Pear Muffins with Cinnamon Streusel

Pears, so sweet, juicy and delicious when they are perfectly ripe but give them a day or two more and it's cook with them or throw them out. Sometimes they seem to ripen way too quickly for me to eat them!

That's when a muffin recipe like this comes in handy...moist and cakey, with chunks of sweet pear and a cinnamon streusel topping these used the ripe pears, as well as some yoghurt and half a fresh lemon.

They were a hit for breakfast this morning!

To make the streusel, combine the dry ingredients:

3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Add:

1/3 cup melted butter

Stir with a fork or use your fingertips, until you have mixed all of the butter in and have a crumbly mixture.

Set aside until needed.







Heat the oven to 350F and lightly grease a muffin tin. This recipe only makes 8 muffins, so grease only the amount of muffin cups needed.

To make the muffin batter, beat until light and fluffy:

2/3 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
zest of half a lemon

Add:

1 egg

Mix until well combined.

Add half of the dry ingredients. For the full amount of dry ingredients you will need:

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

When the first half of the dry ingredients is combined, add the wet ingredients:

Juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon Greek yoghurt
Milk to bring the total liquid to 1/2 cup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla






When the wet ingredients are incorporated add the remaining half of the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Place a slightly heaped tablespoon of batter into each greased muffin cup...

Top this with peeled and chopped pear. I used:

1 ripe pear

Divide the remaining batter between the muffin cups, gently spreading it over the pears.

Divide the reserved streusel between the 8 muffins, gently pressing it into the batter.

Bake until the muffins are firm to the touch, the streusel is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

This took about 35 - 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow the muffins to cool before carefully removing from the pan. Enjoy warm or at room temperature, with morning coffee or as a quick and easy breakfast.

• This is a basic streusel recipe and can be added to if you want more crunch or layers of flavour. Things like chopped nuts or oats, brown sugar, spices such as ground or fresh ginger, lemon or orange zest will all do just that.
• Extra streusel can be made and frozen for your next batch of muffins.
• Do not limit your fruit choice to pears. Other fruits that can be used to make these delicious muffins include apples, peaches, berries, rhubarb.
• Instead of greasing your muffins cups, use paper liners. This makes taking them out of the pan easier, makes clean up easier and allows you to take the muffins as a meal or snack on the go.
• The recipe can be adapted to make mini loaves if you have the pans. These make great hostess, Christmas or teacher gifts.
• The muffins can be frozen.