Two Christmas ago, one of my boss at my office got me a subscription to Vegetarian Times when I expressed an interest in eating more vegetables. Today, I am still a omivore, but that’s not the point about this post.  My point is that the subscription to the magazine is about to run out and I felt a bit guilty about not even attempting to cook something from those glossy pages.  So I attempted to make…Morning Glory Loaf (page 50 January/February 2011 issue) and now I must rename it as my “Poof, they’re gone muffins” because they are flying out of the kitchen faster than those chocolate cupcakes. Since I have been bad about eating breakfast lately, I was hoping to at least make something yummy and hearty to start my day right.  And as it turned out, these muffins are just the answer. 🙂

According to the recipe, this makes 1 loaf, but trust me, you will want to make more for good measure if you are going to share because you may end up with nothing for all your efforts.  By the way, these are vegan, so no eggs, no butter, just mentioning this for those of you who do not eat meat or dairy products.

Morning Glory Loaf Recipe (AKA Poof, it’s gone muffins)

makes 1 loaf | 3 mini loaves | or 12 muffins

Ingredients

2 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoons salt

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1 8-oz can crushed pineapple in its own juice, drained, juice reserved (you may sub this with other fruits of your choice…I used 1 banana on my second batch…picture at the end.)

1/2 cup carrot juice (for the second batch, I used 1 cup of orange juice instead and it turned out really well also)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup finely grated carrots (To save time, I brought a bag of the shredded carrots from the market and just coarsely chopped a cupful)

1/2 cup of raisins (optional)

1/2 cup of chopped nuts (optional…I used chopped almonds, but walnuts would be great too)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat 9-inch loaf pan, 3 miniloaf pans, or 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray. (I skipped this because I used cupcake cups)
2. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
3. Whisk together brown sugar, oil, 1/4 cup pineapple juice, carrot juice, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl.  (For my second batch, I skipped pineapple juice and carrot juice and used 1 cup of orange juice instead.)
4. Fold sugar mixture into flour mixture. Stir in pineapple (if using), carrots, raisins (if using), and nuts (if using).
5. Scoop batter into pan or cups.
6. Bake large loaf for 50 to 50 minutes, miniloaves 35 to 45 minutes, or muffins 18 to 22 minutes (mine took 20 minutes), or until golden brown and toothpick test to make sure it comes out clean.
7. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Loosen and cool on rack.

Here’s my second batch made with banana instead of pineapple…(ignore the chocolate cupcakes… ;))

Hope you enjoy!