make it yourself: morning glory muffins

I've been interested in getting back into baking more regularly. I used to bake constantly, but as I've tried to stay away from excess sugar, it's become harder to justify making cake after cupcake after cookie. So I've turned to our King Arthur Whole Grain Baking book for some healthier alternatives. 

This weekend I tried morning glory muffins - made from whole wheat flour and a melange of other healthy ingredients. More than I've ever tried to pack in a muffin before, certainly!

The dry ingredients are just whole wheat flour and some brown sugar, plus the usual leaveners and salt, and ginger and cinnamon for spice.

The most time consuming part of this - even more than the baking itself - was grating 2 cups worth of carrots and a cup of apple (I used braeburns from our CSA). The chickens were pretty happy with the carrot shavings and apple peels!

Added to the carrots and apples (plus some raisins which were soaking in hot water, but were gross looking from the murky water and thus not really picture-worthy), were walnuts, coconut and sunflower seeds.

Wet ingredients were canola oil, orange juice, vanilla and eggs. No butter, which helps keep the calories and fat down, too.

The batter was quite thick and chunky. It definitely wasn't an airy muffin, since it was hand mixed and less air was worked into the batter.

The cookbook said this made 12 muffins, but I'm thinking they meant the large muffins, because it made 24 standard size, coming in around 176 calories each, with a lot of fiber, protein and fruits and veggies. 

These are great breakfast muffins, because they are hearty enough to keep you full for longer than a typical sugar packed muffin would. And probably would make good snack muffins as well, since they aren't going to give you a sugar rush in the afternoon.

If you're interested in baking with flours other than regular refined all-purpose flour, definitely check out this book. Every recipe I've made in this cookbook has tasted good, and it helps you remember that whole wheat doesn't have to taste like cardboard! I plan on trying out some whole wheat honey biscuits next - they are calling me!


I wasn't paid or perked by King Arthur Flour to say good things about their cookbook. They have no idea who I am. And the link for the cookbook was for your convenience, not an Amazon affiliate link. Full disclosure.