Whisked Away Wednesday: Pear Muffins

Happy Wednesday everyone! It's pear season! We had a breakfast potluck at work this week and I was in charge of bringing doughnuts. Now, I am fond of doughnuts, I even posted a quick doughnut recipe a while back. I don't, however, believe that they are the best way to start a busy day at work. I wanted to bring something that was sweet and indulgent, but not quite as unhealthy as a big ol' doughnut. I had some pears sitting in the fruit bowl, but when I googled pear bread and muffins, all the recipes I found called for shredding the pears before incorporating them into the batter. I wanted to use big hearty chunks of pear! I found this recipe for Peach Almond Bread on the Amanda's Cookin blog. I can't bring anything to work with nuts in it (allergies), so I modified the recipe and used pears instead of peaches. I also made it into muffins, not bread. The muffins turned out DELIGHTFUL! Seriously, my new favorite muffin! They are light and filled with the succulent flavor of pear mingling with vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger. You should probably just make these now... you've made it half way through the week right?? So you deserve them!

Pear Muffins

Based on a recipe for Peach Almond Bread from Amanda's Cookin

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

2 cups peeled, chopped pears, (about 2 medium pears)

Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit.

Sorry about this ugly picture... but that's what it looked like! Batter aint always pretty... but it makes some tasty muffins!

Beat together first six ingredients (I used my hand mixer.)

Mix together remaining ingredients and add to wet ingredient mixture (don't overmix, using a good old fashioned wooden spoon helps).

Line muffin pans with liners. The recipe ended up making an odd number of muffins (15), so I had to use two muffin pans. A little tip I learned is to fill the unused muffin tins with a bit of water so that the muffins cook evenly.

Divide batter between 15 muffin tins, filling about 3/4 of the way full.

Sprinkle with streusel topping (see below for recipe).

Cook for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and firm.

Streusel Topping

5 tablespoons butter (don't use margarine!)

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix together flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over muffins before baking.

Nobody missed having doughnuts at all!

Have a great rest of your week!

Foodie Friday

Scary Little Cookies

Tired of Halloween themed goodies yet? No? GOOD! Me neither! These Halloween cookies are stinkin' cute, if I do say so myself ☺ Got the recipe from the Land O' Lakes butter website. I don't even remember how/why I was on a BUTTER website to begin with... but I digress... I like these cookies, they don't require lots of decorating effort, but they turn out adorable. Don't be deceived by their devilishly good looks, these little guys are darn tasty too. They are cakey, crunchy sugar cookies with the added surprise of coconut in the batter. I liked the fruit snack covered mummys the best, the taste reminds me of a jelly doughnut. Both ghosts and mummys were gobbled up in the first ten minutes of my neighbors Halloween party. What more can you ask for? Taste and looks, these cookies have it all!

Mummy and Ghost Sugar Cookies

Recipe from Landolakes.com

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

1 box (6 rolls) fruit-flavored rolls

Black decorator gel

Mini chocolate chips or small decorator candies (optional)

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl.

Beat at medium speed until well mixed. Reduce speed to low; add flour and coconut.

Continue beating until well mixed.

Divide dough into balls (I made BIG ones using my ice cream scooper and got about 12 balls).

Shape each ball into a log. Place 1 inch apart onto parchment paper covered cookie sheets. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheets.

Mummys

Allow cookies to cool completely.

Starting at top of each cookie, wrap 1 fruit roll around each cookie, stretching slightly to cover. Cut off any extra fruit roll.

Leave small opening near top for eyes. Place onto waxed paper. Use black decorator gel to adhere mini chocolate chips for eyes on each cookie.

Ghosts

Extra Ingredients

2 cups powdered sugar

Roll each cookie in sifted powdered sugar while warm. Set aside to cool.

Roll each in powdered sugar again (I actually ended up putting powdered sugar in a bag and shakin the little ghosts). Tap off excess. Add eyes as directed above.

I liked the eyes better when I didn't use the mini chocolate chips, but it's your call ☺ Maybe use some red hots to make them look extra creepy!

Store in loosely covered container between sheets of waxed paper up to 2 days.

Have a great week!

Easy as.... Sugar Pie

Ever tried sugar pie? I hadn't either until I gave this recipe a try. I had all the ingredients on hand, and I didn't have to make a pie crust. Both big bonuses in my book! The pie turned out BEAUTIFULLY! Crispy, sugar crust covers a silky, brown sugar custard. Honestly the easiest pie you will EVER make, guaranteed. Mix it together using one bowl, pour it into the pie plate, bake for a bit and you're done! I recommend serving this pie up with some fresh fruit, no need to add sugar to the fruit, the pie is VERY sweet (hey it is a SUGAR pie!). I ate mine accompanied by a big glass of milk and some pear slices and it was just right. Enjoy!

Sugar Pie

Recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com

2 cups brown sugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch pie dish (I used a fluted tart pan).

Place the brown sugar and butter in a mixing bowl.

Beat together until well combined. Beat in eggs.

Add the vanilla extract and salt; beat the flour in, and then the milk, making a creamy batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared dish (the batter will be very liquidy).

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes; remove pie, and cover the rim with aluminum foil to prevent burning.

Return to oven, and bake until the middle sets and the top forms a crusty layer, about 15 more minutes. Let the pie cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving (I refrigerated mine for a day).

Slice, garnish as desired, enjoy your sugar pie high!

Whisked Away Wednesday: GIANT Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

Like pumpkin? Like molasses? I happen to love both, so these cookies are like a dream come true for me, and to top it all off, they are pretty healthy (for a cookie). They are made with whole wheat flour and no butter! In the original recipe (which I found on theungourmet.com) flax seeds replace the egg. I didn't have any flax seeds so I used an egg instead. The cookies turned out light, fluffy, and soft on the inside, the raw sugar coating on the outside adds a beautiful sparkle and wonderfully sweet crunch. The flavors come together in a particularly lovely combo of pumpkin and rich molasses. Just the smell of them baking is worth giving the recipe a try, they filled my whole apartment with all the lovely spicy smells of Fall.

Recipe thanks to Kim from The Ungourmet Blog

Makes about 1 dozen really big cookies

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup molasses

1/3 cup canola oil

1 egg

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup raw sugar (for rolling)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Whisk all dry ingredients together except the sugar. In a seperate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, molasses, oil, egg and brown sugar. Combine wet and dry ingredients, mix well. Put the raw sugar in a small bowl.

Form about 2 tablespoons of dough into a ball and cover with raw sugar - the dough is sticky at this stage, so I just used an ice cream scoop and dropped scoops into the sugar, swirling to cover. Continue until you have used up all the dough.

Before placing the cookies in the oven, use a fork to press the cookies down to about 1/2 inch thick (like you do with peanut butter cookies).

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until slightly firm.

All sparkly with sugar... mmmmmmm.....

You should probably go make these... right about now...

you wont regret it, I promise!

Happy Baking!