Pear (and Chocolate) Muffins...the fruity love affair continues!!

Pear (and Chocolate) Muffins…okay, okay, so I know that eating cakes and muffins should be the last thing I should be doing but when you end up looking at those fruits staring at you with sad, forlorn eyes every time you open the refrigerator, you have to figure out a way to use them!! J

Pear (and Chocolate) Muffins

(Recipe from the Goddess Kitchen, very slightly modified)

Ingredients:

• Ripe Pears, medium size, 3 (around 500gms)

Dry Ingredients:

• Regular All Purpose flour/Maida, 250gms
• Baking powder, 2 tsp
• Granulated sugar, 150gms
• Salt, a pinch
• Dark Chocolate, chopped or chips, 100gms (I have made both with and without, using dark and regular chocolate chips – they all work)

Wet Ingredients:

• Butter, salted or unsalted, melted and cooled to room temperature; 75gms (if using salted butter, skip the salt mentioned above in the dry ingredient list)
• Egg, 1 large
• Milk, 240ml
• Vanilla Extract, ½ tsp (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Line the muffin tray with paper liners.

Wash, peel, core the pears and then dice them into ½ inch to ¾ inch pieces.

In a large bowl, sieve in the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt (if using). Mix in the chocolate chips.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, eggs, milk and vanilla extract.

Fold in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then stir in the pears.

 Stir only till the ingredients are combined – overzealous mixing will result in tough muffins and you don’t want that (and hence muffins recipes are perfect for lazy cooks like me).

Using an ice cream scoop or two table spoons, evenly fill in the muffin cups with the batter – till about ¾ full.

Place in the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown/ till a toothpick inserted in the centre of the muffin comes out clean.

Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the muffin tray.