Spiced Pear Muffins #MuffinMonday

These spiced pear muffins are light, fluffy and full of fall flavors. The aroma as they bake is wonderful and will make your whole house smell fabulous. 

If you’ve been reading along here for a while, you know that the last Monday of every month is Muffin Monday. I get together with a group of bakers and we share muffin recipes. 

This month, I brought these to the vet clinic that helps Lone Star Boxer Rescue and our partners Austin Boxer Rescue with our pups as a thank you for their service all year round. I also brought some homemade peanut brittle. We love them and couldn’t rescue the dogs we do without their help, so I wanted to bring them an extra special Christmas treat! 

Spiced Pear Muffins

If you don’t have sugar crystals or demerara sugar for the cinnamon sugar topping, you can substitute regular sugar. This recipe is adapted from one on A Baking Journey.

Ingredients

1 medium pear

1 2/3 cup or 200g flour

1/3 cup or 70g brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil

1/2 cup or 120g Greek yogurt

Cinnamon sugar topping (optional, but highly recommended)

1 1/2 tablespoons demerara sugar or sugar crystals

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line your 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or grease the pan well with oil.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. 

Peel, core and cut the pear into small pieces. If you cut them too large, they tend to sink to the bottom of the muffin batter. 

Add the pears pieces to the flour mixture and stir to coat. 

In another mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, canola and yogurt until smooth.

 

Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture.

Fold until just combined. 

Divide the muffin batter between the cups in your prepared muffin pan. 

For the cinnamon sugar topping, if using, mix together the sugar and ground cinnamon in a small bowl. 

Sprinkle some of it over each muffin.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until puffed and golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.  Place the muffins on a cooling rack. 

Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Enjoy! 

As I mentioned above, it's Muffin Monday, the very last one of 2022! Many thanks to my fellow bakers. Please check out the recipes we are sharing below.

• Ham and Cheddar Corn Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Peppermint Mocha Muffins from Magical Ingredients
• Sourdough Hot Cocoa Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Spiced Pear Muffins from Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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Wild Pear Lemon Preserves

Juicy pears cooked down with a Meyer lemon and just the right amount of sugar make the best Wild Pear Lemon Preserves! They are a wonderful topping for buttered toast, stir them into yogurt, or warm and spoon them over vanilla ice cream. 

Last summer I got a text from a friend asking me if I had any interest in some wild pears that were growing on her property in the country. Free fruit? Yes, PLEASE! If there is one thing I absolutely love, it’s making jam or preserves out of fruit that might otherwise go to waste. 

The best part was that I didn’t even have to pick the pears! We were all social distancing, like everyone worldwide last summer so my friend dropped the basket of pears on another friend’s porch for me. I duly collected them with much appreciation. 

I brought the basket of pears home and got busy peeling and slicing and cooking them down with sugar. If you’ve never tried a wild pear, I’m here to tell you that they are quite sour with a thicker skin than normal eating pears. But they are fabulous in preserves and, like quince, they turn the most wonderful shade of pink. 

Bonus advice: If you do not yet have a digital scale, please buy one. They are so useful! Using cups to measure sliced fruit is such a challenge because of air pockets. That said, I tried my best to measure the sliced pears so you don’t have to. Each cup of sliced pears is about 150g, in case you need to convert from the amounts below. It’s just a ballpark figure so you’ll see that the sugar doesn’t work out exactly in cups. If you'd just get a scale, you could save us all a lot of grief. 

Wild Pear Lemon Preserves 

I followed the guidance on a post from Digging Food to figure out the ratio of pears to sugar. One batch of my pears (1880g whole) weighed 1252g after being peeled, cored and sliced so I put 626g of sugar. If you don’t have wild pears, use firm green ones instead. These quantities of pear and sugar require one whole lemon. Adjust accordingly if you are cooking more or less pears.

Ingredients

For peeling the pears:

2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice or 2 teaspoons citric acid

For the preserves (my second batch! Those two trees just kept on giving!):

4 lbs 2 1/3 oz or 1880g wild pears

3 1/8 cups or 626g sugar

1 Meyer lemon (or sub a regular lemon) 

Method

Fill a large bowl about to about halfway with cool water. Add the juice or citric acid and stir well. Peel all the pears.

