RECIPE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MONICA KASS ROGERS
With the weather gorgeous and school ending, we are all ready to be outside. These oh-so-tender little morning muffins are a great grab-and-go to get you moving. They’re packed with so much good stuff: cinnamon, apple, carrot, zucchini, toasted nuts, and fresh squeezed orange juice—and they’re made with organic whole wheat flour, which is high-protein, to boot. Also nice? These muffins a good way to use up that extra apple, zucchini, and half-bag of mini carrots you’ve got hanging around.
INGREDIENTS
• ½ cup walnuts or pecans
• ½ cup Thompson seedless raisins
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground Saigon cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt
• ⅓ cup pecan meal (good source is guidryorganicfarms.com or villagefarmstand.com)
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• Ready-to-eat peeled baby carrots (about ½ bag) pulsed in a food processor to make 2 cups finely grated
• 1 zucchini, washed, skin on, pulsed in a food processor to make 1-½ cups finely grated
• 1-inch fresh ginger, finely grated
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped small
• 3 large eggs, briefly beaten
• ⅔ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup fresh squeezed orange juice
METHOD
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place nuts on a cookie sheet and toast for about 10 minutes, until fragrant. Chop nuts. Set aside. Place raisins in a small bowl; pour enough boiling water over the raisins to cover. Set aside. In a large bowl, sift whole wheat flour with soda, cinnamon, salt and pecan meal. Add brown sugar and whisk the sugar into the flour, breaking up until no small clumps remain. In the bowl of a food processor, using short pulses, pulse carrots and then zucchini until finely grated. Add vegetables to the dry ingredients. Drain and discard the liquid from the plumped raisins; add raisins. Add grated ginger, chopped apple, beaten eggs, vegetable oil and orange juice. Stir until all ingredients are incorporated and no flour streaks remain. Fit a 12-muffin tin with paper muffin-cup liners, each sprayed with non-stick vegetable spray. Fill muffin cups with batter. Bake in 375-degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes until firm to the touch. Serve immediately, spread with butter.
