Fun fact- Morning Glory Muffins get their name, not from any ingredients or hippie roots, but from the Morning Glory Inn, where the inn's proprietor served them to her guests.  The first editor in chief of Gourmet Magazine stayed there and liked them so much that he published the recipe in Gourmet. 



Does that fun fact make you enjoy these more?  Maybe or maybe not, but these dense, moist muffins are great for this time of year, when pumpkin spice everything is running rampant and there's a slight chill in the air. 



I had written earlier about Dorie Greenspan's version of these muffins, and, while I love Dorie Greenspan and most of her recipes absolutely hit the spot, I felt they were lacking when compared to my mom's recipe.  After about a year of asking for the recipe, I finally got it and now they're made.



These muffins are among the more involved because they require grated carrots and grated apple.  You can't just buy the shredded carrots in the store either.  They're too thick.  A food processor's grating disk comes in handy here, or you can use the good ol' handheld.  I used the food processor.  I'm not that dedicated.  The recipe comes together pretty much like any other muffin, so no need to explain there.  I'll post the recipe below as it is written and post my changes in the notes section.


**Oh, and hey, guess what?!  We have a "pin it" button- click on the blog post title to be taken to the individual post page.  The pin it button is at the bottom of the page!

Morning Glory Muffins
from the Willow Creek Lutheran Church Cookbook, Dell Rapids, SD

1/2 cup raisins
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 large tart apple, peeled and grated
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup coconut
2 cups grated carrots
3 eggs
2/3 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla

Soak raisins in hot water for 15-20 minutes.  Drain the water off.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease or line two- 12 cup muffin tins.  In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, and cinnamon.  Stir in drained raisins, apple, walnuts, coconut, and carrots.  Beat together eggs, oil, and vanilla.  Stir in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Fill muffin cups and bake 18-20 minutes.  Makes 24 muffins. 

Notes

• I used slightly less sugar (maybe 7/8 cup)
• I cut the cinnamon in half but in hindsight it'd be fine to add the full amt or even sub in pumpkin or apple pie spice
• I omitted coconut entirely
• I slighly reduced the oil (between 1/2 and 2/3 cup)
• I filled the muffin cups about 3/4 full and got about 18 muffins.