Saturday, August 29, 2009

Morning Glory Muffins 1.0.



When I formerly ate wheat, I used to have carrot "Morning Glory" muffins at camp in the mornings when they were available. The muffins were quite good, but they were very oily and not very healthy. When I discovered I needed to be gluten free, I eventually got around to finding a new recipe for them.

I believe that I originally found this recipe online at Whole Foods. I have adapted it a little to my taste and to make it more healthy. I cannot say more of these muffins! They are moist, not overly fluffly or heavy, and have lots of yummy ingredients in them. The photo does not do them justice! It was taken maybe a year ago on my older camera, which never turned out good photos. Also, ignore the poor photo shown in the linked recipe, it's not a good representation of how they actually turn out! The photo makes them appear very dry, but they are not!

Morning Glory Muffins 1.0.
    adapted from Whole Foods Market recipes 
    makes about 18 muffins

    3  happy eggs
    1/2 cup  organic cane sugar  (or 1/2 cup maple syrup and reduce flour by 3 tablespoons)
    1/4 cup  brown sugar
    2/3 cup  organic coconut oil - source
    1 tsp  vanilla extract
    1 cup  brown rice flour
    1/2 cup  tapioca starch
    1/2 cup  potato starch
    2 tsp each:
        baking soda
        cinnamon
        xanthan gum
    1/2 tsp  unrefined sea salt

Mix ins:
    1 tart red apple, unpeeled cored and finely diced
    1 cup  grated carrot
    1 cup  grated zucchini
    1/2 cup  organic raisins
    1/2 cup  chopped walnuts
    1/4 cup  coconut flakes

To make your muffins:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Combine the wet ingredients in a large bowl, whisking by hand to incorporate air into the mixture about 1 minute.
  3. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add to the wet ingredients gradually.
  4. Add the mix-ins last, gently folding with a spatula till combined.
  5. Scoop into paper lined regular sized muffin tins.
  6. Bake for about 20-30 minutes, until slightly golden brown on top; Cool, eat, enjoy.

My mom is especially crazy about these muffins! I love these muffins too, but I do not really love that they use so much white flour. I will experiment and make them with better gluten free flours like teff, or sorghum, flours that aren't as starchy and "empty" calorically. (Now that my diet has improved over the years, I have learned that grains are not the best thing for our bodies. Coming soon I will redo the recipe with more healthful flours, like coconut and almond.)

These muffins freeze well for a few months, but past six months is pushing it for ANY gluten-free baked good and so I do not recommend it. Also, be sure to store your gluten-free frozen goods in a freezer that does not have defrost cycle. The defrost cycle will damage the product over time, and it will not keep as long. Of course, if you have family or lots of friends that love muffins, they will be gone in flash and you won't have to worry about freezing them!

1 comment:

Jennifer Rose Cox said...

I made these last yesterday and they turned out wonderfully!
I forgot the tapioca starch and thought to use 1/4 cup more of arrowroot and 1/4 cup more of brown rice flour. But then the batter was too thick so I added a tablespoon of canola oil (I ran out of coconut oil). Then about a cup of almond milk to thin it out too.
After making it I think next time I'll do a rough chop on the zucchini, carrot, and apple instead of shredding them. I think they'll look prettier!
I'd love to see how you would change the flour around in them to make it less white flour. I love reading your recipes! Thank you for the yummy muffins!