Pear & Yoghurt Muffins

Pear & Yoghurt Muffins are one of my favourite muffins recipe that’s not only easy to make, but it’s very healthy and taste delicious too.

These Pear & Yoghurt Muffins are perfect for mid-afternoon snack and even O.K to have as an emergency breakfast.

If you don’t have pears or don’t fancy them, you can swap them for other firm fruit, such as apples. This Pear & Yoghurt Muffins recipe is also very easy to adapt if you don’t have all the ingredients.

For example, the bran or wheat bran can be just one type of bran or oats, you can also swap the flour for normal plain flour or use spelt, buckwheat or lupin flour if you want these muffins to be super healthy. 

Why make this recipe?

• Healthy muffin recipe
• Perfect for snack or breakfast on the run

Baking tips

• To save time, you can measure out the bran/oats and soak them in the yoghurt any time before you want to bake these muffins. Anything 1-2 hrs beforehand will be fine

Ingredients & Possible Substitutions

Oats & Bran

I’ve used a couple of different wheat brans and cereals in this recipe. They soak up the white yoghurt brilliantly and add fibre to the muffins.

Since I’ve made the recipe several times now, I’ve noticed that I don’t always have the different types of cereals in, so I often replace them with finely milled oats or other type of oats.

Yoghurt

I usually use Greek white yoghurt and both dairy and dairy free versions are fine. Any other plant based yoghurt will work as well, but stick to a white/plain yoghurt.

Flour

I’ve used wholemeal – plain – cake (all purpose) flour. It’s a type that’s regularly available in the supermarkets now and it makes this recipe extra healthy. If you can’t find wholemeal plain flour, just use plain (all purpose) flour. You can also use something like a 50% spelt and 50% plain flour to give this recipe a great flavour and extra fibre.

I like that every time I make these they taste slightly different, depending on what flour I use. You can even use a gluten free flour, but don’t forget to use a xantham gum (about 1/2 teaspoon) unless your flour already contains it.

Sugar

Light brown or golden caster sugar works great in this recipe. Darker sugars might overpower the pear flavour, so you probably don’t want to use those.

Raising agents

We are using both baking powder and baking soda with this recipe, but if you don’t have soda, up the amount of baking powder.

Salt

A large pinch of fine salt with make these muffins taste amazing!

Milk

Regular milk or plant based milk can be used in this recipe and water will work fine too. There is already dairy in the yoghurt, so even if you just use water, the recipe will work just fine!

Oil

Vegetable oil or sunflower oil works best with this recipe.

Egg

If you are thinking of making this recipe into a vegan version, use 1 table spoon of chia seeds soaked in 3 tablespoons of water. Leave it until the water thickens a bit (the chia seeds will turn it into a jelly like substance)

Vanilla extract & Flavouring

I like to add vanilla extract in, because I think it ads a lovely flavour, but it can be left out, if you don’t have one. Vanilla extract is becoming increasingly more and more expensive, so I treat it as a luxury.

You could also use lemon or orange essence if you had some, as they would go well with the pears flavour.

If you want to give this recipe a festive twist, you can use a teaspoon of mixed spice, homemade apple pie spice or Christmas stollen spice. They will all go well with the pear’s flavour and add warmth to the muffins.

Pears

The final muffin flavour will wary depending on what type of pears you use. I prefer to use firmer desert pears, but softer – yellow ones will work too (but they might not hold their shape as well).

How to make Pear & Yoghurt Muffins recipe

• In a large mixing bowl, combine the cereal and wheat bran (Use fine oats if you don’t have wheat bran or the cereals). Stir in the white yoghurt and let stand for 10 -15 minutes until the bran looks soft and soaked up.
• In a another large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Add the milk, oil, egg and vanilla to bran (oats) mixture and stir to combine.

• Pour the yoghurt ingredients into the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Don’t over mix it at this stage.
• Gently fold in the chopped up pears (they should be about 1 cm cubes or slightly large).
• Divide the muffin batter among 12 large paper lined muffin cups tray. Bake in 180C (Gas Mark 5), 350F oven for about 25 minutes or until golden and the tops are firm to the touch.
• Let the tin cool on the rack for 5 minutes and then remove the pear muffins from the tin and let cool completely.

Allergies & dietary requirements

This recipe can be adapted (see ingredient’s notes) to suit dairy free, gluten free and vegan diets.

Batch size

This bath makes about 12 large size muffins, but you can also make 24 mini muffins.

How to store muffins

Muffins are best stored in an airtight container or plastic bag. If you can’t eat them within 2-3 days, I’d suggest to freeze them. They will be fine in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Can I scale up or down this recipe?

I always double up this recipe and bake two batches and then freeze most of the muffins. They are very easy to defrost overnight and that way you only eat a few at a time.