Morning Glory Muffins

A friend of mine shared a recipe for a delicious morning glory loaf on Facebook last week. And immediately, I just had to make them. I’m being serious. I put the computer down and started getting out all my baking pans to find the muffin tin. But, I set out to change a few things with this recipe. First, I was out of eggs and typically bake things vegan out of habit. And I wanted to include less oil. And no refined sugar.

So, I modified and mixed and even tossed in some freshly squeezed clementine juice for natural sweetness. What resulted from these efforts is a truly amazing breakfast muffin that’s also gluten-free, vegan, and full of fruits and veggies.

Ada ate half the batch herself.

MORNING GLORY MUFFINS

Adapted from this awesome recipe on Imagine Childhood.

What you’ll need . . . 

• 1 cup GF rolled oats processed into flour
• 1/2 cup GF rolled oats, whole
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons flax meal + 6 tablespoons hot water (2 flax “eggs")
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 orange (or 1 full clementine) -- just the juice
• And also the zest, if you like it!
• 2 large carrots, shredded (around 1 cup)
• 1 large apple, shredded (around 1 cup)
• 1/3 cup walnuts, pulsed to crumble

Method . . . 

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a muffin tin with Earth Balance or coconut oil.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the oat flour, oats, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In a smaller bowl, combined the maple syrup, olive oil, flax eggs, vanilla, orange juice, then pour this mixture into the dry ingredients.
4. Add the carrots, apples, and walnuts, and mix until well incorporated.
5. Then divide evenly among your pan -- 12 muffins in all -- and bake for 20-25 minutes. Until golden brown and set in the center.
6. Let cool on a rack for a few minutes before consuming. I am sure you can also freeze once they are totally cooled, but they didn’t last that long in our house!

You’re going to love these muffins. 

Just a note that the batter will definitely be shaggy, if that makes any sense. It might not seem like you have enough oat covering to go over all those shredded apples and carrots. I assure you, it will all bake up beautifully. And these are incredibly healthy if you consider they’re mostly just oatmeal baked into muffins.

Enjoy!

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Half Dozen Gluten-Free Chippers

After this success in gluten-free baking, I'm confident that many all of my small batch cookie recipes can all adapt. I actually had several trials before I decided to stop trying to use lots of ingredients + just keep it simple. That meant using simple pulsed oats in place of flour.

Many of you have expressed concern over the use of oats -- we use the Bob's Red Mill kind that are marked as gluten-free. So, please bake carefully if you have sensitivity.

So, add these to the list of my other half dozen recipes.

HALF DOZEN GF CHOCOLATE CHIPPERS 

What you'll need . . . 

• 1/4 cup Earth Balance
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1-1/4 cups GF oats, pulsed into flour
• 1 tablespoon flax meal
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch salt
• handful or two chocolate chips

Method . . . 

1. First you'll want to pulse your oats in a food processor (this is the one we have) until flour-like. Takes just a few minutes. Set aside.
2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet and set aside.
3. Cream together the Earth Balance and sugar using the paddle attachment on your mixer. Then add in the vanilla extract, flax meal, and water. Until fluffy.
4. Mix on low adding the oat flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips and let rest for just a couple minutes.
5. Then bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until edges are golden brown. Let cool completely before eating (they set nicely this way).

I suppose I don't need to make a big fuss about these being GF -- really they're just tasty oatmeal cookies made entirely of oats. The texture is wonderful, too. Moist (I hate that word, but that's what they are), but crisp. They'll be a new regular in my rotation whether or not I continue my GF adventures.

Have you made your own flours at home?

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