A cinnamon scented breakfast muffin recipe packed full of carrots, apples and dates.
It’s become a bit of a yearly tradition now, with my birthday being at the start of December, for my Canadian grandmother to send me a cookery book and a pair of earrings as a combined birthday Christmas gift. With overseas post being as slow as it is, this eagerly awaited parcel usually arrives in late January. That poor fella who has to swim across the Atlantic with it, I feel for him!
Over the years I’ve amassed a wonderful collection of Cape Breton recipe cookery books – you know those fundraiser cookery books compiled by community groups and organizations? The ones with the tried and tested family recipes in them?
I absolutely love them, and they each have a little message handwritten on the inside page in my grandmothers beautiful cursive handwriting – the kind of handwriting only retired primary school teachers have.
Last years cookery book was the Inverness Cottage Workshop’s Favourite Recipes: Volume 1, compiled by the Inverness Cottage Workshop. The Inverness Cottage Workshop provides vocational, personal, and social skills training for adults with intellectual disabilities, and they also support off-site employment and community involvement opportunities. It sounds like a rather fantastic organization.
One recipe particularly struck my eye while flicking through the book. Morning Glory Muffins from Cindy O’Neill, the executive director of the Inverness Cottage Workshop. This breakfast muffin with scented with cinnamon and packed with grated carrots, apples and, most interestingly, chopped dates. Carrot muffins of this sort usually have sultanas in them, and I was interested to try the recipe with the dates.
While preparing the recipe (which involved a bit of washing dirty carrots from my organic veg box delivery!) I realised that the recipe was incomplete. She’d mentioned baking soda and salt in the instructions and forgotten to list them in the ingredients list, so I went to the internet to see if I could find it there. There are umpteen zillion online versions of this recipe, so I can’t exactly credit the source of recipe development, but I did manage to fill in the blanks with the missing ingredients. And yes, this recipe is usually made with sultanas.
The dates, however, totally work. A fantastic adaptation. This breakfast muffin is deliciously moist and not too sweet despite the sugar and dates. I really like the texture the dates add, and my daughter and eldest son loved them too, requesting them in their school lunchboxes. My youngest wasn’t that keen – he knew there were vegetables in it.
As an aside – when I was preparing to immigrate back across the pond to Scotland back in 1999 (170 years after my maternal MacIntosh family set sail for Nova Scotia from Skye), my mother’s words of advice were to stick with visiting places with the same names as those I knew from Cape Breton.
This summer I will be stopping in the Scottish Inverness while on my epic 250 mile mountain bike cycle from Shetland to Fort William to climb Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain. A food blogger there has kindly offered my traveling companion and I beds and a shower, which I am sure will be well received after cycling through the highlands!
But I ramble. This recipe, it’s lovely. It’s not the prettiest recipe in the world to photograph, but these muffins more than make up for it in taste.
Morning Glory Muffins
Ingredients
- 300 grams granulated sugar
- 340 grams plain wholegrain flour I used Marriages
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp Shetland sea salt
- 45 grams desiccated coconut
- 50 grams walnuts coarsely chopped
- 3 large free-range eggs
- 250 ml sunflower oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 150 grams pitted dates chopped
- 1 large apple peeled and grated
- 260 grams carrots peeled and grated weight
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C/ 160 C fan and line 2 x 12 hole muffin tins with paper cases.
- In a large bowl mix together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
- Add the coconut and the nuts.
- In another bowl, mix the eggs with the sunflower oil and the vanilla.
- Add the dates, grated carrots and grated apple to the egg mixture and stir well to combine.
- Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring well to just combine.
- Spoon into the prepared baking cases and bake for 35 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Cool the muffins in the trays for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Environmental Information
Click here for the nutritional information for this recipe.
OTHER BREAKFAST MUFFINS YOU MIGHT LIKE
Banana Weetabix Blueberry Muffins from Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Rachel Allen Rhubarb Breakfast Muffins from Maison Cupcake
Oaty Cinnamon & Raisin Muffins from The Lovely Appetite
Pear & Pistachio Muffins from The Hedgecombers
Wholemeal Breakfast Muffins from Supper in the Suburbs
Marmalade Breakfast Muffins by Thinly Spread
Banana Bran Muffins by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Spinach & Tomato Corn Muffins by Eats Amazing
Coconut, Blueberry & Banana Muffins by From Plate to Pen
Bucks Fizz Breakfast Muffins by Foodie Quine
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Now these I do absolutely love the look of, they sound divine x
These look so delicious – I love your photographs they are so beautifully done. Thank you for sharing. Kaz x
These sound brilliant, I have never tried anything like these before so I will have to now!
