This isn’t the type of recipe I’d normally post.
By most accounts, these muffins are a total flop.
They don’t rise like a normal muffin, they are denser than a normal muffin, and they look more like a hockey puck rather than anything you’d want to serve for breakfast.
The thing is, despite their unusual appearance, we can’t seem to get enough of them in our house. They are unbelievably moist, and taste like carrot cake, while remaining grain-free, properly combined, and naturally sweetened. And they’re vegan, to boot!
While I don’t necessarily recommend making these for company (or anyone you’d want to impress, for that matter), they are a fun treat for those moments when you don’t care what your breakfast or afternoon snack looks like.
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Vegan Morning Glory Muffins (Grain-free, Vegan)
makes 6 muffins
Inspired by this recipe
Ingredients:
1/4 cup coconut flour
3 flax or chia eggs (<– instructions here)
2 Tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup raisins
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350F and line a standard cupcake tin with 6 paper cups.
If you haven’t already prepared your flax or chia eggs, make them first! (Click here for detailed instructions.) For best results, allow them to chill for 15 minutes before using. Once the eggs are prepared, combine all of the ingredients, except for the shredded carrots and raisins, and mix well until a sticky dough is formed.
Fold in the shredded carrots and raisins, then divide the dough evenly among the six muffin cups.
Like I mentioned earlier, these muffins will not rise, so don’t worry about filling the cups to the top.
Bake for 22-25 minutes, until the muffins are firm to the touch. Unfortunately, the finished muffins won’t look much different coming out of the oven than they did when they went in.
This is why I don’t recommend serving them to company.
Allow to cool, then serve to the people who will love you no matter what your baked goods look like.
I recommend storing these muffins in the fridge, and serving them chilled, for best texture!
Note: For those of you who are not concerned with baking vegan muffins, I believe using 3 whole eggs would produce a more traditional-looking result! I will be trying that next time. Regardless, these muffins will taste amazing!
Vegan Morning Glory Muffins
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 3 flax or chia eggs (<-- instructions here)
- 2 Tablespoons coconut oil , melted
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1/4 cup raisins
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F and line a standard cupcake tin with 6 paper cups.
- If you haven't already prepared your flax or chia eggs, make them first! (detailed instructions at detoxinista.com) For best results, allow them to chill for 15 minutes before using.
- Once the eggs are prepared, combine all of the ingredients, except for the shredded carrots and raisins, and mix well until a sticky dough is formed.
- Fold in the shredded carrots and raisins, then divide the dough evenly among the six muffin cups. These muffins will not rise, so don't worry about filling the cups to the top.
- Bake for 22-25 minutes, until the muffins are firm to the touch. Unfortunately, the finished muffins won't look much different coming out of the oven than they did when they went in. (This is why I don't recommend serving them to company.)
- Allow to cool, then serve to the people who will love you no matter what your baked goods look like. I recommend storing these muffins in the fridge, and serving them chilled, for best texture!
Notes
Nutrition
Per Serving: Calories: 161, Fat: 7g, Carbohydrates: 21g, Fiber: 5g, Protein: 2g
Enjoy!
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Reader Feedback: Do you care what your baked goods look like, as long as they taste good? Any kitchen bloopers you’d like to share?
I’ll admit, some of my baking experiments have left me with some pretty unappealing looking baked goods which can be a bit of a turn off initially. However, as long as they taste good, I’m not fussed about it… especially since it means people won’t be asking me to share! Plus there’s something almost nostalgic and heart-warming about a cookie or muffin that’s ugly on the outside but delicious on the inside 🙂
I haven’t tested it out yet but I was thinking since the muffins don’t really rise, why not just fill the batter to the top of the muffin cup so they look more “real”
Because the batter is so moist, filling these muffins to the top may result in a longer baking time and mushy middles. Please let us know if you have any success, though!
These sound so great! Some of my baking and cooking endeavors don’t always look the most appetizing but what is most important to me is how they taste! I think these sound amazing and can’t wait to try them out!
Just tried these and they are awesome! Based on your suggestion I subbed 1 real egg for 1 of the flax eggs… thought 3 eggs in 6 muffins was a bit much for my tastes. They looked good and tasted great – thanks for sharing!
