Spiced Pear Loaf

I love pears. I cannot say that enough so I will say it again, I love pears. Being that this is the case, I needed a study break a couple weeks ago and decided to make a dessert with pears. Here’s what you’ll need:

2 cubed pears (I used Bartlett because they are my favorite)
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 cup of white flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
1.5 tablespoons of ginger
1 banana (VERY ripe)
6 oz of Greek yogurt
3/4 cup of white sugar (or brown sugar)
2 eggs
1/2 cup of almond milk (or your favorite milk)
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Spray nonstick cooking spray on your loaf pan (or your muffin/cupcake pan- either will work).

Mix the banana and Greek yogurt with a fork. Then mix in the sugar and vanilla extract. Then one egg at a time.

In another bowl, mix the flours, baking powders, salt, ginger, and cinnamon.

Then, combine 1/3 of the flour mix with the banana mix. Add in half the milk of your choice. Mix, then repeat those steps until everything is well mixed.

Finally, add in the cubed pear pieces. Do not over-mix the pears with the dough.

Pour into the baking dish of your choice. Put in the oven at 400 degrees for at least an hour. I would suggest an hour for muffins and maybe an hour and 15 minutes for the loaf. Check the middle with a butter knife to know when it is done. The change in length of time baking is going to be how based on much moisture the pears have. So keep an eye on this and use your judgement.

This load turned out SO GOOD. I took more than half of it to work and it was gone in an hour! The dessert is very spiced, as I love ginger and cinnamon, obviously you can change this to your liking.

Enjoy!

-Ena

Pumpkin-Doughnut Muffins with Vanilla Brown Sugar Glaze <3 Olivia

I love cake doughnuts so logically a doughnut muffin would be amazing. This recipe calls for a lot of different ingredients (I used apple sauce and greek yogurt to lighten things a little… but it by no means is light) but most of these things will already be in a well stocked kitchen.
This recipe is huge. I made 72 mini muffins (so about 36 regular size). I wanted to use all my pumpkin but if you don’t want to have a ton of indulgent cupcakes in your kitchen I would cut the recipe in half, or even 1/3.
– 5 cup flour
– 4 tsp. baking powder
– 4 tsp. cinnamon
– 1 tsp. nutmeg
– 1/2 tsp. salt
– 1/2 tsp. baking soda
– 2 & 1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
– 1 6oz container plain greek yogurt
– 1/4 cup vegetable oil
– 1/4 cup apple sauce
– 2 tsp. vanilla extract
– 1 & 1/2 cup brown sugar (I used light)
– 1/2 cup white sugar (could probably sub out for all brown and be fine)
– 4 eggs
– 1 & 1/2 stick butter, softened

Frosting:
– 2 cups confectioner sugar
– 2-3 tbs. milk
– 1/4 tsp vanilla
– 2 tbs. brown sugar, more for dusting

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
1. Combine the softened butter and sugar in a medium size bowl. Beat together until soft and fluffy.

2. Add in the eggs and combine well.

3. In a large mixing bowl combine all other remaining ingredients. It will be a thick dough, mix well.

4. Combine the butter/sugar/egg mixture into your big bowl with all the remaining ingredients. At this point I got out my hand mixer because 1. I just bought it 2. this was a huge bowl of very thick dough. I think you could mix it by hand just fine though, if you put a little muscle into it.

5. Pour your batter in lightly greased or lined cupcake tins (I did half regular and half mini). Place in oven and bake for approx. 14 minutes (probably around 18 for a regular size muffin) or until a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Mix together your glaze ingredients in a small bowl. Once the muffins are cool enough to work with, apply glaze with a butter knife and immediately sprinkle with brown sugar (if you wait the glaze will harden).

ENJOY ❤ Olivia