Dessert/ muffins

Pear Muffins

19 September 2021 By Aleksandra

These pear muffins are moist, well-spiced, and filled with lots of pear chunks. They make an easy and delicious fall dessert. They have a very tender crumb and crunchy walnut cinnamon sugar topping.

Pear muffins, pears, and walnuts on a white plate. One muffin cut in half.

Ingredients

This blueberry muffin recipe uses regular ingredients that you will find in any grocery store (flour, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, yogurt, sugar, butter, vanilla, pears, walnuts, spices). I would only like to talk a little bit about the following ingredients:

Yogurt – it’s the key ingredient to moist muffins with a tender crumb. It’s way better than milk or sour cream. This recipe calls for plain yogurt and not Greek yogurt which is too thick for this recipe.

Spices – I used cinnamon and cardamom. Cardamom is optional since we’re not using it a lot and it’s not always easily available. Pumpkin pie spice would also be great here!

Pears – it’s better to use firm pears for this recipe but it will also work with ripe pears.

Sugar – I used a mix of white sugar and brown sugar. Brown sugar adds caramel flavor that works well with pairs and fall spices.

Butter vs oil – usually it is preferred to add oil to baked goods because it makes them more moist. It’s a good idea to add it to spiced cakes (like this carrot layer cake) or chocolate cakes where the difference in flavor is not that noticeable. These muffins are already very moist thanks to yogurt and lots of pears so adding oil is really not necessary! Butter adds here such a wonderful flavor.

For the best result, all the ingredients should be at room temperature but these muffins will also turn up fine if the ingredients are cold.

Labeled ingredients for pear muffins.

Topping for pear muffins

My favorite topping for pear muffins is a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, and walnuts.

You could also make cinnamon crumble to top them: simply combine 5 tablespoons flour (45g), 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 cup light brown sugar (50g), and 2 tablespoons soft butter (30g).

Labeled ingredients for brown sugar walnut cinnamon topping.

Muffin pan

I used a standard-size muffin pan and got 12 muffins from this recipe.

You can also bake these muffins in a large-sized muffin pan – you will get about 8 jumbo muffins. You will need to bake them longer.

You can also use a mini size muffin pan to bake these as mini muffins – you will get about 18-20 mini muffins. You will need to bake them for a shorter period of time.

Before you start

This recipe is very forgiving and easy to measure with measuring cups but I would like to just bring to your attention how I measure flour. 1 cup of flour can weigh 120-150g, depending on how you’re filling your cup. I’m using the “spoon and level method” so 1 cup of flour in my recipes weighs 125g.

If you are measuring your flour by dipping the measuring cup in the flour container it is very possible that your cup of flour will weigh 140-150g (scooping the flour directly into the measuring cup compacts it so you have more flour in your cup).

Adding too much flour will result in dry muffins so please use my method of measuring flour or use a kitchen scale for a perfect result every time (you don’t have to weigh all the ingredients, just the flour, all the other ingredients are fine to measure with cups!).

To correctly measure the flour, you need to:

  1. Fluff the flour by stirring it in the bag/flour container with a spoon.
  2. Spoon the flour and sprinkle it into your measuring cup.
  3. Sweep off the excess flour with the back of a knife.

How to make pear muffins step by step

Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C/Gas Mark 5, no fan.

Cut pears into small cubes (you don’t have to peel them), set aside.

Prepare a muffin pan (standard size) and line it with 12 paper liners. Spray the liners with a non-stick baking spray (optional).

Butter is being added to a white bowl with ingredients for muffins. Whisked wet ingredients for muffins in a white bowl.

STEP 1: Add the butter, eggs, yogurt, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom, cinnamon, and both types of sugar into a large bowl.

STEP 2: Whisk until well combined.

Flour added to a bowl with wet ingredients for muffins. Muffin batter, pears and walnuts in a bowl.

STEP 3: Add the flour, fold in with a spatula until almost combined.

STEP 4: Add pears and walnuts.

Pear muffin batter in a white bowl. Pear muffin batter in a muffin pan.

