Morning Glory Hallelujah...Muffins! (Recipe below)

As much as I love to bake, I'm finding it strange that this is the first recipe I'm posting a recipe...but hey, there's a first time for everything! I know muffin recipes don't typically have a "Hallelujah!" at the end, but as good as these were, I felt they merited that.

I first had this deeelish creation at one of my favorite coffee shops, Sames & Cook, located just down the road in the heart of Mt. Gilead. This charming, beautifully preserved vintage cafe was my after school oasis in the spring as I blocked "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe". The carb and pastry loving side of myself would always scream "GET A PASTRY!!!" as I gazed longingly into the clear case on the counter, but I managed to obstain (probably when I still thought the illusions of a bikini body were possible for this summer).

Until last week.

As I watched my friend pay for a couple of saliva-inducing baked goods, I knew I was done. I had to get this muffin that was staring at me with its beady little raisiny eyes...I just had to. Even it's name, "Morning Glory", implied that it was a true delight, and it WAS. I could taste the different spices, like cinnamon and allspice, and I loved the chunks of walnuts and slivers of carrots sprinkled throughout the muffin. The MG's (Morning Glory, obviously) also had coconut flakes in them, but I couldn't even taste them, which was another plus for me. I took half of it home, intending to share it with my carb lovin' man but as soon as I put it in the fridge, I promptly took it back out and ate the rest. Oops, my bad...sorry babe.

I knew I HAD to figure out how to make these myself, because then both Ben and I could have our own muffins, no sharing required! I thought they were a recipe that was original to the coffee shop, but when I googled  them I was super excited to see that there were about 874,904839 Morning Glory  Muffin recipes! And bonus- they're HEALTHY. Many of the recipes sounded similar, but I was looking for a recipe that included carrot, coconut, and walnuts. I found two out of the three ingredients in this recipe from Eatingwell.com. Full of good things like whole wheat flour, coconut oil, fresh carrots and raisins, it would be a perfect breakfast...paired with a hot cup o' joe, of course! Best of all was that my Texan gave them a HUGE thumbs up!

All of these things are great for your body!

Coconut oil...good for SO many things.

Molasses and honey, honey!

Chopping/Grating apples=not hard.

Grating carrots=HORRIBLE. Why is this the worst thing ever??

Put it all together and what do you get?

A puppy! Oops, I meant to say...

Muffins, glorious muffins!

Mmm....

Chunky and healthy, yet NOT dense!

Mr. Ben gives it two thumbs up! Warm carbs are the way to this man's heart.

(I adapted the recipe just a smidge, so I've written it out below with the changes I made. I doubled the original recipe in order to make enough to put in my large muffin tin, which yielded 12 large muffins).

Morning Glory Muffins
2 cups whole-wheat or white whole-wheat flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats, plus 4 tablespoons for garnish
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
4 large eggs
2 cups unsweetened applesauce
2/3 cup honey
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted if necessary (see Tip)
2 cups shredded carrots
2 cups shredded or chopped apples
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, plus 4 tablespoons for garnish
1 cup walnuts (optional)
1 cup raisins (or dried cranberries, dates...whatever dried fruit suits your fancy)

1).  Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray
2). Whisk whole-wheat flour, 1/2 cup oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and allspice in a medium bowl.
3). Whisk eggs, applesauce, honey and vanilla in a large bowl. Whisk in coconut oil. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until moistened. Fold in carrots, apples, 1 cup coconut, walnuts, and raisins.
4). Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons each oats and coconut.
5).Bake the muffins until they spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes (mine only took 25 minutes!). Let stand in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.


Happy muffin-ing!

D.