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!
Love starting your day with something wholesome, cozy, bursting with flavor and gluten-free? Well, you’re in luck! These Paleo Morning Glory Muffins are packed with carrot, apple, coconut, and crunchy walnuts for the ultimate feel-good breakfast or snack.
These easy wholesome muffins feel nostalgic and homey but are actually surprisingly healthy. These beauties are grain-free (like my Paleo Pumpkin Pie Bars!), naturally sweetened, and full of real, nourishing ingredients.
We start with light and fluffy almond flour and sweet bursts of apple and raisin which form the delicious base of these muffins. The earthy carrots and toasty crunch from the walnuts and coconut take this recipe to the next level.
My favorite part is this paleo version keeps all those cozy flavors I adore from coffee shop muffins while giving me plenty of slow-burn energy due to the lack of added sugar. No big sugar spike and crash here, folks!
Ingredients for Paleo Morning Glory Muffins
Here’s all the ingredients you’ll need to make these delicious paleo morning muffins. You probably have a handful hanging around in your pantry already, but they’re all easy ingredients to source if you don’t!
Mashed Sweet Potato: This might sound like a weird ingredient to add to a muffin. But sweet potatoes add natural sweetness and moisture to this recipe that keep our muffins soft and tender. Swap it out for ripe banana if you’d like.
Eggs: Act as a binder to give structure, lift, and richness to the batter.
Pure Maple Syrup: My favorite natural sweetener for muffins is pure maple syrup. We only need a little bit!
Pure Vanilla Extract: Enhances the other flavors and adds a touch of warmth to your muffins.
Grated Carrot: The main ingredient for that classic morning glory texture! Along with the slight chewiness, you’ll also get plenty of sweetness and a vibrant pop of color from your carrots. Plus, they add Vitamins and antioxidants.
Grated Apple: For a fruity zing that brings extra moisture to your muffins. I suggest using Fuji or Honeycrisp as they hold up well and are relatively sweet. But use whichever apples you like best or have on hand!
Fresh Grated Ginger: Adds a gentle zing that brightens everything up. Add more if you’re obsessed with ginger, or omit it if you aren’t into it.
Almond Flour: The grain-free base that creates a tender, light moist crumb that beats regular all-purpose flour any day. I stick with super fine almond flour for the best texture.
Unsweetened Shredded Coconut: Contributes to the light texture and imparts a creamy, sweet flavor.
Raisins: These nuggets of sticky sweetness add a hit of texture to each bite. Golden raisins are great here too.
Chopped Walnuts: I hear you. There’s a lot of chewiness going on in this recipe. But chopped walnuts bring crunch!
Ground Cinnamon: The ultimate warm spice that gives your muffins a perfect, fall-inspired coziness. Use pumpkin pie spice if you’d like.
Baking Powder and Baking Soda: The leavening agents that help the muffins rise.
Sea Salt: Enhances all the flavors! Don’t skip it.
Recipe Customizations
- Switch out the sweet potatoes. If you’re really not feeling the sweet potatoes in these paleo morning glory muffins, use a ripe mashed banana instead. It’ll give you a lighter, slightly fruitier flavor, but the texture should be similar.
- You can use pecans, almonds, pumpkin seeds, or hazelnuts in place of the walnuts if you prefer!
- If you can’t eat nuts, leave out the walnuts and switch the almond flour for sunflower seed flour. The texture will be very slightly different, but it’s a decent alternative.
- If you’re making these around summertime, feel free to stir in crushed pineapple or a handful of chopped dried mango. It’ll give things a tropical twist!
- Want to make things even cozier? Add cardamom, nutmeg, or even a touch of cloves to switch things up!
- Make them sweeter by adding a touch of coconut sugar, pure maple syrup, or sugar-free sweetener.
- You can throw in a tablespoon of ground flax or chia seeds for a fiber boost.
How to Make Paleo Morning Glory Muffins
Start by preheating your oven to 350°F and lining a muffin tin with parchment paper liners.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the almond flour, tapioca flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sea salt until the dry ingredients are evenly combined.
In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until a smooth batter forms.
Now for the fun part! Fold in the shredded carrots, diced apple, raisins, chopped walnuts, and shredded coconut. This is where the muffins start to look (and smell!) like a cozy autumn morning.
Scoop the batter evenly into your muffin cups, filling each about ¾ full. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
Let the muffins cool in the muffin pan for at least 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling for around 20 minutes. Try to resist eating one straight from the oven, as the muffin will stick to the paper liners.
Storage Tips:
- Room Temperature: Store muffins in an airtight container or in a zip lock bag on the counter for up to 2 days.
- Refrigerator: Refrigerate for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: Freeze in a freezer bag for up to 3 months.
Tips for Making the Best Paleo Morning Glory Muffins
- Use a medium-sized box grater for the carrots and apples. If it’s too fine, they’ll disappear into the batter. Too coarse, and they’ll weigh it down.
- These muffins are super moist. So, let them rest in the pan for at least 15 to 20 minutes before removing them from the pan.
These gluten-free morning glory muffins are perfect for meal prep, brunches, road trips, or those days you just want something homemade that feels special. Make a batch on Sunday and watch them disappear before midweek.
They have the perfect texture and that pop of flavor to make you swoon. Those cozy spices, real ingredients, and chewy texture will keep you coming back for more!
Enjoyed this beautiful bake? Here are 5 more gluten-free muffins you’re bound to love!
More Muffin Recipes:
- Gluten-Free Chocolate Banana Muffins
- Paleo Carrot Cake Banana Muffins
- Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins
- Healthy Apple Muffins
- Matcha Muffins
Enjoy this great recipe on repeat for a lower sugar alternative to classic muffins!
Paleo Morning Glory Muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup mashed sweet potato
- 3 large eggs
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup grated carrot 1 large
- 1 cup grated apple ½ large Fugi
- 2 tsp 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 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp 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.
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.