Honey Pear Muffins Recipe (lightly sweetened)

By Alexandra Caspero on October 19, 2022
Perfect for overripe pears and when you want a healthy snack or breakfast. 
Makes 12 Muffins

A lightly sweetened honey pear muffins recipe with fresh pears, oats, walnuts and wheat flour. Perfect for breakfast, as a snack or with coffee! 

These pear muffins are so delicious, I’ve been eating them non-stop. After a few rounds to get them just right, I tested them again just to be sure. Or, so I tell myself. It’s a good problem to have when your kitchen is overflowing with freshly baked muffins.

A dozen for me, a dozen for the neighbors. Lightly sweetened and bursting with pear flavor, put this pear muffin recipe on your must-make for fall.

Plate Of Pear Muffins With Butter And Honey

Ingredients for this Honey Pear Muffins Recipe 

Dry Ingredients

  • Whole wheat flour 
  • All-purpose flour 
  • Baking powder and baking soda
  • Spices: ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt
  • Old fashioned rolled oats 

Wet Ingredients

  • Fresh pears. This is a great recipe to use up fresh, ripe or overly ripe pears. The riper the better as ripe pears provide more sweetness in this pear muffins recipe than underripe pears.
  • Walnuts
  • Eggs
  • Vanilla extract
  • Honey
  • Oil. I usually use olive oil, avocado oil or canola oil when I bake. This is a great post on why seed oils are not inflammatory.) 
  • Almond milk (or milk of choice)
  • Walnuts. You can also use pecans or other nuts if you don’t have walnuts. 

What pears are best for pear muffins?

The best pears are ripe pears, both Anjou pears, Bartlett pears and Bosc pears will work in this recipe. Because the pears add so much sweetness to this recipe, you’ll want them to be as ripe as possible.

Honey Pear Muffins Recipe

Instructions For How To Make This Honey Pear Muffins Recipe

Whisk together dry ingredients

To make these incredibly moist pear muffins, whisk together all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl: all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

Whisk together the wet ingredients

In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients of honey, large egg, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract.

Combine wet and dry together

Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and mix until just combined, taking care not to over mix.  I don’t recommend using a stand mixer or hand mixer for muffins as you don’t want to over work them.

Fold in the chopped nuts

Finish by folding in the finely chopped pears, rolled oats and walnuts. 

Fill a muffin pan and bake

Lightly spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray, or use muffin cups, then divide the batter into the muffin pan and cook until just tender, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Tip for a bakery style muffin! 

For fun bakery-style muffins, I recommend mixing together a little brown sugar, rolled oats and finely chopped walnuts and sprinkle on top of the muffins before baking. I typically do about 2 tablespoons of each. 

Pear Muffins In A Muffin Tin

Pear Muffins are a Great Make Ahead Snack

Since I work from home, my food intake is much more sporadic than it used to be when I was working in an office. Sometimes I eat three square meals and a few snacks, other days I tend to graze without ever sitting down for an actual meal. Being in control of when and where I eat allows me to really tap into my intuitive eater with very few exceptions, which I’m fortunate to have the flexibility to do. 

However, on crazy busy days, it’s not uncommon for me to head straight to my computer and blow past hunger signs, continuing to work on a project until I’m so famished I can’t think anymore. The exact opposite of an intuitive eater.

For days like these, I like having ready-to-go snacks and meals at the ready, like these honey pear muffins. To appeal to the side of my brain that doesn’t want to stop and take a break and the other side, who dreams about food all day long.

Close Up Bite Of Pear Muffins With Honey

I know I’m not alone in this struggle; I hear from clients that the hardest meals for them to enjoy tend to be the ones they eat at work. They drink only coffee for breakfast, or are too busy to make time, or they scarf down whatever is readily available. Yes, I remember this feeling well. My office meals would sometimes consist of whatever food samples were sent in that day, a spoonful of peanut butter, or a package of almonds I had thankfully stashed in my purse.

Making time for meals is so, so important, even if you can’t imagine giving up 10 minutes to eat. Eating without distractions helps with pacing, allows you to better understand your fullness cues, and improves satisfaction of the meal. How often do we scarf food at our desk only to be “starving” an hour later? Sure, we ate, but it really wasn’t a break. Take the time for yourself.

If your office breakfast or lunch tends to consist of donuts in the break room or pretzels from the vending machine (I’ve done both), then a bit of planning ahead will help. Of course, this honey pear muffins recipe tops the list. A bite here, another one there, the perfect fuel for busy Monday mornings. Make a batch to take to work with you and you’ll be the office hero. Who needs a stale, grocery-store donut when you’re bringing in homemade honey pear muffins!?

Pear Muffins Recipe In Muffin Tin

If you’re looking for more muffin recipes, try these:

If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, and tag your Instagram photos with #delishknowledge . I absolutely love seeing your creations. Happy cooking! 

