Accidental Mini Asian Pear & Almond Muffins
The other weekend, on a lovely early Fall morning I took a walk to the Farmers Market. The fantastic fresh food extravaganza just so happens to be about a block from my house and occurs every single Saturday morning. It’s pretty excellent. As I entered the street lined with tents containing bins over bins of potentially amazing meals, I was overwhelmed with an intense need to buy Asian Pears. This was probably as a result of the five foot two latina woman screaming in my face, “EVERYTHING $1 A POUND! PEACHES, JALAPENOS, NECTARINES, ASIAN PEARS!” At that point I did a double take, asian pears for $1 a pound? You crazy! That’s a damn good deal. I’ll take 5 pounds.
The next day with my hords of asian pears staring me in the face I decided to make a pear butter first, then would eventually decide what to do with it after.
When the delicious, caramelly pear butter was finished I happened to have the oatmeal canister hanging out on the kitchen counter. I glanced at the back, and there was a recipe for Oatmeal Apple Muffins. “Nice,” I said, “I’ve been meaning to start learning how to bake. Now’s an excellent time to start!” My kitty Sammy meowed back in approval. He’s very supportive.
So I devised a plan, I would substitute the white flour in the recipe for whole wheat white flour, which I had for making rues and such, I would substitute my pear butter for the apple sauce, and I would add slivered almonds. I have been advised not to try to vary recipes too much when it comes to baking, so that’s all I changed. “Let’s get baking!” Sammy meowed back in a way I can only describe as ecstatic.
Mixy, mixy…
Lubricate then stuff the muffin tins…
…that’s what she said.
And then, BAM! Mini muffins!
The results were super duper excellent, but I have a couple of improvements for next time. I didn’t want to end up eating all of them, so I brought most of them to work the next day. My co-workers confirmed that they were in fact tasty and ate them all.
It was a successful baking experience and I will definitely do it again sometime soon. Maybe next time I’ll try something savory and with bacon.