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. 

Pin these Caramelized Pear Gingerbread Muffins!

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Tiny Batch Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins #MuffinMonday

These tiny batch whole wheat blueberry muffins are perfect when you just need three tender, sweet fruity muffins for breakfast or snack time. 

I must confess that when Muffin Monday comes around these days I struggle to find motivation to bake. It’s not that I don’t have a ton of ideas still. Far from it. Muffins are so versatile – sweet, savory or some combination of both - that I don’t think I’ll ever run out of ideas! 

The problem is that with just two of us at home we just don’t eat enough muffins. Back when my husband was working, I’d send in extras for him to share with his colleagues. I do still share with friends and neighbors but now I have a single lady living next door and she’s not a big eater. As I said, it’s a struggle. 

Hence my tiny batch this month and I’m wondering if it’s time to give up Muffin Mondays in the New Year. It might be time. 

Tiny Batch Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

This recipe makes three regular sized muffins. I baked them in silicone muffin cups rather than using a half empty six-cup muffin pan but that will work too. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup or 60g whole wheat flour

1/4 cup or 50g sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 large egg white, at room temperature

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 tablespoons full-fat sour cream or plain yogurt, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup or 45g fresh or frozen blueberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 400°F or 200°C. Line three muffin cups of a standard 6-cup  muffin pan with paper liners, or use silicone muffins cups on a baking pan. 

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. 

Add in the blueberries and toss to coat. 

In another bowl, whisk the melted butter, egg white, sour cream (or yogurt), and vanilla extract. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and fold until combined and no streaks of flour remain. 

Divide the batter evenly between the three prepared muffin cups. 

Bake the muffins for 5 minutes in your preheated oven, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F or 180°C. 

Continue baking until the tops of the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes more.

Place the muffins on a cooling rack and allow them to cool slightly before removing.

Enjoy!

It’s the last Monday of the month which means it’s Muffin Monday! Check out the links to the recipes my blogger friends and I are sharing today. 

• Banana Cranberry Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Fig Muffins with Creamy Goat Cheese Filling from A Messy Kitchen
• Pumpkin Apple Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Seeded Rye Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Tiny Batch Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins from Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get 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. 

Pin these Tiny Batch Whole Wheat

Blueberry Muffins!

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Sourdough Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Oh, so tender and sweet, these jumbo sourdough peanut butter banana muffins are made with very ripe bananas, sourdough discard and smooth peanut butter. 

My poor neglected sourdough starter has been sitting in the refrigerator for almost six months, just hanging out and hanging on. It had very little hooch on top so I took that as a good sign.

I fed it up without discarding a couple of times and it responded well until finally, I took some out to make these muffins. While the discard doesn’t help with the rise, it surely adds moisture, giving the muffins a lovely texture. 

Sourdough Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

You can use fed or unfed sourdough starter for these muffins though unfed will give them more sourdough flavor. This recipe makes nine jumbo muffins.

Ingredients

2 cups or 250g flour

½ cup, firmly packed, or 100g brown sugar 

½ cup or 100g sugar 

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

⅔ cup or 150g very ripe banana (peels were brown and speckled)

2 large eggs

½ cup or 113g melted, cooled butter

½ cup or 125g sourdough discard 

¼ cup or 60ml milk

¼ cup, rounded, or 80g smooth peanut butter (with sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and line a large muffin pan with jumbo paper liners. 

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

In another bowl, mash the bananas with a fork and add the eggs and mix.

Add in the butter, sourdough discard, milk, peanut butter and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth. 

Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to fold together until just combined.

Divide the batter between your muffin cups. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven or until a toothpick comes out clean and the muffins are golden brown. 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes on a wire rack. Transfer the muffins to the wire rack. 

These can be eaten warm or cold. Either way, they go great with a cup of coffee in the morning or a cup of tea in the afternoon. 

Enjoy! 

It’s the last Monday of the month so that means it’s time for Muffin Monday. Check out the lovely muffins my baker friends are sharing below.

• Cinnamon Stuffed Streusel Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Lemon Pomegranate Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Oatmeal Zucchini Muffins with Dried Cranberries from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Peanut Ripple Banana Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Simple Banana Muffins (2 Bananas = 6 Muffins) from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Sourdough Peanut Butter Banana Muffins from Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get 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. 

Pin these Sourdough Peanut Butter Banana Muffins! 

