Gingerbread Morning Glory Muffins
Perfect for breakfast, brunch and snacking, these delicious, healthy muffins with lots of gingerbread flavor are always a crowd pleaser.
Servings: 16 muffins
Calories:
Ingredients
For the gingerbread spice mix:
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¾ teaspoons ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon cloves
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
For the topping:
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons gingerbread spice
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons melted butter
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ⅛ 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
- ⅔ 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 ¾ 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
* When I freeze any type of baked goods, I place them in the freezer on a pan, unwrapped. As soon as they are frozen, I place them in a zippered plastic bag or a storage container. That way, they don't get crushed or stuck to each other as they are freezing.