Morning Glory Muffins

Rise and shine!

Why not wake up to a muffin full of flavor and just the right amount of sweetness to get you going? Plus, it’s so exciting to bite into something with so many ingredients. It’s like a party for your taste buds… so many textures, so many tastes, and yes, you can bet that they all play nicely together. (Who knew that fruits and veggies could join in unison and create a hit?)

Like with any muffin, these are pretty easy to make- the only annoyance comes from having to measure out so many ingredients. Oh, and from grating the carrots- but since I started using the grater thingy on my food processor (you know- this disc that you attach to the blade in the middle), life has gotten so very very much easier. Less time grating carrots means more time baking.

Adapted from the King Arthur Flour recipe… makes 12 large muffins

1/2 cup raisins

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour is fine)

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups peeled & grated carrots

1/2 cup sweetened shredded or flaked coconut

1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts

1/3 cup sunflower seeds

3 eggs

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 8-oz can crushed pineapple, drained well

1/4 cup pineapple juice (reserved from can)
1. Preheat oven to 375° and grease a 12-cup muffin pan (with or without liners).
2. In a small bowl, soak raisins in hot water to soften (submerge so that raisins are covered with water).
3. In a large bowl, whisk the next 6 dry ingredients (flour through salt). Stir in the carrots, coconut, nuts, and sunflower seeds.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, vanilla, pineapple and pineapple juice. Pour into dry mixture, add the drained raisins, and stir until evenly moistened.
5. Scoop batter into muffin cups (they will be quite full) and bake for 25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on a rack for a few minutes, then tip muffins out of the muffin pan to finish cooling.
Tips:
- Substitutions: naturally you don’t have all of this stuff in your pantry, so here are a few ideas:
  Sub grated apple for the pineapple, and just add another tablespoon of juice to the batter (use apple juice, OJ or pineapple juice)
  Sub cranberries or craisins for raisins
  Sub pecans for walnuts
  Sub 1/4 cup wheat germ for sunflower seeds (or omit completely)
  Sub 1/4 cup ground flax seeds for sunflower seeds
  Sub zucchini for carrots
- Time saver: you could skip the raisin soaking step if your raisins aren’t too shrivelled and hard… and you could skip the step of toasting the walnuts. I like to bake mini muffins so I don’t have to wait as long (instead of 25 minutes, you should be fine with about 10-12 minutes- check to make sure they are ready).
- Muffin overflow? I recently learned to spray non-stick spray (I always use canola oil spray) on the TOP of the muffin pan (in addition to in the cups or liners) so that the muffin tops that chose to overflow from the muffin cavity while baking could be removed without breaking off. It was a real muffin breakthrough moment for me.
- Freeze-friendly- yep, just wrap them in an airtight container or ziploc and you’re set- you have muffins to grab and go for 12 days!
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May 27th, 2012 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: Breads & Muffins, Coconut, Dairy-Free, Fruit, Nuts