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Double Chocolate Guinness Muffins #MuffinMonday

The deep flavor of stout enhances the chocolate in these rich double chocolate Guinness muffins baked with cocoa and lots of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I’ve been on a bit of a savory muffin kick lately but our younger daughter is here to visit so I decided I’d go sweet this month. I bought a 500ml bottle of Guinness Extra Stout for these muffins but also ended up using it for marinated chicken thighs and then the balance in a steak pie at her request. 

All three turned out beautifully and now I need to keep Guinness on hand all the time. You know, just in case. 

Double Chocolate Guinness Muffins

As mentioned above and indicated by the title, I used Guinness Extra Stout for this recipe but you can absolutely substitute your favorite stout. This recipe makes 12 regular sized muffins, chock full of chocolate chips. This recipe is adapted from one on Floating Kitchen.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups or 219g all-purpose flour

3/4 cups or 150g golden caster sugar (Sub white if that's what you have)

1/4 cup or 20g cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup or 113g, butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for buttering pan, if needed

1/2 cup or 120ml Guinness stout beer

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups or 300g semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or brush with melted butter. (Or if you have silicone muffin cups, use them. I love mine which were a gift from my daughter.) Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

In another mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, Guinness and eggs until well combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold.

Set aside a generous handful of the chocolate chips to sprinkle on top then fold the rest into the batter. 

Divide the batter evenly between the 12 cups of your prepared muffin pan. Top with the reserved chocolate chips. 

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Allow the muffins to cool in their pan for about 10 minutes, then remove and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy! 

It’s the last Monday of the month which means it’s Muffin Monday time! Check out all the lovely muffins my baker friends are sharing. 

• Banana Oreo Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Chunky Monkey Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Coconut Bran Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Double Chocolate Guinness Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get 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. 

Pin these Double Chocolate Guinness Muffins!

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Pepperoni Pizza Muffins #MuffinMonday

Just like a slice of pizza but in muffin form, these pepperoni pizza muffins are great for breakfast, brunch, lunch or snacking. 

Growing up, we didn’t have the ready option of take-out or pizza delivery or at least if we did, my mom didn’t take advantage of such a thing. If we wanted pizza, it meant going to a pizza parlor or baking it at home. 

Mom would use the Chef Boyardee pizza kit which included everything you needed, even a can of grated cheese to make a big rectangular pizza. Good memories, good times. 

Nowadays, whenever we make our fancy sourdough crust pizza at home, I think about how much I enjoyed that box kit pizza – special treat! - and how far we’ve come with options online and in the neighborhood to buy pizza. Despite those, homemade pizza is still the best! 

If you don’t have time for yeast dough though, these pepperoni pizza muffins will fill in beautifully.

Pepperoni Pizza Muffins

If you can’t find the julienne-cut sun-dried tomatoes, substitute the whole ones and slice them up! I found mine in the back of the pantry where they’d been languishing for a while. They darkened but still tasted good, so waste not want not but next time, once opened, I think I’ll pop them in the freezer to keep the color looking bright. 

Ingredients

1/2 oz or 14g sun-dried tomatoes, julienne cut

1 1/2 cups or 190g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasonings

3/4 cup or 180ml milk

1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil

1 egg

2/3 cup or 156ml pizza sauce, divide into 2, half for muffin batter and balance for topping

3 1/2 oz or 100g mozzarella, plus extra for topping, if desired

1 3/4 oz or 50g pepperoni, plus extra for topping, if desired

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and generously grease your muffin tin or use paper liners.

Pour hot water over the sun-dried tomatoes to rehydrate them. Leave for 10 minutes, then drain well.

 

Cut your pepperoni into pieces and grate your cheese.  

In a large bowl, mix together your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, crushed red pepper and dried oregano.

Add the cut pepperoni to the flour mixture and use your hands to toss and coat so you can separate the pieces of pepperoni. 

Do the same with the grated cheese and then the drained sun-dried tomatoes. 

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk, and oil together.

Add your wet ingredients to your dry and mix just until it is just combined.

Gently fold in half of the pizza sauce. 

Spoon the batter into your prepared muffin tin.

Divide the remaining pizza sauce between the muffin cups.  

Top with one pepperoni each, then some cheese and a pinch of Italian seasonings. 

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

 

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes then remove from the muffin pan and cool on a rack. 

Enjoy!

It’s the last Monday of the month so that means it’s time for my Muffin Monday friends to share muffin recipes! Check out the links below.

• Chocolate Zucchini Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Gingered Lemon Poppyseed Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Mango Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Passion Fruit Poppy Seed Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Pepperoni Pizza Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Mango Pineapple Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get 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. 

Pin these Pepperoni Pizza Muffins!

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