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Honey Pear Muffins Recipe

Honey Pear Muffins

  • Author: Alex Caspero
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 12 muffins 1x
  • Category: baking, vegetarian, pears
  • Method: oven
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Description

Honey Pear Muffins! These lightly sweetened muffins are perfect for breakfast or snack.


  • Author: Alex Caspero
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 12 muffins 1x
  • Category: baking, vegetarian, pears
  • Method: oven
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegetarian
  • Author: Alex Caspero
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 12 muffins 1x
  • Category: baking, vegetarian, pears
  • Method: oven
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegetarian
Scale

Ingredients

  • 2/3 cup whole-wheat flour
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • large egg
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened milk of choice
  • 1/3 cup neutral oil of choice
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups finely diced pears
  • 1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper cups or lightly spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon until just combined.
  3. In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the egg, honey, milk, oil and vanilla extract until just combined.
  4. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine, then gently fold in the chopped pears, oats and walnuts trying not to over mix the batter; stir until just combined.
  5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups, filling them 2/3s of the way (about 1/4 cup).
  6. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean and tops are golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely on a cooling rack.

Notes

For a yummy bakery-style muffin, I like to mix a little brown sugar, rolled oats and chopped walnuts and sprinkling on the muffins before baking.

did you make this?

Tag @delishknowledge on Instagram and hashtag it #delishknowledge

This recipe was first published in 2016 and updated in 2022. 

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Meet Alex Caspero

Alex Caspero is a Registered Dietitian, New York Times Bestselling Chef, and mom of two. She aims to cut through the nutrition noise by providing real-life, nourishing tips for body and mind. Learn more about Alex.

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    1. Catherine
      September 30, 2023 AT 11:25 am

      Great recipe. I used maple syrup not honey. Used apple juice not milk. Used 3T oil and 3T applesauce. Made 16 with a shorter bake time. For those of us that weigh fruit it was 8oz by weight after peeling . Great ruse snd texture.






    2. Alesa
      December 1, 2022 AT 8:38 pm

      These taste wonderful! Subbed applesauce for the oil and ever so lightly buttered around the jumbo non-stick muffin pan cups. BUT, some of the anjou pears were chewy – I think the skins were a bit thick. Next time I make these I’m possibly going to peel the pears and add some orange liqueur. Thank you!






    3. Ronnie
      November 26, 2022 AT 12:10 pm

      These are really good! Because I’m at higher altitude, I added 1/4 cup extra flour but they were a tad dry, so next time I will just follow the recipe as is.






    4. Angie
      November 15, 2022 AT 6:39 pm

      I made these today—- substituted almond flour for wheat flour and added extra egg. They turned out great! Will definitely make again. Thanks for a wonderful recipe.

    5. Cassie
      September 20, 2022 AT 11:50 am

      Do you think you could substitute peeled peaches for the pears? I didn’t know if the moisture content is similar enough.

    6. Regina
      January 28, 2021 AT 9:28 pm

      I made these muffins today. They turned out amazing! Made 12 rather big muffins which was great. I was not going to bake 12 and than two. Cooking time was longer for me, 27 minutes actually. I followed the recipe to a T.
      My husband had two right away and was very happy! I used Rocha pears as they are my favourite. Will definitely make again. Wish I could submit a photo. Very delicious muffins. Thank you for the recipe.






      1. Alex
        January 29, 2021 AT 8:06 am

        So glad you liked it. Thanks, Regina!

    7. Lou Ann Holt
      September 17, 2020 AT 7:40 am

      I wish you could put the nutritional content for the recipes.

    8. Leanne
      August 21, 2020 AT 2:31 am

      Love this recipe. I followed the recipe exactly except I used plain almond milk, instead of vanilla almond milk. I had a abundance of pears and so made 2 lots of muffins. Delish.






    9. Vera
      April 18, 2020 AT 9:14 am

      I have just made them and they are really delicious! Had to do few changes, though – hadn’t had almond milk, so used single cream instead and also replaced part of the flour with a spelt one. As well as no nutmeg at home and part of soda replaced by baking power as I run out of soda, too! 🙂






      1. Alex
        April 18, 2020 AT 10:04 am

        So glad you liked them!

    10. Lorraine
      February 28, 2020 AT 6:16 pm

      This is such a moist muffin. I love the taste. I made a couple of changes just because of the ingredients I had and it worked well. I used regular almond milk instead of vanilla almond, coconut oil (the kind that’s thick in a jar – I melted it and mixed it with the yogurt before putting in with the eggs so it cooled down and I didn’t cook the eggs!). I only had hazelnuts and instead of putting them in the dough, I ground them fine and sprinkled them on top of the muffins. Really a nice topping! I got 24 muffins out of this recipe, not the 12-14 the recipe shows, which is good because they are going to go fast!!! Thank you for a great recipe






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