Sweets & Treats

Pear Muffins

Robin at Haphazard Homemaker

I was totally impressed with these muffins! They area little dense, but have a nice texture and are nice and moist. They are not too sweet, so they are perfect to have with morning coffee or for an afternoon treat, yet with the fruit is enough to satisfy any evening sweet tooth,

I don’t usually make a baked recipe that has more than 5 measured ingredients, or 7 or 8 at the most. Or more than one bowl. But I had a bunch of pears that had ripened that I wanted to use. I had already put some pears in the freezer and I have company coming for a few days, so I wanted to try something new.

Homemade Pear Muffins from Scratch - haphazardhomemaker.com

I scoured the web for a recipe that sounded good and had good reviews. I liked this one best because it had less sugar than the others. The original recipe wasn’t that difficult, but I’m bad about just throwing everything in one bowl to mix. Apparently, mixing wet and dry ingredients separately before combining is the secret of a good cake. I tweaked the recipe a little bit, and then rewrote the recipe so that I could easily follow it without making a mistake. The ingredients are listed in groups to use in each step, so be sure to follow the directions. Half of the prep time listed in the recipe is time spent peeling and dicing the pears.

Pear Muffins

Prep 20 – 30 minutes Cook  20 – 25 minutes
Makes 12 to 14 muffins, depending on the quantity of pears used. I used 4 cups of diced pears (1 ½ #) and made 12 muffins and one small loaf to give to a friend.

Ingredients

Topping

  • 3 Tablespoons sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons dry oatmeal (or chopped walnuts)
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Muffins – be sure to follow the directions

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup *buttermilk (see note below)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 – 4 firm, ripe pears, peeled, cored & chopped (or 2 cans of drained pears)
  • Optional: 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

NOTE: If you don’t have buttermilk, add 2 teaspoons of white vinegar or lemon juice to 3/4 cup plain milk, then stir and let rest for 5 minutes before using. Or substitute 3/4 cup of plain yogurt.

Directions

  1. Preheat an oven to 350°F.
  2. Grease muffin pan and 1 small loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
  3. Topping: in a small bowl, stir together the sugar, oats (or walnuts) and cinnamon. Set aside.
  4. Muffins (dry ingredients): in one bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  5. Muffins (wet ingredients) : in another bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, buttermilk & vanilla until blended.
  6. Stir the dry flour mixture into the wet ingredients, stir just enough to evenly moistened the flour moisture. The batter will be thick & slightly lumpy.
  7. Carefully fold in the pears (plus optional walnuts, if desired) just until evenly distributed. Do not over mix – fold just a few times carefully so as not to break up the pears.
  8. Spoon the batter into the greased muffin cups, fill to the rim.
  9. Sprinkle the topping mix on top of the muffins.
  10. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  11. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes, then unmold the muffins and set on a rack to finish cooling.
  12. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Adapted from a recipe found on Williams-Sonoma.

29 thoughts on “Pear Muffins”

  1. I guess I am very lazy. When it comes to recipes like this, I usually mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, then make a bowl within the dry ingredients, put all the wet stuff in that space, mix it a bit with a fork, then carefully (not too much) blend the two parts together. It’s worked for me 🙂 These muffins do look very good!!

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  4. I love baked pears. There’s something about the texture that I prefer, over apples. Putting them in a muffin makes perfect sense. I like the recipe, especially the addition of oats. Very nice!

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  5. Robin…..Just made your recipe for pear muffins…yummmm! I have pear trees so picked about a bushel of pears this morning and just baked the muffins… then ate TWO muffins! I made one-half of this recipe, with a little less sugar (as I don’t eat sugar). It made nine nice muffins. I will, of course, tweak for me… less sugar and a little less nutmeg… But a huge thank you for posting this timely recipe. I also like the ‘looks’ of how they turned out. Nice presentation.

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  6. A neighbor invited us over to pick some pears so I had plenty on hand. Made the muffins today and they are wonderful! My dh ate two after dinner! I’m taking the neighbor some muffins – oh, then I guess I’ll make some more! Thanks for the recipe!

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