Monday 15 November 2010

Pear and Chocolate Muffins



I was inspired to make these after watching an old episode of Nigella (oh how I love her), where she made a pear and chocolate dessert. I have always loved the combination of pears and chocolate, and am on a mission to find the perfect muffin recipe, so combined the two ideas.

I find that muffing recipes are normally too wet and have had issues finding a really good one, so I have merged a few different recipes as well as some of my own ideas to come up with the below.

Ingredients:
150g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 Tbs golden castor sugar
2 heaped Tbs cocoa
pinch salt
2 pears, peeled an cored. One finely chopped and the other grated
30g melted margarine
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg, beaten
3 Tbs soy milk

To make:
1) Turn the oven to 190 degrees, gas mark 5. Put 10 paper cases in a muffin tray.

2) In a large bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa. Add the castor sugar and stir to mix.

3) In a smaller bowl, whisk the brown sugar and margarine together, then add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix well.

4) Add the pears to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Fold together, stirring as few times as possible, until JUST combines (can still be some slightly dry patches).

5) Spoon into the paper cases and cook for 25-3o minutes until they have risen. They should spring back when gently pushed.

6) Cool on a wire rack. For an indulgent dessert, serve with chocolate sauce.


To make the chocolate sauce:
Heat 2 Tbs soft brown sugar and 1 Tbs golden syrup in a small pan. Stir occasionally, and add 2 Tbs cocoa when the sugar has dissolved. Next add 3 Tbs of soy milk and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Stir all together until really bubbling and add 1 tsp cornflour. Mix well, take off the heat and set aside until you are ready to eat.

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