Morning Glory Muffins

These Morning Glory Muffins are both nourishing and delicious. 

Final exam time is fast approaching, and we need to be ready to support our people. Whether that is having provisions on hand at home for students or teachers living with you, or shipping a box of treats to college kids, or having sustenance for yourself to take you through the PTSD of exam days, we have just the thing.

Samantha Seneviratne’s Morning Glory Muffins, found on NYT Cooking, are both nourishing and tempting. Carrots, apples, nuts, and whole wheat flour make an energy-fueling muffin with some nutritional value, and cinnamon, raisins, and coconut make it delicious. I had a group of girls visiting for the weekend, and these muffins got breakfast and snacktime raves.

These Morning Glory Muffins are now a favorite at our house (thank you Samantha Seneviratne), and thus, we have learned a couple of tricks to improve an already wonderful recipe.

Tip number one: Grating apples and carrots is not fun. But doing it with the grater in a food processor takes all of five minutes. I doubled the carrots and apples, grated them, and sealed half in a freezer bag to keep frozen so that the next time we want Morning Glory Muffins all we need to do is defrost the grated veggie-fruit mix and drop it in the batter.

Tip number two: In the reader notes (read January’s “The Notes Section: A little spicy” here for a laugh), someone suggested plumping raisins in warm milk. This way, the raisins are pudgy, and the milk takes on their sweetness…meaning we can use less sugar in the recipe.

Morning Glory Muffins

¾ cup whole milk
¾ cup raisins
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup whole wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
¾ cup shredded carrot (from 2 medium carrots)
½ cup shredded apple (from 1 medium apple)
½ cup shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted
¾ cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted
½ cup melted coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

Warm the milk in the microwave or on the stove. Remove from the heat, add the raisins, and let sit at room temperature for 20 or 30 minutes. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar and eggs until smooth. Whisk in the milk and raisins carefully, so as not to break up the raisins, then stir in the carrot, apple, coconut, walnuts, and coconut oil.

Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cups. Bake until puffed and set and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer the muffins, in the tin, to a rack to cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the muffins from the tin and let cool completely on the rack. Once cool, store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 1 month.