Ha. Funny. I don’t really mind that they look ilke hockey pucks. They sound yummy! But I do sometimes have bloopers of course, we all do. In fact, when I made your peanut butter banana muffins, I put them in only 10 muffin cups instead of 12, thinking they’d just be bigger, but they ran all over the place. Kind of looked like elephant trunks. I didn’t care. I ate all the trunks!
I think these look really good actually, and since I finally bought cashews to try some cashew cream, I think I’ll dollop some sweetened cream on top – a little carrot cake muffin.
As Julia Child said, “no matter what happens in the kitchen, never apologize”. It’s all good.
I ADORE carrot cake so these look awesome to me!!!
I actually had a kitchen blooper today…in my mind this sounded really good. I made my usual monster salad, then put a couple handfuls of almonds on there, a squeeze of lemon and a big spoon of honey. The reality was too sweet and not that great, the honey just killed it. I finished it because I have waste guilt and didn’t want to toss it, but wasn’t satisfied and ended up pigging out on more almonds and a chocolate bar 🙂
that looks good
I was needing to make something easy to grab for breakfast this week and these sound perfect! I will definitely be making these this afternoon 🙂
Hey, if I’m the only one eating them… I DON’T CARE! I’m SO making these! 🙂 YUM! I love carrot cake and my Mom makes the BEST morning glory muffins, but they aren’t ALL that healthy! I am so excited to make these!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks hun! xo
H!!!! Is there a substitute for Coconut flour?
Coconut flour is really unique– it absorbs SO MUCH liquid, I’m not sure any other flour would work. However, you can make your own coconut flour by simply shredding dried unsweetened coconut in a coffee grinder!
Could coconut flour be made in a vitamix or a food processor if a grinder isn’t available??
I’ve never tried doing that! If you blend it too long, you’ll wind up with coconut butter, but I think it’s worth a shot!
Just made these….amazing!!! I ate spoonfuls of batter even before baking…
I used eggs and they looked pretty good! You are such an inspiration Megan…thank you!
I tried these with eggs and they are suuuuper delicious! I was glad to finally find a recipe that used coconut flour instead of almond flour so I could take them to my nut-free workplace and these certainly do not dissapoint. The eggs made them puff up nicely and give them a fluffier texture than the flax which I prefer; also, I think the moisture from the eggs counters for the lack of maple syrup (I used powdered stevia) so the muffins were still nice and soft and not all dried out. I tried another version which is almost identical to this recipe expect that I used zucchini instead of the carrot, dried currents instead of raisins (for no reason other than I had them) and added raw cacao powder… YUM! Equally magnificent!
I realize that you posted years ago, but I’m hoping to find out how much powdered stevia you used. Thanks!
do you think you could use carrot pulp leftover from juicing?
Yes, I think that would work!
I know you said you didn’t think there was a way to make these without coconut flour, but I was just wondering if maybe almond flour, etc. would work in some way? My boyfriend is allergic to coconut(although not to coconut oil, oddly enough). I keep making him your chocolate chip cookies and he really likes those so I’m trying to expand his healthy eating with grain-free baked goods.
I haven’t tried it myself, bou could try using one of my other muffin recipes, most of which use almond flour, as a guide to help you experiment!
I made these tonight with zucchini (instead of carrots) and pecans (instead of raisins) and stevia (instead of maple syrup) all because of diet restrictions, but they were delicious!!!
I made these and they were yummy, but my baking time was more like an *hour.* I’ve never had a muffin take that long and I’m not sure why they did. My oven temp is accurate. But, it doesn’t really matter because they did taste very, very good. 🙂
I used 1/2 cup dessicated coconut (in the UK where it doesn’t contain sugar), golden syrup instead of maple syrup (Lyle’s syrup), eggs instead of chia eggs, grated the csrrots, no raisins and added a bit of ground mixed nuts. They rose, even had a dome on them, and are super delicious and filling.
Thank you for your recipes and advises, I enjoy them a lot and I love how the printable recipes have a little picture of the dish. I’m able to see how it should look like.
Absolutely love your recipes Megan, so easy and so delicious.
I struggle with IBS…can’t tolerate dairy, corn, soy, wheat, gluten and sugar. For me thus is heaven:)
I tried your muffins, didn’t have coconut flout so decided to experiment with buckwheat flour…turned out amazing!!
