Pear Ginger Walnut Muffins

When autumn comes, I start dreaming of treats using apples and pears. Google returns 1,850,000,000 results for apple recipes, but only 124,000,000 results for pear recipes. I think this is so unfair to the pears since they make lovely treats too.

Today, I am going to share with you this lovely recipe for pear, ginger, and walnut muffins. We will start by preparing homemade pear ginger sauce and use it in our muffin batter. These muffins are not too sweet and are perfect for breakfast to start the day with delicious and healthy treats.

Ingredients for these pear, ginger, and walnut muffins

1. Pear ginger sauce

To make the sauce, we need 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, 2 cups diced pear, 1⁄4 cup sugar, and 2 tablespoons grated ginger (from frozen ginger).

I use Green Anjou in the photos, but you can also use Barlett or Bosc.

2. Muffin batter

We need the following ingredients for the muffin batter:

• 2 large size eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 11 tablespoons (155 grams) unsalted butter
• 1 cup pear ginger sauce
• 1 1/2 cups (180 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, and
• 1 cup walnuts

3. Walnut topping

We need 1⁄2 cup walnuts, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1⁄2 teaspoon ground ginger for the walnut topping.

How to prepare the pear ginger sauce

Peel, core, and dice the pears to get 2 cups worth of diced pears.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat until foamy. Add diced pears and toss to coat.

Stir in sugar and cook until boiling. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add in grated ginger.

Continue cooking for 15 minutes or until the sauce is reduced to about 1 cup. Set aside to cool for 15-20 minutes.

How to prepare the muffin batter

Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit (200 Celsius). Grease a standard 12 cups muffin pan with butter and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat together eggs and sugar until sugar has dissolved. Stir in melted butter and beat until creamy. Stir in cooled pear ginger sauce (from above). Sift in all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger, and salt. Fold with a spatula until you no longer see streaks of flour. Add walnuts and fold until uniform.

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups. Mix the walnut topping ingredients, then sprinkle evenly on top of muffins.

Baking the muffins

Bake the muffins in the preheated oven until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick/skewer comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Remove muffins from the oven and cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Gently remove the muffins from pan and cool on a wire rack.

Serve the muffins warm or at room temperature.

Storing and Reheating

Store any leftover muffin in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day, or in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Leftover muffins can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Wait until muffins are completely cool before wrapping with a freezer wrap or aluminum foil and store in a freezer bag.

You can reheat muffins in a microwave: 5-10 seconds for room temperature muffins, 15-20 seconds for cold muffins from the fridge, and 30-40 seconds for frozen muffins.

Using apples and cinnamon instead of pears and ginger

You can also make these muffins with apples when apples are in season, or if you simply prefer apples to pears.

You can use 1 cup of store-bought applesauce to replace the pear ginger sauce. If you want to make your own, please use the same amount of diced apple. Use 1 stick of cinnamon instead of 2 tablespoons of grated ginger. You may want to double the amount of sugar if using Granny Smith to counter the sourness.

For the muffin batter, use 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder instead of 1 teaspoon of ground ginger.

For the walnut topping, use 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon powder instead of 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger.