Sharyn’s Pantry – Everything but the Kitchen Sink Muffins

I made these muffins yesterday evening and was very pleased with the results. You toast pecans and then grind them as well as some coconut in your food processor. Then you grate carrots and add drained crushed pineapple as well. Ground cinnamon and cloves give a fragrant flavour to the muffins. The batch made 23 muffins. Very tasty! I will make them again. Of course, I always make a bowl of honey butter to spread on any muffin. All you do is mix equal amounts of soft butter and unpasteurized liquid honey together. This spread over any muffin is heavenly. You have neither too much sweet honey or too much butter, together they are a delicious spread. These muffins will be great to take for your lunch along with a yogurt or great as breakfast or an after school snack.Use your food processor to make quick work of grating and grinding the nuts and fruit and veg.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1- 19 oz. can of unsweetened crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 apple, peeled and grated
• 2 cups of grated carrots
• 3/4 cup of toasted pecans, ground up (measure first)
• 2/3 cup sweetened angel flake coconut, ground up (measure first)
• 4 eggs, well beaten
• 1 cup Crisco vegetable oil
• 2 tsp. pure vanilla
• 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1- 1/4 cups white sugar
• 2 level tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
• 2 rounded tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves

METHOD:

• First, turn on your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 2 – 12 cup muffin pans with no stick spray.
• Drain the can of crushed pineapple. I use a large plastic colander set over a bowl. Gently, using the back of a spoon, press down on the crushed pineapple to press out the juice.
• Save the drained juice to add into orange juice or to add into a bowl of fresh fruit salad.
• Place the pecan pieces on a baking pan and toast them in the 350 degree oven for 5 to 7 minutes. Until they start to smell like toasted pecans. Then place them in your food processor and whiz them until they are quite finely ground. Place them in a bowl.
• Peel the carrots and whiz them in your food processor until grated finely. Add to the nuts.
• Use the food processor again and grind up the coconut. Add to the nuts and carrots.
• Peel and grate the apple. Add to the nuts, carrots and coconut. Set aside.
• In a small bowl, beat the 4 eggs and add to them the vegetable oil and vanilla. Whisk to mix well.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, white sugar, salt and ground cinnamon and cloves.
• Now, add the carrot and pineapple mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients. Mix well to coat everything with the flour mixture.
• Stir egg and oil mixture into the bowl of floured fruit mixture. Mix gently.
• Use a scoop to measure the muffin batter into the prepared pans. I got 23 muffins out of the batch.
• I place my oven rack second from the bottom in my oven.
• Bake the muffins for 19 or 20 minutes. Test for doneness by gently pressing the top of a muffin. If it springs back it is done. -Carefully, using a knife, run the blade around the edge of each muffin in the tins. Lift them out to a cooling rack to cool completely. -Spread your warm muffins with some honey butter and enjoy!

HONEY BUTTER
This is so easy: Just mix equal amounts of liquid honey ( of course I use Sharyn’s Pantry local unpasteurized honey ) with soft room temperature butter. This spread over any muffin is delightful. Enjoy!