Thank you so much for joining #inheritancerecipes. I am pinning these muffin to my secret board too and will be making them this weekend for my Canadian friends who are arriving on Monday
These sound amazing, I love the idea of dates in them rather than the usual raisins. I love old recipe books and those compiled by communities, they’re so interesting. #InheritanceRecipes
Angela x
You know I love a fruit and nut cake, these look amazing though! I baked some similar but they just never turn out as good as they do for everyone else #blamethechef! haha xx
These muffins look delicious! I haven’t done nearly enough baking lately.
These look absolutely lovely, not dry at all which is the thing that often puts me off muffins!
These look so healthy and tasty. Dates are one of my weird foods. I always hate the thought of them but know that they add a beautiful moistness and taste when used in Baking
Yum! These look so good. I need to try these muffins out. I also love your eye for photography, whenever I try to take photos of food it never works out as good in practice (actually that is all photographs, not just ones of food ha ha!).
I’ve never made Morning Glory Muffins but I have heard of them – yours look so good I want to try them soon. Your upcoming adventure sounds exciting! Good luck with all the planning & hope it all goes well!
These look so nice! And I love the idea of a handwritten cook book that you can pass down, but my writing is terrible,
I’m really slow off the mark to use vegetables in my baking, but loving the sound of morning glory used in savoury muffins!
These sounds very much like a carrot cake recipe I have! I am going to try this though to get a comparison. Thanks for sharing x
These look brilliant! I wholeheartedly approve of having muffins for breakfast 😉
Oooh they look good – I love dates!
Love the sound of these, especially for breakfast! Will give them a go with my kids and see what they think x
I adore your photography! Everything always looks wonderful and these are no exception! x
When I next get some free time, I want to make these. I really struggle with things to eat for breakfast so these would make a nice change xxx
Ooo ooo muffins… were huge fans of cakes in this house well muffins lol. These look delicious, I’ll have to show my partner than reciepe thou as luckily he’s the cook in this house xx
They look absolutely delicious. And I am in awe of your amazing determination (and stamina!) your cycling adventure is bound to be epic!
What a sweet tradition for you and your grandmother! I absolutely love morning glory muffins, but I’ve never baked them with dates before. Can’t wait to give this version a try. Yum!
These look so good! I have a thing for cookbooks too.. Have so many of them. Love adding dates to muffins.
This is such a fragrant recipe, thank you for adding it to our Inheritance Recipes challenge!!
By the way, voting done, good luck 😉
I could eat these all day. They look too good.
OMG! Did someone say muffins? Loving the name, sounds like a pick-me-up fo’sure. They look super super moist too, I want to grab one from the screen.
Love both the muffins and the name for them – now if only you can send me a few in the post :). PS I can’t wait to follow your 250 mile bike ride.
This post has inspired me to bake today. Off to buy supplies!! R
I love the combination of apples, carrots and dates you’ve used. They certainly look good and sound filled with goodness!
Your muffins look moist and have wonderful texture. The cinnamon I am sure shines through.
Such a cute name for the muffins, and such a nice tradition from your grandmother. These sound like great muffins for breakfast time x
I love the name. They looks absolutely moist and beautiful.
Happy travelling. Been to Fort Williams and climbed Ben Nevis in the 80’s. Beautiful place and beautiful friendly Scots.
These look delicious, what a perfect weekend breakfast muffin! H x
Lovely photos. Muffins are so nice for breakfast. Thanks for including mine too. 🙂
I have to admit I do love a good muffin there is something just wonderful about biting into one and these sound amazing. x
I am in love with the photography on your blog. Dates are a favorite ingredient of mine. I love the mixture of dates and carrots in this recipe. I was surprised to see shredded coconut in the recipe. I never would have guessed that. A great mixture of flavors and so healthy. I think my whole family will love this!
I love the name of these muffins, especially since I’m rarely in my glory in the morning. hee hee Thanks for sharing this recipe, plus the corrections to it.
How unique! Definitely a different twist on muffins, they look so good! I am not a huge fruit/date lover, but I would definitely make these!
Oh wow, you had me at muffins! I love them! And I will be definitely trying this recipe soon 🙂
These look so nice and the dates sound like a great alternative I bet they give a lovely flavour and texture to the muffins. I am going to have to try these x
I need another breakfast right now! These look so tasty!
I love muffins but especially ones that offer nutritional value and not just empty calories. These look perfect!
I love the backstory of these muffins! I have so many of those types of cookbooks – I think they’re a fun look at real cooks lives) These muffins look absolutely delicious! Just the thing I want on a weekend morning!
These look absolutely lovely – Were they as moist as they look in the photos?
Dang, they look fine! Oh, and thank you – I’m writing my shopping list & you reminded me I need dates 😉
Janie x