A Muffin Recipe from a Vermont Inn once owned by a real life Dick And Joanna

Was there ever a better,gentler,more civilized television comedy than "Newhart"?

I think not, and certainly not in the past two or three vulgar decades.

Dick and Joanna Loudon ,refugees from the big city, buy a Vermont country inn in a small town where both locals and guests are quirky and entertaining.

This could have been the story of Wilf and Lois Copping,who also left New York to run the Tavern Inn in Grafton,Vermont. Wilf had been in advertising, a trade honest people dream of escaping, and the Coppings did.

I found their 1978 "The Country Innkeepers'Cookbook" at an estate sale. Yankee Magazine published it, and one can still buy old copies from Amazon.

I saw this interesting recipe on page 159. Lots of sugar,butter,honey,eggs, with a bit of virtuous All Bran added.(Country inn cooking has little in common with health spa food- )


Pineapple Muffins



1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup of butter or shortening

1/3 cup honey

2 eggs

1 1/3 cups All Bran (I used All Bran Buds)

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup crushed pineapple, well drained


Cream the sugar,shortening,and honey together, then add the remaining ingredients and mix. Spoon into a muffin tin greased with butter or cooking spray. Fill each each muffin cup 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.


These are very moist, slightly chewy,
and delicious. This recipe makes 18 standard sized muffins. I baked mine in a large tin. It made half a dozen jumbo muffins with some batter left over. I spooned that into a small greased baking dish and made an extra muffin cake.