As you peel them, put them in your bowl with the acidic water.  This will stop the oxidation so they don’t turn brown. 

Cut all of the pears in half and use a the paring knife to remove the stem and bottom of each half, dropping them back into the acidic water as you do. Finally use a melon scoop to remove the core, again putting the pear halves back in the water.

Initially I tried performing each action on one pear at a time but it was tedious to continually switch tools and went much faster when I halved them all, then took the stem and bottom out of each, then cored them. It does mean you have to fish around in the acidic water to get them to do the next step but that’s quickly accomplished.

Peel and slice the pears 1/8 in or 3 1/2mm thick, again, popping them back in the water. 

When they are all sliced, drain off the acidic water and weigh the pears. Add in 1 part sugar for 2 parts pears. Cover the bowl and leave them to macerate overnight. 

Sitting around overnight in the sugar, the pears will create their own syrup and be ready to cook into preserves by morning. 

Just before cooking thinly slice your lemon (peel and all) but remove any seeds. 

Add the lemons to the pear pot. 

Bring the mixture to a high simmer or low boil over medium heat. Stir often! If the simmer is too low, it will take you 4 hours to cook them. A large batch usually takes at least 2 1/2 hours.

Start checking for desired consistency after 1 1/2 hours. Stir and check them every 15-20 minutes. The preserves are finished when the pears have turned rose, then to light garnet colored and the slices are transparent. 

The amount of cooking time varies depending on the size of your batch, diameter of your pot, the heat retention of your pot (Le Creuset are great for this) and the thickness of your pear slices.  

Wash canning jars and have them ready and hot. I put teaspoons in each jar and then fill them with boiling water. Pour a little boiling water over the lids while you are at it. Use a pair of canning tongs to tip the water out of the jars when the preserves are ready. 

When the preserves are done, use a wide mouth funnel and ladle the hot pears and syrup into the hot jars. Try not to get any on you as the pears and their syrup will burn you. 

Remove the spoons from the canning jars and fit the lids on as tightly as you can. Turn the jars upside down and leave to cool. Occasionally, as you randomly pass by, tighten the lids a little more.

Once the jars are cool, turn them right side up. The lids should pop down firmly. If any jar lids don’t suck down, store them in the refrigerator and use them first. 

Enjoy! 

August is National Canning Month so my Festive Foodie group are all sharing way to preserve Summer's bounty! Check out the links below. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. 

• Homemade Sauerkraut  by Palatable Pastime
• How to Freeze Basil in Olive Oil  by Savory Moments
• Indian Style Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickle by Magical Ingredients
• Tart Cherry Preserves  by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Wild Pear Lemon Preserves by Food Lust People Love

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Bourbon Raisin Butterscotch Pear Bread Pudding

This Bourbon Raisin Butterscotch Pear Bread Pudding is a decadent and delicious adult treat. Make it kid-friendly by subbing apple juice.

When I was growing up, and thinking about it reasonably it’s probably still true today, cakes in South American all seemed to have liquor or liqueurs as flavoring. Even cakes made for a child’s birthday party were soaked in it! Young me hated them. 

Now I see the allure. As long as it’s not overdone, the alcohol adds a little punch of flavor, not unlike adding vanilla but more grown up. One of my favorite ways to add alcohol to a bake is by soaking raisins in it.

If you agree, you might want to bake my rum raisin banana muffins, my whiskey raisin oatmeal bars, or my rum raisin butter Bundt with rum honey glaze.

Once again, this is not a sponsored post but my key ingredient, the butterscotch pears, were a gift from Melissa’s Produce as part of a promotion for their Family Baking Challenge. Lots of great prizes to win including a KitchenAid mixer! You can find all the details on their website! 