STEP 5: Fold in with a spatula until evenly distributed and there are no streaks of flour visible. Don’t overmix the batter.

STEP 6: Divide the batter evenly between 12 muffin liners.

Brown sugar walnut cinnamon topping in a bowl. Muffin batter is being sprinkled with sugary topping.

STEP 7: Make the topping: stir brown sugar with cinnamon and chopped walnuts.

STEP 8: Sprinkle the topping over the muffin batter.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until a wooden skewer/cake tester comes out clean.

Place on a cooling rack to cool slightly and enjoy!

Pear muffins on a wooden board. Walnuts and pears in the background.

Storage

These muffins keep very well, actually a lot better than my raspberry muffins or blueberry muffins. They will be also delicious the next day but I wouldn’t store them longer. Store them in a tightly closed container.

You can reheat them in the oven or in a microwave to refresh them.

How to freeze pear muffins: You can freeze these muffins for up to 6 months. Cool them completely then wrap each muffin in plastic foil and put in the freezer. Thaw in the fridge and warm up in the oven or bake at 320°F/160°C straight from the freezer until thawed and warm.

How to prevent muffins from sticking to liners

  • The most important is to let the muffins cool before trying to take off the wrappers (cool them completely for best results).
  • Spray the muffin liners with a non-stick baking/cooking spray or brush them with vegetable oil or melted butter.
  • Use high-quality liners (some brands may stick more than the others).
  • Buy non-stick wrappers if other methods are failing you.

More delicious muffin recipes

Pear muffins, walnuts, and pears on a white plate. One muffin cut in half. View from above.

Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!

Pear Muffins

These pear muffins are moist, well-spiced, and filled with lots of pear chunks. They make an easy and delicious fall dessert. They have a very tender crumb and crunchy walnut cinnamon sugar topping.
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Pear muffins, walnuts, and pear on a white plate.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 12 muffins
Calories 302kcal
Author Aleksandra

Ingredients

for the muffins:

  • 1/2 cup melted butter (115g)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup yogurt (180g)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon cardamom optional
  • 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100g)
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar (100g)
  • 2 cups flour (250g) spooned and leveled not scooped!
  • 2 cups chopped pears (300g) about 3 ½ small pears
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (50g)

for the topping:

  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup chopped walnuts (40g)

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Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
  • Cut pears into small cubes (you don’t have to peel them), set aside.
  • Prepare a muffin pan (standard size) and line it with 12 paper liners. Spray the liners with a non-stick baking spray (optional).
  • Add the butter, eggs, yogurt, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom, cinnamon, and both types of sugar into a large bowl. Whisk until well combined.
  • Add the flour, fold in with a spatula until almost combined.
  • Add the pears and walnuts, fold in with a spatula until evenly distributed and there are no streaks of flour visible. Don’t overmix the batter.
  • Divide the batter evenly between 12 muffin liners.
  • Make the topping: stir brown sugar with cinnamon and chopped walnuts. Sprinkle the topping over the muffin batter.
  • Bake for about 25 minutes or until a wooden skewer/cake tester comes out clean.
  • Place on a cooling rack to cool slightly and enjoy!

Notes

  • Measuring the flour: 1 cup of flour can weigh 120-150g, depending on how you’re filling your cup. I’m using the “spoon and level method” so 1 cup of flour in my recipes weighs 125g. If you are measuring your flour by dipping the measuring cup in the flour container it is very possible that your cup of flour will weigh 140-150g. Adding too much flour will result in dry muffins so please use my method of measuring flour or use a kitchen scale for a perfect result every time.
  • To correctly measure the flour, you need to: Fluff the flour by stirring it in the bag/flour container with a spoon. Spoon the flour and sprinkle it into your measuring cup. Sweep off the excess flour with the back of a knife.
  • Instead of cinnamon and cardamom, you could also use pumpkin pie spice.
  • You could also make cinnamon crumble to top the muffins: simply combine 5 tablespoons flour (45g), 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 cup light brown sugar (50g), and 2 tablespoons soft butter (30g).
  • Calories = 1 muffin (1/12 of the recipe). This is only an estimate!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
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