Pear and Ginger Muffins

Submitted by kolibri

"If you love ginger, you'll love these. If you don't - you can just omit the ginger. The mixture of dried and fresh pears is just perfect - the fresh ones give it moisture, the dried ones intense pear flavour. This recipe is from Starbucks' Passion for Coffee book."

 

• Ready In: 55mins
• Ingredients: 13
• Yields: 15 muffins

ingredients

• 4 ounces dried pear halves
• 1 pear, ripe (Bosc, Bartlett, Anjou)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 2⁄3 cup sugar
• 1⁄2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1⁄3 cup unsalted butter
• 1⁄2 cup ginger in syrup or 1/2 cup candied ginger, very finely chopped

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F and grease muffin tin.
2. Put the dried pears in a small bowl and pour over some boiling water. Let stand for 15 minutes.
3. Drain pears and dry with a paper towel. Cut into small pieces(about 1/2 inch).
4. Peel and core the fresh pear, and chop into similar pieces.
5. In a new bowl, mix dry incredients.
6. In another bowl, whisk together rest of the incredients (including the pears).
7. Mix dry and wet incredients, stir until mixed but don't overdo it. The batter will be lumpy.
8. Fill the tins about 2/3 full. Bake about 20 minutes.
9. Cool 5 minutes in the tin, then on a wire rack.

Reviews

[Oenophilly]

Yum! I picked this recipe to burn up some overripe pears, and it's a keeper! I did sub the dried pears for extra fresh and the candied ginger for about a tsp of ground, but the original ingredients sound like a very good mix and I would plan on trying them when I can get to the store. Also, I experimented and made a ginger glaze for a few of them which turned out quite excellent - boil two or three parts sugar to one part water with a squirt of lemon juice and a few dashes of ginger, then drizzle over tops of hot muffins.

 

[JSK4123]

I baked these today using the crystallized ginger and they were yummy. I too could not find dried pears on their own so I bought 4 bags of a dried fruit medley that included dried pears and got them that way. The contrast of dried and fresh pears mixed with the crystallized ginger is very appealing.

 

[Dona England]

Very good, I love ginger. I used crystalled ginger, I don't know what ginger is syrup is. Very nice flaver. Thanks for posting.

 

[Lee_tah]

Yummy! Loved the crusty tops. I beat the butter and sugar together first then added wet ingredients. The nutmeg went really well with the ginger/pear.

 

[Irmgard]

I had to bring something for treats at work and since there are so many of us, I decided to bake this in a 9" x 5" loaf pan, instead of making muffins. Since I wasn't able to get any candied ginger, I mixed 1/2 tsp. of ground ginger into the batter along with the other dry ingredients. The finished product got rave reviews from my co-workers. If making it just for the family, I'll do muffins instead but this works really well as a quick bread, too!