This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays was chosen by Andrea of Nummy Kitchen: bosc pear, blue cheese and walnut muffins. I happen to think muffins are the perfect on-the-go breakfast (and I needed one this weekend!) so I definitely wanted to bake along. The alarm went off at 4:15 am today and Shane and I headed out the door to his final triathlon of the season. It was still dark out when we got in the car but by the time we got down to the beach, the sun was starting to come up. I can’t remember the last time I saw such a gorgeous sunrise and I snapped a ton of photos of it before sitting on the sand and eating my muffin. Despite the early start, it was a wonderful way to begin the day!
Savory muffins aren’t my cup of tea, so I sweetened this recipe up a bit to suit my tastes, taking some advice from Andrea as well as Michelle of Flourchild (thanks ladies!). I still used pears in my muffins, but I omitted both the blue cheese and the walnuts. To add more flavor to the muffins I mixed in cinnamon, nutmeg and almond extract and also topped them with a cinnamon-sugar combo. I’ve had problems in the past with dense muffins using Melissa’s muffin recipes, and Andrea suggested sour cream might yield a fluffier muffin so that’s the route I went, subbing it in place of the milk and heavy cream the recipe suggests. Additionally, I used slightly less flour in my muffins. I made a third of the recipe, which yielded 5 muffins that baked in just over 20 minutes.
The batter for my muffins was incredibly thick so I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out but the texture was perfect – not a hint of the denseness I’d experienced in the past. In the flavor category I wish I’d done more though. The spices were too mild and left me feeling like something was missing. Perhaps next time I’d pair my pears with another fruit and up the spices. That said, I still enjoyed the muffins a lot and look forward to grabbing another for breakfast tomorrow. Big thanks to Andrea for hosting this week! You can find the recipe for the muffins on her blog or on pages 8-9 of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book.
Lemon Bars
Glazed Grapefruit Cake
Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
I love your muffin liners and I am a huge pear fan. I will be trying these!
Pretty muffins. Love pears in things. Will have to try pear muffins.
Beautiful pear muffins. I would love that with a cup of tea. I can make to share with friends
Thanks very much for sharing.
cute patty tins? what do you call them? the paper muffin thingees! they are so cute!
Hmmm – love your changes to these muffins. The addition of the spices is making them sound super delicious to me.
Im sorry they weren’t quite what you were looking for. I added zucchini too mine and it really made them moist! Your muffins sure look good!
That beach sunrise picture just made my morning! Im glad you got to see that!
Beautiful muffins. Love the pink liners. The sunrise is amazing. I have lots of sunset pictures but few sunrises. Must have to do with the hour of the day.
The muffins look great and so does that sunrise, sounds like both helped with the early morning wake-up!
I wasn’t sure we’d like these, so I sat out this week.
Great idea to go sweet! I wasn’t a huge fan of my pear and blue cheese savory muffins. I also did the sour cream thing and it worked out great. Too bad I didn’t like the flavor of the muffins. Your sweet muffins look so cute. I love the muffin cups.
Hi Tracey – Great looking cupcakes! What do you use for a camera and lighting once it gets dark early in RI?
Oh, food blogger gathering coming soon!
Great idea for the fresh pears now in season. Yum!
Hopefully Shane’s triathlon went well! I keep telling myself that I should train for one…
I agree with you – I’m more for the sweet muffins. I actually made these but didn’t get them posted in time. The photos of your muffins look beautiful even if you felt they were missing a little something.
Thanks for the kind words guys!
@scrappysue – I usually just call them liners – thanks, I love these too
I snagged mine in a local store, but they’re available online from a number of sources. Here’s one: http://www.bakeitpretty.com/item_26/Tilt-a-Whirl-Baking-Cups.htm
@Jennifer – Hi! It gets tough here when the sun starts setting at 4, doesn’t it? To be honest, I try to avoid taking pictures at night in the winter. I have thought about picking up the Ego lights so many rave about, but haven’t done it. The lights in my house make everything look terrible so I just try to shoot on the weekend or in the morning. I shoot all of my photos (since last Christmas) with a Canon Rebel XS.
A food blogger gathering? Fun! Let me know when you have more details