Morning Glory Muffins

I did something revolutionary: I prepared this recipe exactly as written. Delicious!

Me - The rule is: 1/3 of the sugar can be eliminated without destroying the recipe. With more, your product may be dry, tough, and not brown enough. Dark brown sugar also promotes caramelization (browning) and contributes acid, which reacts with the baking soda/powder to make the product rise. To fix that, I'd replace the sugar with unsweetened applesauce, another acidic, wet food. I am also concerned about the saturated fat from the coconut oil, and so I use monounsaturated safflower oil.

Many people are dismayed that the muffins are too sweet.

Cut back to 1/2 cup brown sugar. Plump the raisins in hot milk for a half hour which infuses some of their sweetness into the milk. Extract the 1/4 cup raisins that will be sprinkled on top. I prefer beating the coconut oil into the eggs to emulsify, then the sugar, then the milk with raisins. Stir in the other fruits, proceed as written.

You'll get the pleasant fruity sweetness of raisins with less sugar.

Using Splenda plus molasses and substituting one ripe banana and 2 T butter for the coconut oil whittles the calories to about 230, and the muffins are delicious.

We make a beautiful truly healthy version of these. Omit all of the sugar and replace with maple syrup. Add in coconut oil, and also replace half of the flour with almond or coconut flour. I actually omit the wheat flour and do half oat flour (tons of protein) and half almond. It's seriously just as good, and I can feel wonderful about giving them to my toddlers time and time again for breakfast.

Absolutely delicious -- whole family loved them. Reduced brown sugar to a half cup, and they were still plenty sweet. We made them into mini-muffins (baking time 15 minutes).

I would love to come to the cooking notes one day and not see quibbles over how to reduce sugar; the collective obsessiveness is sickening. Anyhow, I made this subbing a mix of sunflower and pumpkin seeds for the walnuts and they are absolutely delightful.

I think the reason people comment so much about the sugar content in recipes is because I find most recipes can get away with less sugar. Why use more if you don't have to. I like it when someone tells me ahead of time that I can go with less sugar in a recipe--and any other helpful hints.

Grease AND flour your muffin tin. They'll pop out better. Also, I tried making the recipe as a loaf, like banana bread, pouring it into a standard loaf pan. It worked perfectly. Do not be alarmed by how liquid-y the batter is; it will not overflow and is just as wonderfully moist as the muffins, maybe more so. Just bake it at about 50 minutes, testing 'til a bamboo skewer or toothpick comes out clean. Let cool 5 minutes and un-mold. Wrap in foil and store in refrigerator.

Oils/fats are pretty much interchangeable in baking. Flavor will vary, though. Coconut oil will add coconut flavor. You could use:
Olive oil
Veg oil
Melted butter

Loved these! I live alone so I'm locking them in the trunk of my car (it's winter) so I don't INHALE them!

Made as written, but I had to add in a couple extra spoonfuls of flour to get the consistency of the batter just right. As delicious as these are, they are much higher in calories than an average homemade muffin, and they involve much more prep work, so I probably won't make them again. For anyone who's interested, here is how the nutritional info breaks down. I got 18 muffins.

Per Muffin:
240 calories
5g protein
26g carbs
12g fat
2.5g fiber

My recipe for these includes shredded pineapple too!

You want fewer calories and less sugar and fat (as is, each muffin has 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon whole milk, and 2 teaspoons coconut oil--probably less sugar and fat than many granolas) per serving? Make them as mini muffins.

I made these per the recipe and they were delicious. I made a second batch with 1 1/2 c whole wheat (more), 1/2 c white (less), 1/2 c brown sugar (less), 1 large egg (less), 1/6 c canola oil (less and different oil), 1 c shredded carrot (more), 1/2c apple (less), and 1/2c raisins (less). All other measurements were the same The overall goal was to make them a little more healthy. They're still moist, sweet, and delicious.