Sweet Potato Morning Glory Muffins

Muffins to make mornings glorious.

Imagine standard morning glory muffins, and make them even better. The result? This sweet potato morning glory muffin recipe: incredibly moist, perfectly sweet, and full of texture and flavor from ingredients like apple, coconut, and millet, and baking spices.

If you do not know about morning glory muffins yet, be glad you do now. Morning glory muffins may be less common than blueberry or corn muffins, but are no less satisfying and delicious. In fact, they may be better.

You’ll also like: Favorite Blueberry Muffins and Pumpkin Donut Muffins

Origin Story: When Were Morning Glory Muffins Invented?

The accepted morning glory muffin origin story is that the baked treat was invented in the crunchy, earth mother days of the 1960s and ’70s at the, you guessed it, Morning Glory Café on Nantucket. Variations are endless, but the general idea is a whole wheat muffin spiced with cinnamon, and loaded with nourishing mix-ins like diced apple, coconut, nuts, seeds, raisins, and carrots.

These muffins may have gotten their name from the eponymous restaurant. But they could be named morning glory muffins because they make mornings, well, glorious. And now that you’ve discovered this sweet potato version, you will agree.

I took a cue from the “little of this, little of that, add what you want” ethos of the original morning glory muffin, and decided to see if I could incorporate baked sweet potato for a seasonal, super moist variation.

The answer is yes. In fact, these sweet potato morning glory muffins are absolutely delicious. To develop this recipe, I substituted mashed sweet potato for the carrots, and adjusted the sugar, leavening, and oil in consideration of the sweet potatoes’ qualities. I love nutty, crunchy millet in anything whole wheat, so I added some of that as well, in place of seeds.

Sweet Potato Morning Glory Muffin: Recipe Notes

• Substitutions. Keep the ratio of whole wheat flour, sugar, baking soda, egg, and sweet potato. From there, the world is your oyster muffin. Sub pears for apple, seeds for the nuts, leave coconut out if you like, and so on. Pumpkin can be substituted for the sweet potato.
• The sweet potatoes. I have made these two ways: with plain, mashed roasted sweet potato, and with leftover candied sweet potato casserole. Both work. Candied sweet potato casserole has a higher sugar content, though, so if you go the Thanksgiving leftovers route, I would remove a tablespoon of brown sugar from the muffin recipe.
• Pro tip: Soak your raisins. This is an important pastry chef pro tip and baking technique. Whenever you work with dried fruit like raisins or currants, soak them in warm water for about 10 to 20 minutes, then drain before using. This keeps them from sucking moisture from the batter. Dried fruit is thirsty and wants to rehydrate.

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Print Recipe

Sweet Potato Morning Glory Muffins

Moist, nourishing, and full of seasonal goodness.

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time25 mins

Course: Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keywords:: healthy, morning glory, muffins, sweet potato, thanksgiving leftovers, vegetarian, whole wheat

Servings: 18 or so muffins

Ingredients

• 16 ounces (2 cups) cooked mashed sweet potato
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil, such as canola
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup flax meal
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup millet, optional
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 apple, diced small
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375°F and grease or line muffin tins. The recipe will make about 18 muffins.
• Soak the raisins in warm water and set aside. While the raisins are soaking, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, lemon juice, and flax meal until smooth and emulsified. Add the mashed sweet potato and mix until fully combined.
• Add the baking soda, flour, salt, and millet and stir just until combined. Scrape the bowl to make sure.
• Fold in the drained raisins, diced apple, nuts, and coconut.
• Spoon into muffin tin cups and bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until the tops feel springy and craggy, and a cake tester comes out clean.
• Serve warm with good butter and jam, though they are delicious on their own as well. These will keep for several days in an airtight container.