Bourbon Raisin Butterscotch Pear Bread Pudding

I used our favorite bourbon – Bulleit - to soak my golden raisins but if you are not a bourbon fan, substitute your favorite tipple. If you need to keep this kid-friendly, use apple juice instead. As you will see in the photos, I used Sara Lee brioche. Substitute your favorite loaf. This recipe is adapted from one on the Melissa’s Produce website. 

Ingredients 

For the bread pudding:

1 cup, loosely packed, or 120g golden raisins

1/2 cup or 120ml bourbon 

2 large Butterscotch Pears (approx. weight = 780g)

Zest 1 small lemon 

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup or 57g butter, plus extra for the pan

3/4 cup or 150g granulated sugar, divided

6 cups or about 265g cubed stale brioche bread (This was 9 slices of the Sara Lee.)

4 eggs

1 cup or 240ml whipping cream 

1 1/2 cups milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch salt

For serving: 

Whipping cream

Method

Warm the bourbon slightly in a microwave or small pot on the stove and then pour it over the raisins in a small bowl. Cover with cling film and set aside. 

Preheat your oven to 325°F or 163°C. The original recipe uses an 8x8 in or 20x20cm baking dish but you will see from the photos, I decided to use disposable aluminum pans to make sharing this delicious pudding easier, which means that I was effectively using an 8x10 in or 20x25cm pan. The bread pudding turns out slightly less deep but still wonderful. Butter whichever pan or pans you decide to use and set aside. 

Core and peel the pears then toss them in a large bowl with the lemon juice to stop them from turning brown.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add a 1/2 cup or 100g of the sugar and stir until combined. Add the pear slices in an even layer. 

Cook, without stirring for 8 minutes until the sugar and fruit begin to caramelize. 

Flip the slices and cook for a further 5-8 minutes until both the fruit and the caramel are golden brown. Remove the pan from the heat. 

Meanwhile, prepare the custard by whisking the eggs in a large bowl, then adding the remaining 1/4 cup or 50g sugar, cream, milk, vanilla, lemon zest, cinnamon and salt.  Whisk again to combine. 

Drain the raisins and reserve the bourbon that wasn’t soaked up. Set aside a small handful for topping.

Spread half of the bread cubes into the prepared pan. Top with half of the raisins. Add a second layer with the rest of the bread cubes and top with the rest of the raisins.

Pour the custard mixture over the bread. Press down to make sure all cubes are soaked.  

Layer pear slices evenly over the top of the bread mixture. Top with remaining caramel from the skillet and the handful of reserved raisins.  

Bake for 55-65 minutes until fully set. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes. 

Pour the reserved bourbon over the top, if desired, and leave it to soak in. 

At our house bread pudding is always accompanied by a generous pour of whipping cream. 

Enjoy! 

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Fresh Pear Walnut Cranberry Salad

Sweet, sharp and crunchy, this fresh pear walnut cranberry salad is the perfect accompaniment to any rich dish, especially one made with blue cheese.

A couple of days ago I shared a recipe for a potato chip crust savory cheesecake and promised to add the side salad soon. Here it is!

Fresh Pear Walnut Cranberry Salad

This recipe is easily doubled or even trebled. Serve it with your favorite quiche or my savory cheesecake.

Ingredients
For the dressing:
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons walnut vinegar (or sub white balsamic)
2 tablespoons canola or other light salad oil
1/2 teaspoon whole grain mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the salad:
3 tablespoons thinly sliced onion (1/2 a small one or about 20g)
3 medium pears
small handful dried cranberries, chopped
1/4 cup or about 8-9 walnut halves
Optional: watercress – I added some in at the last minute before serving, so that it didn’t wilt before we could eat it.

Method
Whisk together all of the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and add in the onions. Leave them to marinate for about 10 minutes. This accomplishes two goals: to mellow the sharp burn of the onions and to infuse the dressing with a delightfully mild onion flavor.

Core and cut your pears into thin slices, stirring them into the dressing as you do, which will stop them turning brown.

Add in the cranberries and walnuts and stir well. Refrigerate, covered with cling film, until ready to serve. Toss with a few handfuls of watercress just before serving, if desired.

Enjoy!

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