MG muffins

What's not to like about carrots, pineapple, coconut, walnuts, and raisins? These muffins are like a carrot cake we make, minus the raisins. They are full of fruit and nuts and are healthy and delicious. These muffins are great to grab and take on the way out the door in the morning, hence why they are called Morning Glory muffins. You can find a number of recipes for Morning Glory muffins. This is a recipe we also offer as Gluten-free. Either way, this is one muffin that will start your day off in the right direction.

The best taste for these muffins is to make sure you grate the carrots using a large holed grater. We use our microplane tool for grating the carrots. A large box grater works also but I am always leery of grating more than just the carrots when I use it. One of these days I'll get another grater attachment for my processor but until then, the microplane it is. By using a larger grate, the carrots keep their texture and therefore the muffin isn't like a fine cake.  Another tip when making these muffins is to drain and pat dry the pineapple so there isn't excess juice. If there is excessive juice, the muffins can be somewhat gummy. When we make our Tropical Carrot Cake, we don't pat dry the pineapple so the carrot comes out very moist.

Enjoy this morning muffin recipe. Tomorrow, I'm going to try a Blue Cheese Walnut dinner recipe.

Ingredients: 1.5c flour, .75 c whole wheat flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon*, .5 tsp sea salt, 1.25 c sugar, 3 eggs, .5 c butter (melted), 1 tsp pure vanilla, 2 c shredded carrots, 8oz. can crushed pineapple, 2/3 c shredded coconut*, .5 c raisins, .5 c chopped walnuts

Instructions: (1) Preheat to 375 and prepare a 12-c or a 6-c muffin pan with liners or with cooking spray. (2) Whisk flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon and sea salt in a large bowl. (3) In a medium bowl, whisk sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla until well blended. (4) Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just blended. Fold in carrots, pineapple, coconut, raisins, and walnuts. (5) Divide batter evenly amongst muffin cups and bake for 25-30 minutes or until tops are golden brown and toothpick comes out with a few crumbs attached. Cool in pan for a few minutes then on a wire rack.

*I use a heaping teaspoon of cinnamon because I can't get enough cinnamon.
*Sweetened flaked coconut can work but I've found that unsweetened coconut is better. We get some of our nut products and dried fruit products from Nuts Online. This company is a family-run company that has been in business since 1929 in Newark, NJ. They sell over 250 organic products and I absolutely love their coconut.