Pear and Walnut Muffins

I created a new recipe today. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

It's really a riff on the Cranberry Orange Nut Muffins from Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I absolutely love this cookbook. My Tempeh Bacon Revamped from this cookbook is marinating right now, I will eat that for dinner tonight.  It smells great, I am so tempted to taste the marinade - I had to put it out in the garage (it's cold out there!), so I would stop smelling it and obsessing over it.


PEAR AND WALNUT MUFFINS
Makes 12 muffins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and put muffin cups in muffin tin (or grease the tin).

Dry ingredients:

2 c. flour (I used half all purpose and half whole wheat pastry, but all purpose is fine)
2/3 c. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. cardamom (the secret ingredient!, if you don't have any use cinnamon)

Mix these ingredients in large mixing bowl.

Wet ingredients:

1 c. non dairy milk (I like vanilla rice milk, or coconut would be great too)
1/4 c. canola oil
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. almond extract

Mix these ingredients in a 2 cup measuring cup or small bowl. Make well in dry ingredients, pour in wet ingredients and mix gently. You don't want to overmix, muffin batter can be a bit lumpy. When you are half done mixing, fold in:

1/2 c. ripe pear, cut in 1/2" chunks (no need to peel)
heaping 1/3 c. walnuts (see Note below)

Note: You can toast the walnuts in the preheating oven for extra flavor, I just dump them in the batter right out of the oven.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake for 23-27 minutes. I don't test them, because the pear chunks get in the way, I just eyeball when they look done. Eat warm (we never have any leftovers, so I don't know how they are cold).


And, here's a quick shot of yesterday's dinner.

Baby spinach with brown basmati rice and some cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, zucchini and chickpeas simmered in Seeds of Change Jalfrezi Sauce (I highly recommend it!).  Served with tabouli, just because I had some I wanted to finish.   The potatoes were the last of a little bag of red, gold and blue fingerlings from Trader Joe's.  I sprinkled toasted pumpkin seeds on top, it was dangerously delicious.