Nigella Lawson's Pear & Ginger Muffins--Made a Bit Healthier

This week's I Heart Cooking Clubs theme is "Autumn Harvest"--recipes inspired by what is fresh for the fall season. Craving something baked, I selected Nigella's Pear and Ginger Muffins from Nigella Express, (pgs 96-97). Pears are a fruit that immediately makes me think of a crisp fall day and ginger is such a warming spice, they seemed like the perfect fall treat. Of course I wouldn't be me if I didn't tinker with the recipe to make it a bit healthier. My changes, (using a combo of spelt and white wheat flour, reducing the amount of sugar, replacing the sour cream with yogurt and the oil with applesauce), are listed in red below.

Nigella says: "These are particularly good: nothing fancy (I hate a breakfast muffin that thinks it’s a cake), but the pear keeps the texture luscious and the ginger permeates everything, including your kitchen, with its husky heat. This makes for the kind of Saturday breakfast I can happily settle into. And I’m pretty keen on a quick snack later on in the day of one of these now-cooled muffins with some sharp, hard cheese, a Davidstow Cheddar maybe or Caerphilly, or a crumbly, pungent blue.

You can mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, and the wet ones in a jug, cover both with clingfilm, and leave the former in a cool spot in the kitchen and the latter in the fridge. Then all you have to do is peel and chop the pear and lazily fork everything together in the morning. I dare say you will not get punished from on high if you don’t bother to peel the pear, either. I do, simply because I love the way the juicy fruit merges with the crumb when there are no barriers to its oozing."


Pear and Ginger Muffins

Nigella Express, Nigella Lawson

(Makes 12 Muffins)

1¾ cups flour (used 1 cup white wheat and 3/4 cup spelt flour)
¾ cup granulated sugar (cut down to 1/3 cup)
½ cup + 6 tsp packed light brown sugar (replaced 6 Tbsp with 3 tsp raw sugar/spice mix)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
2/3 cup sour cream (replaced with non-fat Greek yogurt)
½ cup vegetable oil (replaced with 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce)
1 Tbs honey
2 large eggs
1½ cups peeled and chopped pears, about ¼-inch dice

Preheat oven to 400°F 375°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper muffin cups

Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl: flour, granulated sugar, the ½ cup of brown sugar, baking powder, and ground ginger. In a large measuring cup, whisk the sour cream, oil, honey, and eggs together and then fold this into the dry ingredients. Mix in diced pear and then divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Sprinkle each one with ½ tsp brown sugar and then bake for 20 minutes. (I replaced the 1/2 tsp regular brown sugar with a 1/4 tsp mix of raw sugar, cinnamon and allspice). Remove to a cooling rack. Best eaten still a little warm.


Notes/Results: YUM! These are wonderful little muffins full of pear flavor and just a light touch of ginger. They turned out really moist and plenty sweet, even removing a lot of the sugar. In fact, I might take out a bit more sugar and add some candied ginger when I make these again. (Yes, they are a make-again recipe). I baked my muffins at 375 degrees F. as I find 400 to be a bit too hot in my oven and they took about 22 minutes. Replacing the brown sugar topping the muffins with a lesser amount of a mix of raw sugar, cinnamon and allspice worked well as it gives the tops a bit of color and a pretty sparkle and the raw sugar gives it a nice crunch. Nigella is right, they are perfect as a snack with some sharp cheddar cheese--once again YUM!

You can check out what the other IHCC participants made and how they liked them by going to the website here. Come join us! We will be cooking the recipes of Nigella for the next several months.

Happy Monday! (Day 2 of 30 posts in 30 days for NaBloPoMo)