Ultimate Morning Glory Muffins

On most Sunday mornings, whether I’m completely competent or exceedingly incapable, I go to the coffee shop under my apartment. I usually pop in for a drink to go, but sometimes I’ll stay — write a blog post, read a book, or even just people-watch. And almost 100 percent of the time I enter the coffee shop, I get one of their Morning Glory muffins.

I’d never had a Morning Glory muffin before Rex, so I had no idea they were a “thing.” According to legend, Pam McKinstry created the original recipe in 1978, and then published it in Gourmet in 1981. It was voted one of Gourmet’s favorite recipes 10 years later, so yet another instance of me being very very late to the trendy party.

In addition to its whole-grain wholesomeness, the muffins include some combination of apples, crushed pineapple, carrots, raisins, walnuts, pecans (all from the original recipe), dates (from the Rex recipe), bananas and yogurt (from the Cooking Light version I used). I ultimately picked and chose what sounded good to me: carrots, crushed pineapple, bananas, yogurt, walnuts, dates, and yes, raisins, which I usually abhor but somehow make so much sense here.

Since these are breakfast muffins, I tried to keep them low on fat and sugar. The original Morning Glory recipe relies on over a cup of sugar and a cup of oil, but Cooking Light’s version cut down to 1/2 cup of sugar and replaced the oil entirely — the mashed banana and yogurt act in place of it. I cut down the sugar even further, adding dates to boost the muffins’ sweetness in a more natural way.

Still, these aren’t overly sweet. In fact, with the fiber boost of whole oats and flax seeds, the protein from the Greek yogurt and all of the fruit involved, these are a pretty balanced breakfast, something I feel good about eating on weekdays as well as weekends. Though of course I’ll still be at Rex on Sunday mornings — they’ve got a new bacon-egg-and-cheese-with-avocado-on-brioche-straight-from-heaven breakfast sandwich that I need to try out … for “blog research” purposes obvi. 

Ultimate Morning Glory Muffins
Adapted from Cooking Light
Makes 12-16 muffins

– 2/3 cup whole wheat flour

– 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

– 2/3 cup regular oats

– 1/3 cup packed brown sugar

– 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

– 1/4 teaspoon salt

– 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

– 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

– 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

– 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds

– 2/3 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt

– 2 small overripe bananas, mashed

– 1 large egg

– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

– 1/3 cup chopped pitted dates

– 1/3 cup raisins

– 1/3 cup canned crushed pineapple, drained and rinsed

– 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

– 1 medium carrot, grated (1/3 cup, very packed)

1) Preheat the oven to 350F. Place paper liners in each well of a 12-cup muffin tin (or grease each well with butter).

2) In a large bowl, mix together the two flours, oats, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and flax seeds.

3) In a separate bowl, stir the mashed banana, yogurt, egg and vanilla extract together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, then pour the wet ingredients together and stir until just combined.

4) Fold in the dates, raisins, pineapple, walnuts and carrot until just mixed. Fill each muffin well 3/4 of the way, reserving extra batter for a second batch.

5) Bake for 20 minutes, rotating the muffin tin halfway. After cooling for 10 minutes, remove the muffins from the pan and set on a wire rack to cool completely. Re-line the muffin tin and bake additional batter.