Morning Glory Muffins La's Way

Super moist and flavorful, La's Morning Glory Muffins
go great with a pat of butter and cream cheese
fresh fruit and a cup of coffee or tea

     Some days, I just don’t feel like putting forth the effort needed to make a full on breakfast. On those lazy mornings, I love to have a fresh baked item like muffins, banana bread or coffee cake readily available that I can enjoy with a cup of hot coffee or tea, piece of fruit and maybe yogurt. The muffins are also great for on-the go.
     Years ago, I was introduced to Morning Glory Muffins at a local cafe. They were full of nuts, spices, grated carrot, shredded coconut, pineapple and apple bits. It was like carrot cake but more breakfast than dessert. The cafe would be my first stop before strolling to Starbucks or Dunkin for my favorite cup of coffee/tea. But after months of getting my Morning Glory fix, they stopped appearing on the menu. Bummer. And to my dismay, I have spent years searching out those elusive Morning Glory Muffins. They just are not on many cafe/bakery/coffee shop menus.
     And when you do find them, you almost want to ask for an ingredient breakdown because there are many variations on the theme _some don’t use brown sugar, or ginger, or pineapple, or nuts. Or they add bananas which sometimes overpower the other ingredients, resulting in a gussied up banana nut muffin.
     Don’t get me wrong. I love a good banana bread/muffin. In fact, they are so easy to whip up and bananas are available year round, making them my go-to muffin/quick bread. But they are very different from Morning Glories. And I’ve been yearning for a good old Morning Glory. So I made some…
     For this batch, basically I followed Glorious Treats’ recipe http://www.glorioustreats.com/2013/09/morning-glory-muffins.html. I halved her recipe and made a few tweaks as seen below.

Morning Glory Muffins La’s Way

Yield: 10-12 standard sized muffins

Ingredients:

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 ¼ cup all purpose flour

1/2 Tbsp cinnamon (I like cinnamon, adjust to your liking)

¼ tsp ginger

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp clove

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

¼ - ½  cup shredded, sweetened coconut

¼ - ½  cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts

2 eggs

¼ + 1/8 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 apple, peeled and grated*
1 cup grated carrots (shredding your own tastes best)

1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray muffin tin with baking spray before lining with paper liners.**

In a bowl, whisk together the sugars, flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Add the coconut and nuts, and stir to combine.

In a separate (large) bowl, lightly whisk eggs.

Add oil and vanilla. STIR
Add grated apple, carrots and crushed pineapple. Mix until combined.

Fold in dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in thirds until fully incorporated. DO NOT OVERMIX!

Fill muffin cups***. Using an ice cream scoop made it easier.

Let muffins rest for 10 or so minutes before baking.

Bake 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

*I will dice apple instead of grate and might use pineapple tidbits instead of crushed pineapple next batch
**Beware: I used cutesy spring themed cupcake liners but they came out very greasy due to spraying pan before baking. So much so I didn't even focus on liners for pic.
*** Muffins vary in size because I varied the amount in each cup _smaller muffins are 2/3rds full whereas larger muffin was filled to top

Luv,  La