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Do you ever have crazy dreams?
I sure do, and recently, they've been particularly strange. It seems that, when I finally fall asleep these busy days, it doesn't take long at all before I'm into all sorts of wild dreams, and my nights are as active as my days!
One particularly unusual dream occurred just as my alarm was going off yesterday. I really wasn't ready to get up, and felt like morning had come way too soon. I sleepily hit the doze button on my phone and was instantly back in lala land. Precisely nine minutes later, the bell alarm went off again, and I repeated the scenario. As the third set of chimes began to ring, a voice in my dreams said the craziest thing. In a frustrated tone of voice, I heard someone say, "We've already lit three red candles for her!"
What in the world? I jumped out of bed, laughing to myself, but at the same time, not wanting to know what would happen if "they" had to "light another red candle" for me! What a funny way to start the day!
To be honest, I'd much rather start the day with one of these delicious Gingerbread Morning Glory Muffins. While I love almost every kind of muffin, I know that most are not very healthy and probably not a great way to begin a day. Actually, it would be pretty similar to eating a piece of cake for breakfast, minus the icing! Morning Glory Muffins, on the other hand are loaded with great ingredients; whole wheat flour, lots of shredded carrots, raisins, coconut, diced apple and fresh orange juice. There's also eggs, oil and brown sugar.
I adapted the traditional Morning Glory recipe to make a fun seasonal muffin, adding cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves and nutmeg along with a splash of molasses for a classic gingerbread flavor. And for just a bit of a splurge, (it is the holiday season after all), I made a simple brown sugar, oatmeal crumble which takes these wonderful muffins right over the top, and makes them a perfect treat for a holiday breakfast or brunch.
Throw together a batch of these Gingerbread Morning Glory Muffins to have on hand for holiday get-togethers. They freeze wonderfully, so you can make them well in advance. They're perfect for gift-giving; who wouldn't love a stash of healthy delicious muffins for a little surprise treat? If you have a batch or two tucked away in the freezer, it's easy to pull out a half dozen, arrange them on a pretty plate and dress it all up with cellophane wrap and a pretty bow.
I just warmed a muffin for myself and one for Scott. I told him that I thought I probably needed to eat one in order to properly finish this post. He thought he needed one too (as my editor), in order to properly encourage me as I wrote the post. "Delicious!" is what we both exclaimed.
Oh, and knowing there's a bunch of these in the freezer will be sure to entice me to get up with the first alarm for the next week or so. No more "red candles" for this girl! No way!
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Gingerbread Morning Glory Muffins
Ingredients
For the gingerbread spice mix:
- Âľ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Âľ teaspoon ground allspice
- Âľ teaspoons ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon cloves
- ÂĽ teaspoon nutmeg
For the topping:
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons gingerbread spice
- â…› teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons melted butter
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- â…› teaspoon kosher salt
For the muffins:
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, you can also use White Whole Wheat flour if you can't find the whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons gingerbread spice
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup shredded coconut, packed
- ½ cup raisins
- 1 medium red apple, cored and diced into small dice
- 2 cups shredded carrot, You can either shred your own or pick up a bag of the pre-shredded carrots at the grocery store.
- 3 large eggs
- â…” cup vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoon orange juice
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
For the prep:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 16 muffin cups* or line them with papers.
For the gingerbread spice mix:
- Combine all spices and mix well. Set aside.
For the topping:
- Combine all topping ingredients, except the pecans, in a medium-size bowl. Add the melted butter and stir with a fork until crumbly. Add pecans and stir again. Place topping in the refrigerator until ready to add to muffins.
For the muffins:
- In a large bowl (I'm talking really big), combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, remaining gingerbread spices and salt. Stir well.
- Add the carrots and coconut, apples and raisins. Stir well and the run your hands through the mixture, breaking up any small clumps of brown sugar, coconut or raisins that remain.
- In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, orange juice, molasses and vanilla. Stir till smooth.
- Add egg mixture to the flour mixture, and stir until evenly moistened (mixture will be quite thick).
- Divide the batter among the wells of the prepared pans, filling about Âľ full.
- Divide the topping mixture evening among the muffins, about one rounded tablespoon per muffin.
To bake:
- Bake the muffins for 22 to 26 minutes, until they're nicely domed and a cake tester inserted in the center of one of the inner muffins comes out clean. I like to check them at about 15 minutes, and if they seem to be getting quite brown, I cover them with some foil for the last minutes of baking.
- Remove from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes in their pan on a rack, then turn out of pans to finish cooling. Wrap any leftovers in plastic wrap or a zippered storage bag, and store at room temperature for several days; freeze* for longer storage.
- Yield: 16 muffins.
