Disappearing "Recent Items" menu item

Since upgrading to El Capitan, the "Recent Items" menu item from the Apple menu disappears. Even during a work session, sometimes "Recent Items" is there when I need it, sometimes it disappears altogether.

Multiple Items on Submenu

Furthermore, when the menu does mysteriously return it has multiple items repeating in the list of the "Recent Items" submenu.

Is this a common El Capitan bug? Should I have done a clean install instead of an upgrade? Any way to fix either problem, the disappearing menu item or the multiple submenu items?