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What Are Pear Muffins?

Angela Johnson
Angela Johnson

Pear muffins are a typical dessert or breakfast muffin made with diced pears and other ingredients such as cinnamon. Many people bake this type of muffin for breakfast, and it is interchangeable with other muffin recipes such as banana, walnut, or blueberry. Pear muffins are typically baked in the fall, because along with apples, pears are ripe and plentiful in this season. This type of muffin is seen as mini muffins or full-sized muffins, and they go great with coffee or tea. Adding exotic spices or using alternatives in the recipes can make for a fun and interesting muffin that can be enjoyed by everyone, regardless of food allergies.

When cooking with pears, it is important to start with a fully ripened pear that has been refrigerated or previously frozen and thawed. In fact, overly ripened pears make for the best pear muffins, especially if they are a mushy consistency. This allows the pears to mix with the muffin batter and blend the flavor throughout the mix. Pears are one of autumn's greatest fruits and, when in season, can be found in most stores that sell fruit.

Overly ripened pears make the best pear muffins.
Overly ripened pears make the best pear muffins.

Many people buy pears in bulk while they are in season and freeze them for later use in pear muffins. This is because pears can only stay fresh in the refrigerator for five to seven days, but in the freezer, they can stay fresh for about ten months. The pears need to be cored and diced before freezing. For great results in baking pear muffins, it is best to heat to a boiling a mixture of about two to one of sugar and water and add the diced pears to this solution. Freezing the cooked pears in an airtight container in this solution will keep the pears fresh for a longer period.

Exotic spices such as cardamon and anise can change the flavor of pear muffins and add a special unique taste that can be found nowhere else. There are also some great recipes for those with food allergies who cannot have eggs or gluten. Egg-free or gluten-free pear muffin recipes can be found in recipe books as well as on the Internet, and they offer a nice alternative for people who could not otherwise enjoy this tasty treat. Pear muffins can be a healthy alternative to donuts or cookies if made with whole grain flour and by using a sugar substitute such as Splenda or Truvia.

Discussion Comments

bagley79

I tried an interesting pear muffin recipe that included peanut butter in the batter. I would have never thought of combining pears and peanut butter, but it was delicious! My kids favorite is usually apple cinnamon muffins, but they loved these muffins with the peanut butter and pear in them.

My kids don't like the crunchy peanut butter, so when making things for them, I always use the creamy, but I think a little crunch from some nuts would also be good. It is also good to serve them something sweet that has some protein from the peanut butter and fruit from the pears.

andee

Pear muffins are one of my favorites and a nice change of pace from blueberry or apple muffins. I love to add some walnuts or pecans to the batter when I am making them. They are also great with a crumbly, cinnamon topping.

They are great any time of the year, but it seems like we always have an abundance of them in the fall, and making a bath of muffins helps use them up when then become too ripe.

You can buy muffin mixes in the store, but it really doesn't take very long to make them at home and you are getting such fresh ingredients that they taste so much better.

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    • Overly ripened pears make the best pear muffins.
      By: epantha
      Overly ripened pears make the best pear muffins.