Notes
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I know it's the wrong season, but I just want to taste one of these spicy beauties so much. But I'm confused (again) and really need your help with 2 questions.
1) Your spice mixture yields 6 tsp. (2 tablespoons) of spice. So far so good. The directions call for using 1 teaspoon of that blend in the topping. Does that mean I'll add the remaining 5 teaspoons to the batter? (The amount is not specified in the list of ingredients.) (I'm ready and willing; I just don't want to make a mistake, and that seems like a lot of spice.)
2) I seem to have inherited a sealed little bag of "mace". Can I / should I add some of that to the spice blend? Or can you suggest where else I might use whatever that is?
Thanks for the help and the recipe, you good Café Sucre Farine people!
Hi John, sorry for the confusion. I have re-looked at the recipe and have adjusted things. I think originally, back in 2015, when I created this recipe, I thought it might be nice to have extra gingerbread spice. But I have cut back on the amounts of spices so it's the perfect amount for this recipe in itself. So, the topping calls for 1 teaspoon of the spice mixture and the batter calls for 2 teaspoons. Hope you enjoy the muffins!
Thanks Chris. I assumed since I hadn't heard that the remaining 5 teaspoons of spice was the correct amount. So that's what we put in there. Both grandlings loved them, and grandling the younger said hers tasted just like Christmas - and then asked for another one, but to grill this one and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on the melted butter! And Grumpy (their name for me, even though I'm not so very, I don't think) will very, very happily make those spicy muffins again and again, exactly the same way ! (Clearly the spice of life is ... *spice*!) Thanks, Chris!
These look great and I plan to make them soon, but I was wondering why they would take 9 hrs to cook (is that a typo?). From what I can see, they look like they'd take a bit over 30 minutes. Just wanted you to know, assuming it's wrong. I've made your regular morning glory muffins but these sound good with that bit of extra spice. Thanks
You are totally correct, Brenda. A few years ago, I switched recipe plugins and all of my times got messed up. I've slowly changed many of them but, with over 1500 recipes, it's a process.
These look fantastic, Chris! I love your recipes. Can these be made with regular whole wheat flour?
Hi Antoinette, yes, you can use regular WW flour for these muffins! Enjoy!
Oh my, these would be a delightful way to wake up on Christmas morning! Much better than lighting another red candle - LOL. I've had some crazy dreams lately too that seemed so real!
WOW! Made these tonight, and actually used some of the gingerbread spice in the muffin batter. I just inhaled one. Magnifique!!! Great job on creating the recipe, Chris!
I know what you mean about the season being busy and falling into bed exhausted. No wonder the red candles are burning for you - at least they weren't burning at both ends. One of these muffins might be healthy food with all that's in them but they sure look like a treat to me!
I've had many strange voices in my dreams as well... I remember clearly the day of my final project in college, I went to bed at 4 in the morning and had my alarm set to 3 hours later, so naturally I was unable to wake up when I heard these voices trying to wake me up!!! strange. Loved your muffins and I think one will not be enough for me.
Hi Chris, I do have some really strange dreams sometimes, most of the time I cannot remember muchof the details. Would love to wake up to these muffins though, they look fabulous!
Morning glory muffins are one of my favorites, too! I love you seasonal twist---they'd be such a yummy way to start the day!
This is a much better way to start the day! No I just need to organize my freezer to have room for a stash of these. Or, I could just leave them out and have one (or two) a day!
Love the name... so proper for all the wonderful flavors that deliver a great, wholesome breakfast. You make delicious food, Chris, all year round. Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year. I will be following you on Instagram as well. You images are so delightful!
This is a PERFECT muffin to start the Xmas morning :-)) Looks absolutely yum, Chris.
These sound like fabulous muffins! I have very weird dreams but never remember all of them, though they fascinate me. I think I'd top these with a red candle!
Chris, you are so funny. I am sure the fourth red candle would have been for declaring you Queen of the muffin kingdom. 🙂 I would welcome one of these anytime of the day.
Glorious muffins indeed, this would make a dream Christmas breakfast!
I love all your muffins, Chris, but this one combines two of my favorites --- there are so many good ingredients in this I think it would keep me powered all day 🙂
I love Morning Glory Muffins so I am sure these are delicious as well.
These sound perfect for Christmas morning - and so pretty too. I have been dreaming about muffins myself - and this may be the one to cure my craving. Gingerbread is a favorite! Love flash freezing everything!
I would gladly wake up early any morning for these muffins! Loving the addition of the gingerbread spices 🙂
Maybe I'll have to set one by my alarm clock Jennifer!
The do look DELICIOUS..The candles.n.ope never had that dream:)
Thanks Monique! Seriously, you don't want that dream! lol
Oh.My! Need to make these tonight!!!! Thanks Chris!