Saturday, April 3, 2010

Crunchy breakfast pear muffins

Hello everyone, well, Easter is upon us and I have been so good, resisting all egg and hot cross bun temptation so far. Unfortunately I think I have actually missed the hot cross bun thing for the year, but I'm sure there'll be some chocolate eggs or bunnies to enjoy between now and the end of the weekend. I am planning to call by Accoutrement in Mosman later today to pick up some treats as I have been ogling their gorgeous Easter display for a few weeks now.

This week's recipe is a quick and easy muffin which I whipped up yesterday afternoon, then sampled while losing myself in the DVD of The Time Traveller's Wife (definitely not up to the book standard). They are lovely and moist with the pear and easy to freeze, ready to be freshened up in the microwave. I found the recipe in Good Living some time ago. Regular readers will be surprised to learn that on finding some chocolate in my cupboard I threw that in too - chocolate works so well with pear and is a lovely surprise in a muffin!

Have a wonderful Easter.

Love from Jane xx

Crunchy breakfast pear muffins

Makes 6 large muffins

What you need:
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 cup wholemeal plain flour (you can use regular white if you don't have wholemeal to hand)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup plain low fat yoghurt
  • 1/2 cup vegetable or light olive oil
  • 1 cup peeled, diced pear
  • 100-150g chocolate, optional
  • 1/3 cup pecan nuts, finely chopped

What you do:
  1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
  2. Using a 6 cup capacity muffin tin, either spray the holes with olive oil spray, or line with paper cases.
  3. Sift together into a large bowl the flours, baking powder and cinnamon.
  4. Add the oats and half a cup of the brown sugar and the chocolate if using, and stir to combine.
  5. Whisk together the eggs, yoghurt and oil.
  6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Muffin mixes do not like to be overmixed and will give you lumps of concrete if you stir too many times!
  7. Gently fold through the pear.
  8. Divide the batter between the muffin holes or paper cases.
  9. Mix together the remaining brown sugar with the pecan nuts and sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.
  10. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.