Pear-Hazelnut Oat Muffins

Have you ever dreamed of owning your own restaurant? I have….it would be a breakfast and lunch place. Opening early in the morning and closing late in the afternoon. Mornings are my favorite time of the day, there is something about the quiet and I tend to do my best work. All pastries and baked goods would be made daily. There would also be seasonal soups and salads. All items would be made from local and wholesome ingredients.

One of the baked items on the menu would be these Pear-Hazelnut Oat Muffins. The pears are shredded and then added into a cardamom, nutmeg scented batter and then hazelnuts are coarsely chopped; one half into the batter, the other half on top. To me the combination of pears and cardamom is a match made in heaven. These baked up beautifully and tasted even better the next day. To rewarm, place in a 200º oven and serve with a small pat of butter. Talk about a wonderful way to start the day….

This recipe has been ever so slightly adapted from Megan Gordon’s cookbook “Whole-Grain Mornings”.

Ingredients:

½ cup rolled oats
¼ cup oat bran
1cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
2 or 3 firm pears (peeled and shredded with box grater)
2/3 cup sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted) I zapped in microwave twice, each time 30 seconds each)
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs (beaten)
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 cup roasted unsalted hazelnuts (divided)

Preheat oven to 425º

Prepare muffin pan with liners, or grease individual cups and top of pan to prevent sticking.

In a medium size bowl, add the rolled oats and oat bran, both flours, baking soda, baking powder, cardamom, nutmeg and salt, whisk together.

In a small bowl microwave butter 30 seconds at a time, (I only had to do this twice). Set aside.

In another medium size bowl combine buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and shredded pears, set aside.

Whisk sugar into butter and pour into buttermilk mixture. Combine, then fold in flour and one half cup of the hazelnuts. Mix until just combined.

Use an ice cream scoop to fill muffin cups, then sprinkle the rest of the hazelnuts on top.

Place muffins in the oven and then immediately decrease oven temperature to 375. Bake 25 to 27 minutes. Muffins are done when tops are golden brown and top of the muffin springs back lightly when touched.

Here is a link to Megan’s Nutty Millet Breakfast Cookies that I made a few years ago. These were outstanding as well.