Day 36
Morning Glory Muffins
Adapted from a recipe by King Arthur Flour
I was, as you may be, dubious about the pedigree of a King named Arthur Flour, until I remembered Sir Francis Bacon, and suddenly His Highness seems not just plausible, but inevitable.
The habitat-mate has made quite a number of adaptations to the recipe, some out of necessity, some out of pure inspiration. The most important substitution is the replacement of raisins with chopped dates, for a hint of sticky toffee pudding. (His Glutinousity's own recipe offers an option to sub out the raisins for something called "Jammy Bits," which, yes, I understand it's typical for royalty to suffer from unique infirmities, but let it be said I want nothing to do with King Arthur Flour's Jammy Bits.) Others substitutions include all-purpose flour in place of half the original whole wheat flour, almonds instead of the indisputably inferior walnuts, almond extract in place of vanilla, and Cripps Pink Lady apples in place of Granny Smith, since ours is a home of apple snobs.
Ingredients
2/3 cup dates, preferably old, dry, and previously forgotten, seeded and chopped
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 cups peeled and shredded carrots (you'll need 4-5 large carrots)
1 large tart apple, such as Granny Smith, if your heart is petrified, or Pink Lady, if you're bold and true, peeled, cored and shredded
1/2 cup shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened
2/3 cup chopped almonds
Butter for greasing muffin tins, and for spreading all over the delicious muffins
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with real butter like Elsie intended.
In a small bowl, cover the chopped dates with hot water. Set them aside to soak.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.
Drain the dates, squeezing out any excess water with your hands.
In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, orange juice, and almond extract. Add to the flour mixture, along with the drained dates, carrots, apple, coconut, and almonds. Mix until the batter is evenly moistened and combined.
Divide the batter among the wells of the prepared pan. They will be very full.
Race to line a couple of ramekins with cupcake paper, for the inevitable extra batter that definitely isn't going to fit in 12 muffin tins.
Bake the muffins for about 25 minutes, until they're nicely domed and a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the inner muffins comes out clean.
Remove the muffins from the oven and let cool in the pan on a rack for about 5 minutes. Coax the muffins out onto the rack by means of stirring songs and/or persuasion with a butter knife. Yes, they would have come out more easily if you'd used Crisco to grease the tins, but honestly.
Attempt to let cool. Fail. Attack while still warm.
Cover and store at room temperature until no later than evening on the day you made them.
