I love muffins! Muffins are like this blank canvas that you can add any delicious flavor to and they taste wonderful. Plus they are so easy to eat, which makes them perfect for kids.  Not only do we have muffins a lot for breakfast, but I like to take them as snacks for when we are on the go too.  It sure beats stopping and grabbing fast food when the kids get hungry in the car.  I have found that it is amazingly simple to make a couple batches of muffins in a variety of flavors all in one morning and then freeze them to eat over the next week or two.  They thaw out overnight in the fridge or if left on the counter an hour, and just take a minute to warm up in the oven.

Besides our standard blueberry muffins (we still have a couple gallon bags frozen left over from blueberry picking last summer!) I try to be creative with flavors.  One day I noticed that a couple pears hanging out in our fruit basket that were on their last legs, so I went to good ol’ Google for some ideas to use them up.  I saw a couple recipes for pear muffins and decided it would be perfect with the addition of some ginger, like my favorite ginger pear tea.  I also substituted homemade applesauce for oil, which added some cinnamon spices as well.  Yum.  Double yum!

Ingredients:

• 2 to 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup natural applesauce (or vegetable oil)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups chopped peeled pears
• Topping: 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, 2 tsp melted butter, 1/4 tsp ground ginger

How To:

In bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, ginger, and salt. In separate bowl, whisk brown sugar with applesauce; whisk in egg and milk. Pour over dry ingredients; sprinkle with pears and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon into greased or paper-lined muffin cups. To make topping, combine brown sugar, butter and ginger; sprinkle over batter. Bake at 350°F until tops are firm to the touch, about 25 minutes. Makes 12 regular size muffins.

Tips:

If you can’t eat all these up in a day or two try freezing them and thawing as needed.  It is best to freeze them individually on a tray (not touching) and then once frozen bag them into a plastic freezer bag. This makes it easy to make out exactly how many you need without them sticking together! You can also try making these as mini muffins, they would be the perfect snack to share at a play date or tea party.

What are your favorite flavor muffins to make?  I would love to hear in the comments.  You might also like to check out some of our other family favorite recipes here.