Make Ahead

pear and buckwheat breakfast muffins

by:
February 18, 2011
0
0 Ratings
  • Makes 12
Author Notes

Ever since reading Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain and the Gluten Free Girl's article on combining whole grain flours, I've given serious thought to the flavors of different flours and the textures that they create.
These muffins combine my current obsession with carrot cake with a long time interest in things that are filling enough to power me through my classes. I grated pears instead of carrots, added plenty of thick yogurt, and threw in some Medjool dates because I love them. The resulting muffin is filling, but not heavy and has the squidginess of a pudding faintly scented with buckwheat. It also has the bonus of tasting almost better defrosted after the spices have melded with the dates.

I hope you enjoy them. —chiocolat

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 d'Anjou pears
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup (60 grams) canola or vegetable oil
  • 1 cup (230 grams) Greek yogurt (I used Fage 0%)
  • 1/2 cup (100 grams) sucanat or other dark sugar
  • 1 cup (120 grams) all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup (90 grams) whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/4 cup (30 grams) buckwheat flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 6 Medjool dates
  • 12 walnut halves (optional)
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a muffin tin by lining with paper liners or spraying with Pam. Quarter and core the pears before grating them coarsely with the grating attachment of the food processor. Or use a box grater. Feel free to leave the skins on, I know I do.
  2. Mix together the eggs, oil, yogurt, and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add the grated pears and combine.
  3. Measure out the dry ingredients and combine in separate bowl before adding to the wet ingredients and stirring until barely combined. To be honest, I place the bowl of wet ingredients on my digital scale, cancel out the weight, and add the dry ingredients directly because I dislike dishwashing. You choose.
  4. Tear the Medjool dates in half and drop them into the batter, discarding the pits. I find Medjool dates impossible to cut and some muffins will be studded with more than others. I think it adds to the morning suspense, but you could make an effort to try to tear them into smaller bits.
  5. Evenly divide the batter amongst the 12 muffin cups. Top each muffin with a walnut half.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes, but check after 20 because ovens really do vary. The muffins are done when they pull away from the pan and a knife inserted comes out clean.
  7. You could devour them right away, but they taste best after at least a day of "ripening".

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