Walnut House “Marvellous Muffins”

Walnut House Marvellous Muffins

Recently, George and I had tea with Gill Sprawson at her charming
Walnut House B & B here in town.  With our tea, she served delicious mini muffins (often served for breakfast to her guests), and I ate one, then two, and finally was able to stop after three.  The good news was that even three mini muffins feel more virtuous than one regular muffin.  These “Marvellous Muffins” came out of Gill’s recipe file, and it was clear that the recipe was many years old.  Gill kindly agreed to let me copy it.  The texture and flavor are similar to carrot cake, but I think the apple, coconut and raisins are a nice addition.  In the pre-food processor days, all the grating might have been a deterrent to making these, but using the processor, the apple and carrots can be grated in about a minute.

Whether you make them in the mini size or large, I think you’ll enjoy them.

Recipe:
(Makes approximately 48 mini muffins, or about 20 regular size muffins)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups finely grated carrots
• ½ cup raisins
• ½ cup pecans or walnuts (chopped)
• ½ cup sweetened coconut
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and grated
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a very large bowl.
3. Stir in grated carrots, raisins, nuts, coconut and grated apple.
4. In separate bowl, with paddle attachment, beat eggs, oil and vanilla together.
5. Beat half of dry ingredients into wet, then add remainder of dry ingredients and beat just until combined.
6. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins, filling ¾ of the way full.
7. Bake mini muffins 10 to 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Bake full size muffins 25 to 30 minutes.