To taste a morning glory muffin is to taste an identity crisis. Chunks of coconut and carrot peek out from its craggy top, suggesting one of those health food store muffins that exist more for the benefit of your digestive tract than your taste buds. Draw your nose closer, however, and you notice acoffee cake–like scent of cinnamon, sugar, and toasted nuts. Is it a dessert, a fiber vehicle, or both?
In order to truly understand the delectably deranged hodgepodge of ingredients that make up a morning glory muffin, we must first ask ourselves: What exactlyis amuffin?
Reader, you should know that muffins were once called moofins (and I think you will agree that appellation is seriously overdue for a comeback). As a yeast-raised and griddledflatbread honeycombed with tiny air pockets, the original muffin belongs to the same family tree as crumpets and pikelets and evenpancakes. These lean, savory muffins were widely available in 18th- and 19th-century Britain, sold by muffin men—yes, of Drury Lane fame—who balanced huge boards piled high with muffins atop their heads while incessantly ringing bells to attract muffin customers.
Then, at some point about 150 years ago, the muffin went through a transformation: American cooks, including Fannie Farmer in her 1896 classicThe Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, began referring to baked, cake-like quick breads as muffins—thereby distinguishing them from those across the pond, which became known as“English” muffins in the United States.
Through the 20th century, American muffins began to go in one of two directions—either as dessert masquerading as breakfast, or as nutrient-packed vehicles for a daily dose of fiber.
At the crossroads of these two extremes lies the morning glory muffin, a hippie health food store muffin if there ever was one. Invented in 1978 by chef Pam McKinstry, who owned Nantucket’s Morning Glory Cafe, the original morning glory muffin contained grated carrots and apples, raisins, pecans, shredded coconut, and a hefty dose of cinnamon, all loosely held together by a fairly conventional American muffin batter. McKinstry’s recipe gained popularity across the United States after it was first published inGourmet in 1981, in response to a reader’s request.
Laurie Ellen Pellicano, Epi contributor and former head pastry chef at Tartine Bakery, tells me that she loves the morning glory muffin because its kitchen-sink complexity makes it impossible to pigeonhole: “It doesn’t pick a side,” she says.
“If you’re a person who likescarrot cake, you might be like, ‘I'll try that muffin.’ If you’re a person who likeshummingbird cake, you might try this muffin. If you likebran muffins, you might like this muffin,” Pellicano tells me. “So I feel like it's an ‘everybody’ muffin.”
In developing her ownmorning glory muffin recipe, Pellicano was guided by her muffin memories rather than riffing on McKinstry’s original. “The first time that I had a morning glory muffin was when I was a kid,” she says, recalling a “crunchy” breakfast restaurant she frequented in upstate New York. “I had this morning glory muffin with an enormous top. Strands of carrot coming out—just alot of character. And it’s brown, but not bran.”
