I had two over-ripen pears sitting on the kitchen counter, facing a destiny of being trashed. Before tossing them out, I decided to peruse Tastespotting to see if there were any simple recipes to turn expired fruit into something fabulous. The only criteria was I had to have every ingredient at home already. Baking can get expensive and shopping for a slew of ingredients can get very tedious (especially for someone who can’t even walk around Target for more than 15 minutes before pooping out these days). And then there was cinnamon pear muffins. It was pretty simple and turned out to be super delish! Great for breakfast or a snack.
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 egg — beaten
zest of 1 lemon or lime
1/4 cup melted butter — cooled
1 cup mashed pear pulp — (2 or 3 soft regular sized pears)
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans and/or 1 teaspoon finely minced crystallized ginger
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, F. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mash the pears. Beat together milk, beaten egg, butter and lemon zest. Mix pears into flour mixture. Gently stir milk mixture into dry ingredients. Batter should be lumpy, not smooth. Do not over mix. Spray muffin pans with nonstick spray (or take the easy way out and use cupcake liners, to avoid too much scrubbing). Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes, until tops are browned.
Leave a comment