Caramelized Pear Gingerbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

With buttery pears and aromatic rich ginger batter, these caramelized pear gingerbread muffins make a lovely breakfast or snack for the holiday season. 

After some soul searching and then consulting with the other members of my Muffin Monday baking group, this post will be my last official Muffin Monday one. That doesn’t mean that I won’t occasionally share a muffin recipe though. I love creating and baking them far too much to give it up entirely. 

I had to go back and count the Muffin Mondays I’ve shared a post for from way back in June of 2012, for a total of 264 muffin recipes! (One a week for three years then one a month since 2015.) Not to mention the links on my posts to fellow bakers’ recipes. It’s a treasure trove of options! See them all here.

But since this is the last official post, I decided that something out of the ordinary was warranted. Something rich and decadent, yet easy to achieve. And definitely a muffin that fit the season. No partridge but a pear and gingerbread! 

Caramelized Pear Gingerbread Muffins

If you don’t have a suitable pear, these would be lovely with an apple caramelized and added in the same manner. 

Ingredients

For the caramelized pear:

1 ripe but firm pear

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon brown sugar

For the muffin batter:

2 1/4 cups or 280g flour

1/2 cup or 100g sugar

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1/2 cup or 120g butter, melted and cooled

1/2 cup or 120ml molasses or treacle

1/4 cup or 60ml milk

 

Method

Peel, core and cut your pear into thick slices.

In a nonstick skillet over a medium high heat, brown the pears in the butter, turning them over in the pan to color both sides. 

Add in the brown sugar and cook for a few minutes, until the sugar melts and bubbles and coats the pear. 

Remove from the heat and leave to cool. 

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing with butter or non-stick spray or lining it with paper muffin cups.

 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Cut the caramelized pear into pieces and set aside 12 pieces for topping. Mix the bigger pile into the flour and toss gently to coat. 

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, butter, molasses and milk.

Pour your wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold them together until just mixed.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.  Top each with a piece of the reserved pear.

Bake in your preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  

Cool in the pan for a few minutes and then remove the muffins to a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

It’s the last Monday of the month so that means it’s time for Muffin Monday. I am so grateful to my fellow bakers for sticking with me all these years. Please check out the links below and go show them some love!

• Banana Buttermilk Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Blueberry Streusel Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Caramelized Pear Gingerbread Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Cardamom Cinnamon Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cassava Flour Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Maple French Toast Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Wheaties Muffins from Palatable Pastime

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who have gotten together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page. 

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