Sunday, October 04, 2009

Pear Chocolate Drop Muffins

For the I Heart Cooking Club I am getting my entry in on the wire. This is my first live posting...yes, I am typing as the pear muffins are baking and plan to share the results as soon as the muffins are cooled.


So here's why it's late........I knew I'd make the blackberry crisp or the pear ginger muffins, both from Nigella Express. Friday I arrive at the grocery store and, in spite of seeing frozen blackberries in the freezer case ALL THE TIME, they are out. A big fat empty space in the freezer slot where they belong.

So we decide to go with the pear ginger muffins. I get home and the sour cream is bad. Now how does that even happen. It's sour cream. Fine. Sunday arrives and it's quite nice here this morning. We decide to walk the shibas in the park and take a bike ride down some twisty roads. The sour cream is purchased at 4 PM. It's now 5:31 PM and the bad boys are baking.

Here's what you'll need........

Makes 12

1 ¾ Cups (250g) flour

2 tsp baking powder

¾ Cup (150g) sugar

½ Cup plus 6 teaspoons (75g) light brown sugar

1 tsp ground ginger (Note - I didn't use the ginger)

2/3 Cup (1 x 142ml pot) sour cream

½ Cup (125ml) vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon (1 x 15ml) honey

2 eggs

1 large pear such as a Comice (or other fruit to give you about 300g in weight), peeled, cored and cut into tiny pieces.




Preheat the oven to 400 F (200°C/Gas 6) and line a 12-cup muffin pan with muffin papers.

Measure into a bowl the flour, baking powder, caster sugar, ¾ cup (75g) of brown sugar and the ground ginger.



In a large measuring cup, whisk together the sour cream, oil, honey and eggs and then fold into the dry ingredients.



Lastly, mix in the diced pear, and divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups.

Note: I did not use ginger but decided to pop a giant chocolate chip in the middle of each muffin cup. Let's see if that will be good!



The batter is thick so it will drop out slowly........



Ready to be placed in the hot oven.......



Bake for 20 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack. Best eaten while still a little warm.



Here I am back......20 minutes later with two cups of coffee in me at almost 6 PM.

Brilliant.....but look at the muffins! They are tasty and the choclate drop works very well. Thanks Nigella!



Nigella Express, Get up and Go section, Page 97

32 comments:

  1. Wow!! Live action post...awesome! They sound delicious...although I definitely want to try it with ginger, too :) Thanks for going to all that trouble to join in Baker's Delight this week!!!

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  2. Well, I have two trees full of pears, so these are perfect for me right now. I'm not a huge pear fan, but the chocolate has me sold!

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  3. I lover the idea of the pear in them and both ways, the pear & chocolate and pear & ginger sound great to me.

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  4. Live posting! You are brave. I would be tempted to say silly things in the middle if I did that!
    The muffins look very tasty indeed, what a flavour combination!

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  5. I know how it is to be right under the wire with recipes. I've been doing that a lot lately. I looked at these pear muffins a lot. They sound great, especially with a chocolate chip tucked inside :D I'm going to try them soon!!

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  6. See I love the whole chocolate + pears combination ... like my favourite ice-cream sundae. And how is it that sour cream goes off?? What's that all about? Thanks for sharing ;o)

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  7. I like that you were able to get around your ingredient problems - it looks like things probably turned out great.

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  8. Hmmmmm...I'll have to give these a try, I think. They sound like the perfect fall muffin!

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  9. those muffins look great! I never thought to combine chocolate and pears together. It sounds really delicious

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  10. I have plenty of pears on my tree and am looking forward to trying this recipe.

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  11. I love pears, and what better way to use them! They look delish!

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  12. very nice post and you have a great step by step approach nicely done!

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  13. It was no trouble Girlichef - I probably drove people mad talking about getting those muffins baked! I really look forward to it.

    Janel - sounds great. I do love pears, they are so crisp.

    Thanks for all the nice comments to you all.

    Jo, I really do not understand sour cream going bad. I was...irritated. Because everything else was ready to go.

    As for the live posting it was kinda nice smelling the muffins baking...as I hammered away at the keyboard, cussing like a longshoreman with Tourettes syndrome then backing the nasty comments out (haha) hopeing I'd have a decent dish to share.

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  14. You did good! I took note that you had a cup of coffee next to that great muffin batter. I would have been waiting right there for a couple of those fresh baked muffins to go with a cup of coffee.

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  15. Live post-you are brave. Looks like they turned out great.

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  16. The chocolate and pear combination sounds awesome and the muffins look super delicious, a must try!

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  17. Oh yeah, Velva...the coffee is a must for baking!

    Thanks everyone for the nice comments ;-) I will say that next time I make these, I will drop a bit of batter in the muffon cup first and THEN the pears. The pears stayed at the bottom of the muffin....still, they were good.

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  18. You cannot go wrong with all the pics you took and the explanation you give ... result looks fantastic - and I love pears and chocolate!

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  19. Chocolate and pears - never would have thought of it but it has appeal. The more I think of it, the more I like it.

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