Healthier Pear Muffins

So I had some overripe pears hanging out in my kitchen and thought to myself, why not make a healthy muffin out of these instead of throwing them away. Like my other muffin recipes,I call them "Healthier" because of the wheat flour, wheat bran, oatmeal, organic butter, and natural alternatives to white granulated sugar. Also pears are high in fiber and walnuts are a great source of Omega-3 fatty acids. And if you want you could omit the sugar altogether because the pears are sweet enough. So here you have the recipe I created all around a couple pieces of fruit I didn't want to waste.

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. salt
1 cup walnuts, toasted
½ cup wheat bran
½ cup low-fat buttermilk
½ cup softened organic butter plus 2 Tbs.
2 whole eggs
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
½ cup Grade B maple syrup or ¾ cup pure cane sugar (sweetener)
2 over-ripe pears, core removed and peeled
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup quick oats, toasted lightly

Fill 12 muffin cups with muffin papers. Preheat oven to 350° F.
Soak wheat bran in buttermilk and set aside.
To toast walnuts use a shallow skillet on medium heat and wait until nuts are fragrant. Remove from heat and pulse ½ cup in food processor until finely chopped.
In separate bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add walnuts. Set aside.
Also in food processor combine butter, eggs, vanilla, sweetener and pears. Pulse until smooth. Pour into bowl of flour mixture and gently stir, along with buttermilk and bran mixture. Divide amongst muffin cups.
Clean out food processor bowl and pulse together ½ cup remaining walnuts, brown sugar, oats and 2 Tbs. of butter until crumbly but walnuts are coarse. Press Tbs. of mixture onto each cup of batter.
Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Store covered in refrigerator for up to 1 week.

© 2008 Amanda Dalmath