citrus: cranberry-lemon Morning Glory muffins

One of our favorite gifts is shipments of lemons and grapefruits from my aunt- and uncle-in-law (who live in Indio, California). These enormous citrus shipments bring a touch of brightness to our cold Boston winters. Even the lemons themselves are enormous. I brought a few to school once when I was on an infused-water kick. My students were so fascinated by them that they drew faces on them and gave them names (beginning with L, of course).

I saw this recipe for Morning Glory muffins on Sally’s Baking Addiction and decided to make them with the lemons from our latest shipment and use produce from our our Red Fire Farm Deep Winter CSA. Last week, we got apples, orange carrots, rainbow carrots, and eggs. I also omitted the nuts so that my son could take them to daycare. My changes are shown in bracketed comments below and are reflected in the directions.

I had so many shredded carrots and apples that I ended up making two batches. For the second, I accidentally added 1 cup brown sugar so I omitted the honey. Upon hearing me mention the mistake, my husband claimed that the second batch was “his.” The jury is out on which batch turned out better. I am usually loyal to butter in baked goods, so I was happily surprised the coconut oil and crushed pineapple worked out so well in these.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour [instead of whole wheat flour]
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
[1/2 teaspoon ground cloves]
[1/2 teaspoon crystallized ginger]
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
[omitted pecans]
3 large eggs [used Red Fire Farm CSA eggs]
1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar [used light]
1/4 cup (85g) honey
1/3 cup (80ml) vegetable, canola oil, or melted coconut oil [used coconut oil]
[omitted applesauce – used 1 cup crushed pineapple]
1 teaspoon orange zest [changed to lemon zest]
[1/4 cup lemon juice instead of pineapple or orange juice]
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (75g) raisins, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes [subbed in dried cranberries]
[added 1/4 cup shredded coconut]
2 cups shredded carrots (about 4 large) [used Red Fire Farm orange and rainbow carrots. I shredded them in the food processor.]
1 cup (140g) shredded/grated apple (about 1 apple) [used Red Fire Farm apple. I also shredded it in the food processor]

Directions
Preheat oven to 425. Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray. [The original recipe makes 16 muffins, but I made 12 really large ones.] In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, crystallized ginger, dried ginger, and salt together until combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, brown sugar, honey, coconut oil, crushed pineapple, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stir a few times, then add the dried cranberries, carrots, and apple. Fold everything together gently just until combined and no flour pockets remain.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, filling them all the way to the top. Bake for 5 minutes at 425 then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350. Bake for an additional 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 23-24 minutes, give or take. Allow the muffins to cool for 10 minutes in the muffin sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool until ready to eat.

My son loved them! I will be taking some to work for lunch (packed in a Snack Taxi).