Pear Almond Muffins

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Guess what was on sale at the farmers market this week-end? 🙂 Pears! Yumm! I love pears, when  you get them when they are juuust right, juicy, ripe but not too soft. Which is a fine balance and therefore, having bought a bunch I now gotta ‘consume’ them rather quickly.  I like apples but, let’s face it, pears are almost regal compared to a ‘commoner’ apple (No offense, Apple, love you too), maybe I just have this opinion because we can now get pretty good apples year round and they ceased to feel special, not being really seasonal anymore whereas pears are just never quite like they are in the fall… or maybe it’s because of this memory of my Mom saying ‘Pears are the queen of fruits’, who knows 🙂      Ahh the things we remember…

Besides eating pears fresh, melt chocolate chips as a sauce ( a personal favorite, use dark chocolate), roasting as a side, or baking a pear upside down cake or Tarte Tatin, oh and don’t forget, making pear vanilla butter (getting to that one later on, but it’s the very best thing you can do with your time if you have pears…and time, promise) what is one to do with  a bushel of pears?

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Muffins! Quick, easy and portable, now we are talking!

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Makes 12 regular size

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I have used all whole wheat, it just gets a bit denser)
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/4 cup ripe but firm pear, diced finely (from 1 to 2 pears, depending on size)
  • 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar, sugar or sucanat
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • 2 tbsp almond butter
  • 2 tbsp oil (you can leave the oil out, the consistency will change a little, but it’s still yum)
  • 1 lg egg
  • 1/4 cup milk (dairy or almond milk)

 Directions

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the first four ingredients
  2. add sucanat or coconut sugar, and diced pear and stir to coat
  3. add the remainder of the ingredients and stir until just combined then drop by the table spoons into lines muffin pan
  4. bake in a preheated oven at 400F for 15-20 minutes or until tester inserted into muffin comes out clear
  5. Let cool slightly before serving.

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And just like that, they are all gone:)

Gotta get back to the oven, I am seeing some Pear Gingerbread Muffins in my near future…

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