This week’s SMS was chosen by Jennifer of Maple N’ Cornbread: pear cranberry muffins with gingersnap crumble! It certainly sounded like a delicious combination of fall flavors to me so I was looking forward to this one. Then I realized the muffins used the same base recipe as the peach muffins we made a few months ago (which turned out quite dense and heavy) and I lost a bit of my enthusiasm. Still, I forged ahead hopeful I’d have more luck with the recipe this time around.
I halved the recipe in case it didn’t turn out well and wound up with 7 muffins. I subbed lemon zest for the orange zest and used chopped fresh cranberries. I borrowed Wendy’s idea to use the TWD sugar-topped molasses spice cookies in place of the gingersnaps in the crumble topping. It was perfect as I had just a tiny bit of cookie dough leftover and would likely have wound up throwing it away had I not used it for this recipe. I also used about 2 tablespoons less flour than the half recipe called for.
The resulting muffins were absolutely fantastic! I’m so glad I tried them. They were light and fluffy and the flavors were wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the tart cranberries contrasted with the sweet crumble topping. Many thanks to Jennifer for hosting this fun fall recipe! You can find the recipe on her blog or by picking up the book. You can visit the SMS blogroll to see the rest of this week’s muffins.
Lemon Bars
Glazed Grapefruit Cake
Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Happy to hear they were a hit for you despite your concern otherwise…always disappointing when you get a failure, so very nice that these worked out so well. They look really great, even without the pretty papers. Nice job of making and photographing.
Never admit anything bad. 🙂 I would never have known – these look perky, light and absolutely wonderful (especially with the happy liners)! It must be cranberry week (TWD included)! Love the photos AND the muffins – and so glad you enjoyed making and eating them!
i didn’t get to do the peach muffins but i have seen a lot of people saying they turned out a bit dense. i’m glad this pear version turned out light and fluffy for you! mine definitely were, too! another great recipe!
wow these sound like a wonderful fall combo! I have a huge bag of cranberries in my fridge- if I can find nice pears at the store I’m going to have to try these out! The crumb topping is really pretty too!
Isn’t it great when our expectations are low and reality is high. Glad these turned out for you.
They look delicious. And yours and Wendy’s idea to use the molasses cookies on top took it over the top.
Im so glad that the little adjustments worked out for you! I loved these muffins! Thanks for baking with me this week 🙂
Your muffins look beautiful! I love the liners.
Great muffins…I love your cookie dough topping idea! Im glad they turned out good too, the peach muffins were a lot more heavy. I added buttermilk to mine and that helped too!
Gorgeous muffins! I love your muffin liners – too cute!
Look at how pretty those muffins are! Great job, Tracey. I’ll be stealing this gingersnap/molasses crumble for future muffins, and may be trying the pear muffin itself soon.
I’m glad they turned out better than expected. They look great!
Well, as usual, your muffins look absolutely perfect! I really have to get some cute muffin liners, I always love yours! I’m so glad that you loved these, I did too, and (with a few changes) they weren’t dense at all either!
Your muffins look yummy! I loved the tartness of the cranberries.
It is always nice when a flop turns into a win. They look delicious.
Glad you liked these. I did too. I also used my TWD cookies, that I baked this weekend, to make the gingersnap crumble!
Yay! I’m glad they turned out for you. They look great.
I’m so glad they turned out this time. I might try mine this week; I’ll have to keep in mind all of the changes so they don’t turn out heavy and dense!
Yum! These look great and using the cookie crumble on top sounds so good.
so glad you tweaked the recipe enough that you liked the muffins! I think the combination of flavors sounds really delicious. They look tasty!
Glad you liked them this time, I really loved them. Although I mixed up which ones were dairy free and which ones were not, opps, ouch!
your liners look so cute! i like how they don’t look soggy even with the fruit in it.
I’m happy these worked out well for you! I loved them too, how amazing is that gingersnap crumble?
These muffins look fabulous and I love your liners!
I still hoping to make these, glad to hear you gave them a good review!
I love the colors in your cupcake liners! I really enjoyed the recipe this week. I thought the cranberries and the gingersnaps together were fantastic. I just wish I could have tasted the pear flavor a little more. Maybe next time I will add some grated pear to the batter.
gah, wasn’t this a great one? your muffins make me kick myself for not making the crumble topping 🙂
I would love this recipe.. I can’t find it in any of the links though. I’ve even tried searching the net with no luck.
@Gianna – Sorry about that, it looks like the blog that had the recipe isn’t working anymore. I’ll get the recipe up in the next few days for you 🙂