Apple Muffins—savor now or save for Thanksgiving week

For me, a new cookbook with untried recipes inside operates as though it were a giant magnet pulling me into its pages. I start purposing to try out each suggestion and to write my comments in the margins after the item is prepared. The fresh-produce recipe book from the Southwest Chili Peppers Nutrition Task Force (mentioned last week) is one such lure. The highly basic nature of the recipes—designed to help people learn to cook produce in the most elemental manner—appeals to me.

I wanted to try its recipe for Pear Muffins but had only apples (of course!) and not pears in my produce bin. So I merely subbed 1 cup diced apples (about 2 medium ones) for the 1 cup diced pears it called for; for a little spiced-up flavor I also added 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. The zest of 1/2 orange (you also could use the zest of 1 lemon or 1/2 grapefruit, the recipe says) plus 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans) are nice additions. I think its flexibility is the thing I like most about the recipe—it allows for various adaptations. If you don’t have a particular ingredient on hand, try similar one that is available to you.

Tempting to devour all of these now, but they were soon spirited away to the deep freeze to save for Thanksgiving week. Apple-y and spice-y, they represented an easy way to put a little fall away for some family time later.

Apple Muffins (adapted from the recipe for Pear Muffins)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

1 cup milk (I used skim)

1 egg beaten (I used egg substitute)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

zest of 1 lemon, 1/2 orange, or 1/2 grapefruit

1 cup diced apples (about 2 medium apples, peeled)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat together milk, beaten egg, oil, and zest of lemon (or orange or grapefruit). Mix apples and nuts into flour mixture. Gently stir milk mixture into dry ingredients. Batter should be lumpy and not smooth. Do not over mix. Spray muffin pans with nonstick spray. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes until tops are browned. Remove from pan immediately; serve warm. Makes 12-14 muffins.

Pears in a pear tree (minus the partridge) stir up into a memorable breakfast muffin

I’m just not believin’ these delicious pears are really ours—well, not exactly ours, but God’s. He loans us our garden to tend and cultivate. But we sure are having a good time tending and cultivating. And to look at our pear tree, only in its second season, and see all those gorgeous pears dangling from its limbs as though they were Christmas ornaments—well, it just takes my breath away.

I’ve got just the recipe in which to use them, too—Pear Pecan Muffins, clipped from a 2002 Taste of Home magazine that featured every kind of muffin under the sun. Any time I have some pears on hand, I whip these up. The pear chunks merged with our homegrown pecans stir into what becomes a marvelous breakfast treat—terrific with a glass of cold milk or a steaming cup of coffee or tea.

When you first mix up the batter, you may wonder why it doesn’t seem more moist. The batter doesn’t pour into the greased muffin cups. You kinda have to massage it in, just as you might spoon cookie dough onto a cookie sheet and sorta shape it as you go. What happens is that as the muffins bake, the juice from the pears oozes into the batter. This actually produces a very moist muffin. If it’s somewhat on the crumbly side, don’t despair. The muffin itself is like an all-over streusel topping that has baked around the pears.

I used this as a Saturday morning treat to jumpstart a busy weekend with kinfolk visiting. I wanted to share with them some of our backyard garden’s finest.

Pear Pecan Muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar (or sugar substitute)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

2 eggs (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups chopped peeled ripe pears (about 6 medium)

1 cup chopped pecans

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In another bowl combine the eggs, oil, and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the pears and pecans. Fill muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick emerges clean. Cool for 5 minutes before you remove muffins from pans to wire racks. Makes about 2 dozen.

Snow, beware: we have our Pear-Granola Muffins to keep us warm

When we saw it on the horizon, I went into my kneejerk Richmond, VA, reaction. The forecast for plummeting temps and snow was pretty sure to happen in the DFW Metroplex in the hours and days ahead. So, as we always observed Richmonders do during our past years of spending winters in Virginia, we grocery-shopped and cooked for the impending days of cocooning.

When the cold front finally hit on Sunday, I was ready. Pear-Granola Muffins helped make a warm breakfast on a blustery, thermometer-dipping morning (although Hubby vowed these muffins were just as good fresh from the fridge because the pear chunks tasted great super-cold). Two whole pears peeled and cubed, nonfat vanilla yogurt, whole-wheat flour, and lowfat granola (with some reserved for a crunchy topping) were the health features of this super item.

When the snow arrived (rare but not unheard of for our area of Texas), we had our healthy Pear-Granola Muffins (thanks, Chickasaw Nutrition Services for the recipe) to help us enjoy its beauty.

Pear-Granola Muffins

cooking spray

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup whole-wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)

3/4 cup brown sugar (or 3/8 cup brown-sugar substitute)

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt, nonfat

2 tablespoon margarine, melted

2 pears, diced into 1-inch cubes

3/4 cup lowfat granola, divided

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spray cooking spray into cups of a 12-cup muffin tin. In a large bowl whisk together flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl whisk together eggs, brown sugar, yogurt, and melted margarine. In the center of the flour mixture make a well. Add egg mixture to the well and mix until combined. Gently fold in 1/2 cup granola and pears. Spoon batter (1/4 cup each) into prepared muffin tin. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup granola, divided among the muffins. Bake 20 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before you remove from muffin tin. Makes 12 muffins.

Some memorable muffins from The Little Pear Tree that Could

We guarded them and hoarded them, but the time arose when we had to part with those last two pears from our serendipitous tree.

Bringing in a pear crop from this newly planted little gem was our most delightful gardening surprise of the summer. We had expected the peaches at last to pour in by the bucketfuls, but we had thought the pears were another year or two in the making.

Not only did we start, some weeks back, spotting pear after pear on its branches, the fruit were amazingly tasty. In an earlier column I mentioned learning to ripen them in a paper bag. The dishes that have been prepared from the pear tree's yield have been fabulous, but now the time arose for the pears' last hurrah.

A wonderful little recipe that I'd clipped from an old Taste of Home magazine brought the solution to how to bake those last pear morsels. The pears were enormous in size, so even though the recipe called for about six medium ones, cutting up the two I had remaining easily produced four cups chopped, peeled, ripe pears that the recipe specified.

The cinnamony kitchen smells that emerged when I prepared those Pecan-Pear Muffins brought in a hint of fall (even as tenaciously as we're trying to hold on to summer) and a reminder that the dishes of this current season ultimately will give way to harvest-themed treats such as baked apples and pumpkin everything.

But in the meantime, thank-yous were in order for the Little Pear Tree That Could, with visions of summer 2011 that might even bring more and more.

Pecan-Pear Muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar (I use sugar substitute)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt (I use salt substitute)

2 eggs (I use egg substitute)

1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups chopped peeled ripe pears (about 6 medium)

1 cup chopped pecans

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In another bowl combine the eggs, oil, and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the pears and pecans. Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick emerges clean. Cool for 5 minutes before you remove from pans to wire racks. Makes about 2 dozen.