Maple-Pear Oatmeal Muffins

I pretty much eat Chobani Greek Yogurt for breakfast every morning. I’ve started adding mix-ins. Sometimes Uncle Sam Toasted Whole Wheat Berry Flakes and Flax-seed cereal, sometimes granola, fresh/frozen berries and white choc. mini chips. I manage to really change it up, but I have been craving a good muffin.

Bosc and Anjou pears were on sale this week, so I bought a few. I did not purchase them thinking I’d be putting them into muffins, but that’s how it worked out. I found a recipe in an old Best of Weight Watcher Magazine cookbook and made a few substitutions based on ingredients I had on hand.

The Ingredients:
1 3/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Finely Chopped Pecans – I used 3 tablespoons of glazed pecans I already had for salads
1 1/2 Cups Quick Cooking Rolled Oats
1 Large Pear – cored, peeled and chopped – I used an Anjou pear
1 Cup Fat Free Buttermilk – had to use regular milk with lemon. 1 Cup milk/1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar – packed
1/3 Cup Pure Maple Syrup
2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1 Large Egg

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in one bowl.

Combine the chopped pecans and 2 Tablespoons of the oats into another bowl.

Wash and peel your pear.

The directions said to chop the pear. Wasn’t sure on how big to make the pieces, but the size I chose turned out to be perfect.

Combine the remaining oats, pear, buttermilk, brown sugar, syrup, oil, and egg in a bowl.

Let stand for 5 minutes.

Then add the oat-pear mixture to the flour mixture and stir until blended.

I used paper/foil wrappers because I knew I wanted to bring some to work for people. Make sure you spray the muffin tin if you aren’t going to use papers. I did that on my mini muffin tin and the muffins easily popped right out.

Spoon the batter into the cups, filling each about 2/3 full. The recipe says it makes 12 muffins – I made 12 regular size and 8 mini muffins. Maybe I didn’t fill mine enough, but I thought they ended up being a good size.

Sprinkle tops with the pecan-oat mixture.

Bake for between 18-20 minutes. 18 was enough for mine – I inserted a toothpick and it came out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes, then remove from pan and continue cooling on rack.

The muffins were delicious! I loved the flavor and they were really moist.

I will list the nutrition info. according to the recipe – mine turned out different because of the two substitutions – Even though the calorie count on the pecans wasn’t much different, the sugar content was higher because they were glazed. I also had more calories in mine due to the whole milk vs. fat-free buttermilk substitution.

Per Serving – 1 Muffin – 220 Calories | 5 g. Fat | 18 mg Chol. | 256 mg Sod. | 40 g Carbs | 2 g Fiber | 5 g Prot. | 4 Points

The muffins will keep stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days. I ended up bringing some to work, putting some in the freezer and I still have a few on the counter in a container.

Is it wrong that it’s only been one day and I’m already picturing them crumbled up in my yogurt?

Question: What’s your favorite muffin?
I am a blueberry muffin girl, but I enjoy a good spiced muffin as well.

Enjoy!