼ cup oil, ¼ cup honey, 2 large eggs, 2 teaspoons orange zest, ¼ cup orange juice, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Stir in the grated carrots, apples, raisins, coconut, and pecans. Then stir in the remaining dry ingredients. Stir well until no flour pockets remain.1 cup grated carrot, 1 cup grated apple, ½ cup raisins, ½ cup shredded coconut, ½ cup chopped pecans, 1 ½ cup gluten-free all purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon salt
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Use a large trigger scoop to divide the batter between the cupcake liners. The batter will come up almost all the way to the top (see pic in post). The batter will make 16 muffins. Set aside for 15 minutes while the oven finishes preheating.
- Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. They are done when the tops are fully set and a toothpick comes out clean. With gluten-free baking, it's better to slightly error on the side of over baking because sometimes they look "done" before they are set all the way through. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack.
Notes
Storing and Freezing Tips
Once they have completely cooled, store in an airtight container up to 2 days at room temperature. Do not store in the fridge, or they will dry out. Also, covering the muffins with plastic wrap will trap moisture and make the tops slightly wet. Loosely covering with foil is a better option. For optimal freshness, I freeze GF muffins right away since they don’t stay fresh as long and moisture evaporates quickly. Wrap the cooled and set muffins in plastic wrap and place in a freezer-safe container or freezer bag up to 3 months.This post contains affiliate links. My opinions are always my own. If you purchase a product through an affiliate link, I make a small commission – at no cost to you. Read full disclosure policy here.
Very good recipe for Morning Gory Muffins. I substituted grated zucchini for the grated apple as apple sauce was already included. I zested cara cara orange zest and juice and that made the muffins so flavorful. Wonderful ingredients make for lovely breakfast muffins with a cuppa. Definitely will be my go to for GF muffins.
Zucchini is such a versatile substitution, love it! Thanks for sharing, Michele.
Best,
Melissa