Pear and raspberry muffins, for Mother's Day

I like Mother's Day. To me, it has a relaxed yet special feel and is often a precursor to a books and coffee outing with my Mum. It is also an excuse to bake. And, of course, it is a day for spending with family.

Today, we had lunch at my parent's house with my family plus Mr Bite's Mum. A barbecue with plenty of vegetarian options, with weather that was just right for eating outdoors. Perfect.

My contributions to the day were mostly things I had made before, or bought, largely due to being away for most of last week and not being organised enough to plan ahead prior to that! In the end, it was an easy to prepare list:

• The cinnamon sweet potato and chickpea salad I made last Christmas, adapted from the recipe on Oh She Glows
• A basic green salad
• Some bought veggie burgers and sausages (I had intended to make the burgers, but ran out of time)
• The vegan strawberry white chocolate truffle balls I made to welcome my sister home last year

My Dad cooked chicken on the barbecue and this was rounded out by potatoes, sweet potatoes, and some bread and dips.

I did, however, make one new thing. As the title of this post would suggest, that came in the form of pear and raspberry muffins. Interestingly, I have never baked with pears before, unless I have done so and forgotten (entirely possible). In the end, this leap into something unfamiliar slightly backfired on me, but I suppose that is part of what baking is. Experimentation can't always go to plan!

Why backfired? Well, I didn't like these much. They seemed to be well received by others, and as my brother ate two I don't think it was just politeness...unless he was very hungry. I can't quite put my finger on what was wrong, but I found the texture to be not quite right, and the flavours almost bland. I make muffins so often that I may be quite demanding in my standards, but these were definitely not up to them.

This may have been, in part, due to the use of quite thick cupcake liners. I have only used these once before and I have found them to affect the cooking time, and also make it harder to judge when things are cooked. These were cooked, but might have been slightly underdone. The pears also changed the texture of the muffins and I think there needed to be more 'grit' in the batter in order to counter the softness of the pear.   Chia seeds, for example, or nuts. I'm not sure why this is, given I make apple muffins all the time with no problem, but the pears seemed to give quite different results to apple.

As for the flavour, I don't really know what would have improved it. Don't get me wrong, it was nice enough - but that was all, nothing exciting. More vanilla might have helped, or using almond meal and turning these into friands. Making a raspberry glaze for the top would have been another option, or adding yoghurt to the mix.

I do think that these have potential and so am posting the recipe here, but would encourage experimentation if anyone decides to try an offshoot!

Pear and raspberry muffins

Adapted from the 'peary berry muffins' in Kris Holechek's 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes

Vegan

Makes 12 muffins

A bit of a work in progress...

Print recipe

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups plain flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

Pinch salt

1 cup non-dairy milk (I used almond)

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp oil

1/4 cup apple sauce

2 medium - large pears, peeled and diced

1 cup frozen raspberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 200'C and prepare a 12 pan muffin tray.

Combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) in a large bowl.

Combine the wet ingredients (milk, vinegar, vanilla, oil and apple sauce) in a medium bowl. Add to the dry ingredients and mix through to combine.

Add the pear and raspberries and mix through until just combined.

Divide between 12 muffin pans and bake for 28 - 32 minutes until golden and a toothpick comes out clean (mine were 30 minutes, but the heavy cupcake liners but have influenced things). Allow to cool slightly before removing from the pan.

Do you bake with pears regularly, and if so, is there anything I should know about how they behave or what it goes well with?

And happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there!

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