Whole Wheat Pear Walnut Muffins with Poppy Seeds

8 am and I'm baking muffins. I really like my lazy mornings. I was supposed to garden today but it got cancelled so I have the whole day to bake and study. Baking takes priority obviously.

This recipe comes from Bon Appetite. It was originally a tea cake but I changed out the butter and subbed whole wheat flour for the almond meal.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup 2% buttermilk
1 1/2 cups
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup soy milk

1 ripe pear, cut into small cubes
1 cup chopped walnuts

Method:

Preheat oven to 450.
Mix first paragraph of dry ingredients, set aside.
Mix second paragraph of wet ingredients, set aside.
Add dry to wet and mix until almost combined.
Add pear and nuts and mix until just combined.
Divide batter into prepared muffin tin and bake at 450 for 5 mins.
Lower baking temp to 400 and bake for another 12 mins or until muffins bounce back to the touch.

Muffin Thursday: Pear Almond Chocolate Spice Muffins

Christmas has come early!! Muffin Thursday has arrived a whole day early this week. Instead of studying for a huge test that I have tomorrow- I can't look at my notes anymore I'm going insane- I decided to make cookies and these delish muffins. From Pastry Affair, these muffins have the perfect balance of spice and cocoa powder.

Unfortunately I was halfway done the recipe when I realized my mom didn't have any cardamom, so I changed the recipe to ginger and nutmeg. And I threw in some allspice and extra cinnamon. I'll try to remember all of the changes I made. I also halved the sugar. Remember- muffin not cupcake. I think this same basic recipe would be really good with cranberries and walnuts or chocolate chips and hazelnuts instead of the pear and nuts. The basic batter recipe is really easy and lends itself to a lot of different flavor possibilities. It's easy to take cake recipes and make them into muffins by backing off on the sugar and changing the bake temp from 350 to 400 and the bake time from an hour to around 25 mins.

Ingredients:

1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2-3 pears, diced (I used Red Pears)
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put muffin papers in a 12 cup muffin pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together boiling water and cocoa powder until cocoa is dissolved.

In another small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix brown sugar, granulated sugar, and oil together. Add the eggs one at a time and continue mixing until smooth. Mix in vanilla extract. Alternatively add the flour and cocoa mixtures, mixing gently between additions. Don't mix too much. Using a spatula, fold in the diced pears and chopped almonds.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

And now back to pretending to study.