Hi! Do you happen to remember how much buckwheat flour you used??? Thanks so much!
has anyone tried to freeze these? making a double batch for a vacation…
These muffins sound delicious! Thanks for posting an egg-free muffin recipe, despite their appearance. And your commentary throughout your description was hilarious 🙂 Thanks!
Is there another oil I could use for the coconut oil or could I use my vegan earth balance butter?
I made these muffins today with all chicken eggs, no chia or flax since I’m not vegan and I didn’t have flax or chia in the house. I mixed together all the ingredients but saved the vinegar, carrots, and raisins for last. Adding the vinegar last, then quickly folding in the carrots and raisins and putting them in cups, doubled with having real eggs, really helped them to rise. They look only a little shorter than normal muffins. And they are ridiculously moist and tasty! I’m having one with my lunch as “dessert” right now. 😉 Thank you!
These look so wonderful! We have something a bit similar on OliveandPearls.com; Vegan and Gluten-Free Almond Orange Cakes. Can’t wait to try these Morning Glories!
These turned out fabulous! So yummy. Used the egg replacement and they were great. Topped with your coconut whipped cream. Perfect! Please keep the recipes coming.
This was a real blooper for me. I followed your directions and didn’t fill the muffin cups all the way to the top, but for some reason, everything overflowed in the oven. It was a huge mess, and I had to throw the entire pan in the sink.
I was so looking forward to this 🙁 I feel sorry it didn’t work out.
How strange!! Did you happen to use real eggs instead of the flax version? That might account for how they ended up rising… otherwise, I’m baffled!
Could you suggest a substitute for the maple syrup? I am on a sugar free diet. Would Apple sauce work?
Has anyone tried to use dark molasses instead of maple syrup?
I would love to make these on the weekend, so would love anyone’s thoughts on that idea? 🙂
thanks!
Has anyone doubled the recipe and baked in a loaf pan? I’m trying to figure out the cooking time
Love the flavour! They didn’t quite turn out as I doubled the recipe, but I forgot to double the flax eggs. Oh well. Lesson learned. My husband still enjoyed the.
Tried these last night and LOVED them. Yummy! Yummy! Yummy!
Hey, just wanted to stop by and say how delicious these were! Made carrot juice earlier and needed to make something with the leftover pulp. These were perfect for that! I stored them in the fridge & they are so yummy…they taste like carrot cake. I don’t care that they are flat. 🙂
I know you posted this a long time ago, but I just wanted you to know that because of this recipe, my son (who has a super rare digestive disorder and a bunch of dietary restrictions) can have a birthday “cake.”
Thank you so, so much.
Oh, I’m so happy to hear that! I hope he enjoys it. 🙂
can i put blueberries in place of carrot an raien
I have tried a few of your recipes so far and I’m totally hooked on them and this website. Thanks so much for all the knowledge and super yummy recipes! I just wanted to also know if I could substitute almond flour in these muffins instead of the coconut flour? Just have almond flour in the pantry right now and these muffins are calling my name! LOL
These were SO delicious! I added two scoops of protein powder and 1/4 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk to increase the protein. Delicious and nutritious- I will definitely be making these again.
Hi there we are allergic to coconut. Would buckwheat flour work? Or bobs red mill 1 x 1 gf mix?
I would start with a different recipe, calling for buckwheat or gluten-free flour. Coconut flour is too different!
These have become a staple in our GF/DF multi-food-sensitive household! They are even yummy with a bit of stevia in place of maple syrup for a low-sugar option. Flax and chia eggs work fine, or a combination of egg and one of those two vegan subs. Thanks for this recipe!
Thank you so much for this recipe! I’ve learned that my 3 year old is reactive to all the things😝 this recipe is simple and delicious! I attempted to make it a pumpkin muffin and it worked fine 👍👍
These are so yummy! Very moist. Just the right amount of sweetness for me. I used two eggs, which I happened to have on hand, plus one chia egg (chilled). They turned out great. I think they look good too! I would serve these to anyone. Definitely a recipe I will be making again.
These taste like carrot cake to me, and I love them. I’ve made them before with and without eggs, and even with different oils and GF flours, as coconut flour doesn’t always agree with me. They are always great. I freeze them and use for dessert or breakfast. Thanks Megan!