01 June 2006

wash your hands before you read the book (or don't*)

Well, the curlyhairday explanation will just have to wait, since I have discovered a recipe for some wonderful muffins. I was craving Morning Glory Muffins and had searched high and low for a recipe...and then I remembered this fabulous cookbook my sister gave me for Christmas:



And the index (every non-fiction book...well, even some fiction books...should have one) had the very recipe I wanted (see page 642)! They're from the Morning Glory Cafe on Nantucket. Tasty goodness.

*****
Morning Glory Muffins

makes about 30 muffins

4 cups all-purpose flour (I used half whole wheat flour.)
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 tsp baking soda
4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp salt
12 carrots, peeled, coarsely grated (4 cups)
1 cup raisins
1 cup pecans, chopped (4 ounces)
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely grated
6 large eggs
2 cups vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Generously butter (or spray with nonstick spray) muffin cups.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in carrots, raisins, pecans, coconut, and apples. Whisk together eggs, oil, and vanilla in another bowl, then add to flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling them to the top. Bake muffins, in batches if necessary, until springy to the touch, about 30 minutes per batch. Cool in pans for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

These muffins keep, stored in an airtight container at room temperature, for up to 2 days. (Or freeze 'em. I mean, gracious, you have 30!)
*****

I halved the recipe with excellent results (if I do say so myself) and made 12 large muffins. If you're not a coconut person, I'm sure you could substitute with extra carrots.

On the back of The Gourmet Cookbook is a quote from Ruth Reichl, the editor, "Our goal was to give you a book with every recipe you would ever want." Well done, Ruth.

* "A book reads the better which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots, and dog's ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins." - Charles Lamb

Quotes. I love quotes. They should have been on the original list.

Happy baking!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

please pass these muffins
pour me some tea and
read some poetry:

Three Guests

I had a little tea-party,
This afternoon at three;
'Twas very small,
Three guests in all,
Just I, myself, and me.

Myself ate up the muffins,
While I drank up the tea,
'Twas also I
Who ate the pie
And passed the cake to me.

(apologies to poet Jessica Nelson North: I switched sandwiches to muffins)