Veggie Filled Morning Glory Muffins
It was around last autumn I made Morning Glory Muffins - and a YouTube Short video to go with them! I usually only make muffins like these once a year, because they can be time consuming. I'm not a fan of standing over a grater for 30 minutes - but hang on - a food processor does the same trick in a fraction of the time. Not only can I shred carrots and zucchini but also grind oats into flour.
Applesauce also is a major player in these muffins, adding flavor and a unique texture to the batter. Whichever applesauce you choose to use, store-bought or homemade, it's best for it to be all-natural without any added sugar. If you have extra time, or apples, on your hands - homemade applesauce is a surefire treat. You can flavor it with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice - or brown sugar. A little bit of sweetness can go a LONG way. For my version of homemade applesauce, check out the video linked below.
Mixing the ingredients is done in two parts - wet and dry - to see they're evenly incorporated and not overmixed. I've read in several versions of this recipe calling for a combination of oat flour and all purpose flour say that you don't want to overmix the batter; my rational thought would be that the batter becomes glutenous or the muffins when baked could come out too chewy. I found that by only using oat flour, this doesn't happen. This could also be coincidence, or oat flour is better? (This is a mystery for another day.)
Another piece I've played around with the last few weeks is the portion size. The Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins from my previous post were coming out of the oven looking like strange little discs. Not chewy or tough, but shaped oddly. The first time I made these Morning Glory Muffins, the same thing happened, prompting me to play around with proportions and ratios of ingredients. I found that for my muffin trays, a Black and Decker brand and a Food Network brand, the ratios listed in the ingredient list below worked for me. It's said time and time and time and time again that "Baking is an Exact Science". And I certainly know that. If I were to make Mary Berry's Cherry Cake - I would definitely be dusting off my food scale and counting each cherry before sliding the bunt pan into the oven. Except there are some baking recipes that don't always come down to "An Exact Science". Here's what I believe:
Morning Glory Muffins include ingredients that can be subjective. Zucchini: it is not guaranteed you will snatch two "medium" zucchini's off the produce shelf, nor will you be able to pluck them from your garden. Carrots are the same! No two vegetable or size of vegetable is alike - just like people. So while you can level off "4 cups oat flour" or "1 teaspoon cinnamon", vegetables can be measured once shredded and drained, but I prefer to plan my dry ingredients around the wet ingredients for these muffins. Not to mention - the size of my particular muffin trays I mentioned before, in addition to depending on if you want muffins that are more dense or soft and moist, you could do the same! But this is how I make mine:
Morning Glory Muffins
Wet Ingredients:
2 medium zucchini, about 1 cup total shredded and squeezed
2 medium carrots, about 1/2 cup total shredded
3/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1 cup oil, vegetable or coconut oil
Dry Ingredients:
4 cups oat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup shredded coconut (optional)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
Other Tools:
food processor with grinding blade, and grating / shredding blade
paper towel
2 large mixing bowls
1 large mixing spoon
1 cookie or muffin scoop; a large dinner spoon will also work
2 muffin trays
Crisco or canola spray
toothpick(s)
butter knife or frosting spreader
airtight container, Tupperware or take-out container
Process:
Measure out 4 cups of oatmeal. Using the grinding blades on a food processor, blend 1-2 cups of oats at a time depending on the size of your processor. With chunkier flour, the texture of your muffins might be bigger or puffier, and smoother flour could yield a more cohesive muffin. Blend the oats to desired flour type. Set aside the flour in a large mixing bowl for all dry ingredients.
Gather and measure out the baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix in with the flour to combine.
Using a kitchen knife and cutting board, cut the zucchini and carrots into sizable pieces to fit into your food processor. Replace the grinding blades for the food processor with the grating or shredding blade. First grate the carrots, and set aside in a second mixing bowl for wet ingredients. Grate the zucchini one at a time, dumping and squeezing into paper towel to drain off excess liquid. Once squeezed, add to the wet ingredient bowl with the carrots. Finish shredding, squeezing the rest of the zucchini and add it to the wet ingredients bowl.
Gather and measure out the remaining wet ingredients of applesauce, maple syrup, eggs, and oil. Mix in with the carrots and zucchini to combine.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176 degrees Celsius). Grease the 2 muffin trays with either Crisco or canola spray.
Add half of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients bowl, giving one to two stirs with the large mixing spoon, then dump the rest in. Stir all of the ingredients together until combined.
Gather and measure the shredded coconut, walnuts, and raisins if adding.
Using the cookie scoop, or large dinner spoon, scoop out heaping portions of the batter and put into the muffin cup tray. Fill the muffin up just over the top for big muffins. Depending on the size of muffin cups on your tray, the batter might make 18 large muffins.
Bake for 27 minutes, and check for doneness. Poke one of the muffins with a toothpick, it should come out clean. If the toothpick doesn't come out clean, bake for another 5 minutes, for a total of 32 minutes. After the 5 minutes are up, check with another toothpick. At this point, the toothpick should come out clean.
Let the muffins cool in the tin until you can touch them. They should come out clean from the tin. If they are tough to get out, slide the butter knife or frosting spreader around the outter edge of the muffin, and take the muffin out.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge up to 5 days.














