These pineapple and carrot muffins are simple little muffins that aren’t meant to display any degree of baking showmanship. Rather, their purpose is to invoke feelings of comfort and nostalgia without any fuss or complication. This is the recipe at its most basic; feel free to add shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds, walnut pieces, currants, whole dried cherries or blueberries, finely diced dried apricots or pineapple, grated apple, etc., etc.. However I end up making them I always end up individually wrapping and then freezing at least half of the recipe, this way I can take them out the night before and toast them for breakfast with honey and Earl Grey tea.

pineapple and carrot muffins:

2 large carrots, peeled and grated

2/3 cup of crushed pineapple

1 cup of all-purpose unbleached flour

1/2 cup of whole wheat flour

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup of vegetable oil

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

2. Stir the flours, sugar, baking soda and powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together in  large bowl until thoroughly combined.

3. In a separate bowl combine the remaining ingredients. Mix the the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients very gently, try not to overmix the batter.

4. Spoon the muffin batter into a greased or paper lined muffin tin and bake for 25 minutes until they appear golden brown and the tops have risen. Let sit for at least half an hour before serving plain or with honey.

I’ve been in a little musical bubble lately, speaking of nostalgia, made up of music I listened to in high school when I was 16 and 17. I remember listening to this song on the bus a lot, trying not to crash my Sony discman around too much as I shuffled to let more people on. I didn’t listen to very much Modest Mouse past The Moon and Antarctica and not at all until recently, but I did listen to this song on repeat for several months during long periods of teenage introverted awkwardness.

Modest Mouse – Dramamine