Sunday Morning Sweets

What a lovely way to start Sunday morning, or any morning for that matter, than with a homemade quick bread.

This morning I made two loaves of Lucinda Scala Quinn's Coconut Bread, which smelled delicious as it was baking. Here is the recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/348472/coconut-bread

I followed the recipe exactly except that I used sweetened coconut as that is what I had available, and for extra crunch and sparkle I topped the bread with coarse sugar. The bread is light and not too sweet and plenty of coconut flakes give it a wonderful chew. I topped my slices with my homemade Pine-Cot Jam (pineapple-apricot), yummy!

Definitely give this bread a try if you like coconut, it will become one of your baking staples.

Morning Glory Muffins

If you're looking for a great start to your morning try a Morning Glory muffin. Delicious! They have a wonderful combination of healthy fruits, vegetables, and nuts but the muffins are not dry and cardboard-y like some "good-for-you" food. The muffins are good at room temperature but are best eaten warm with a bit of butter.

This recipe was published in the newspaper courtesy of the Willow Creek Lutheran Church Cookbook, Dell Rapids, SD.

Ingredients
1/2 cup raisins
2 cups flour
2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 large tart apple, peeled and grated
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup coconut
2 cups grated carrots
3 eggs
2/3 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla

Soak raisins in hot water for 15-20 minutes.

Preheat ovent to 350 degrees. Combine flour, soda, salt, sugar and cinnamon. Stir in drained raisins, apple, walnuts, coconut and carrots. Beat together eggs, oil and vanilla. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture to blend. Fill greased muffin tins or use cup-cake liners.

Bake 18-20 minutes. Makes 24 muffins.