I bought coconut sugar for my Paleo Chocolate Chunk Cookies and had some left. Since I wasn’t familiar at all with coconut sugar, I started googling recipes with coconut sugar. Turns out, you can use it pretty much any place you’d use brown sugar. I decided to make these morning glory muffins – substituting coconut sugar for the brown sugar – and they turned out great. I love morning glory muffins. They’re basically like (loaded) carrot cake in muffin form – carrots, apple, coconut, walnuts, and raisins! A nice hardy muffin that’s perfect for breakfast, a snack, or even a light dessert! Of course, if you don’t have coconut sugar you could use brown sugar instead. Enjoy!
Whole Wheat Morning Glory Muffins
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar (or brown sugar)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups finely grated carrots
1 large tart apple cored and finely grated
1/2 cup toasted coconut, unsweetened (I used flakes but shredded would work too)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 12 muffin cups with nonstick spray. Place raisins in small bowl and cover with very hot water. Set aside for 5-10 minutes.
2. In large bowl, whisk together flour, coconut sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt until combined. Stir in grated carrots, apple, and coconut. Drain raisins and add to flour mixture.
3. In small bowl or measuring cup, stir together eggs, oil, vanilla, milk, and applesauce until smooth. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until combined – do not overmix!
4. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Top with chopped walnuts. Bake in preheated oven for 22 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs. Remove to wire rack to cool completely. Makes 12 large muffins.
Notes:
1. You can use regular raisins if you prefer.
2. Instead of sprinkling the walnuts on top, you can stir them in with the flour mixture in step #2.
3. I shredded both the apple and carrot by hand. I prefer this to a food processor because it gives you a finer shred.
