Pear & Ginger Muffins

Before that day, for me the pear was a fruit like another, somewhat anonymous, not as much delicious and cool as strawberries, melon, or even an apple, so versatile and a perfect bride to cinnamon. Then I saw a movie, which in itself is not one of the best I’ve seen, maybe it is a bit too sad, but with a great rock soundtrack by the Goo Goo Dolls, City of Angels. In this movie, Seth (Nicolas Cage) is an angel {dressed in a total black that suits him a lot!}. He falls in love with Maggie (Meg Ryan), a heart surgeon as competent and determined, as extremely fragile. Along this passionate love for the woman, Seth is urged by the strong desire to experience the same feelings of human beings. Flavours discovery is one of the moments I love the most.

Seth: What’s that like? What’s it taste like? Describe it like Hemingway.

Maggie: Well, it tastes like a pear. You don’t know what a pear tastes like?

Seth: I don’t know what a pear tastes like to you.

Maggie: Sweet, juicy, soft on your tongue, grainy like a sugary sand that dissolves in your mouth. How’s that?

Seth: It’s perfect.

Since then, a pear is no longer just a pear, but a tangle of sensations that involve touch, taste and smell, a fruit that should be treated with great respect and with a bit of creativity. And the pear, for me, is the perfect complement to the ginger, as you can see in this jam.

Dry ingredients

• plain flour, 200 g
• corn flour, 120 g
• baking powder, 3 tsp
• sugar, 85 g
• vanilla salt, 1/2 tsp
• {cane sugar, just to sprinkle muffins}

Fruit

• apple, peeled, deseeded and grated, 200 g
• ripe pear, peeled and chopped, 200 g
• fresh ginger, 2 cm of grated root

Liquid ingredients

• partly skimmed milk, 150 ml
• sunflower seed oil, 110 ml
• eggs, 2

Preheat oven to 190 ° C.

Combine all dry ingredients. Add to the flours and sugar mixture apple, pear and ginger, stirring so that they are covered with flour and does not oxidize.

In a separate bowl, mix together liquid ingredients and add them to the flour and fruit mixture, stirring just as long as they are all combined. Spoon the mixture into muffin moulds – I obtained 16 medium muffins – and sprinkle with cane sugar.

Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes until muffins are golden brown, fluffy and soft.

Tasting test. Recently I baked large quantities of decorated, glazed, delicious and nice to see cupcakes, but lately I was feeling like muffins. Every so often I miss their rustic and direct character, their generous fruity nature… then it is natural to look to the fruit basket to discover which sweet and juicy dress muffins will wear! Along with pear and ginger, a perfect and successful marriage in my opinion, this recipe contains the surprise of corn flour, my latest passion, which gives an attractively crunchy tone to an otherwise soft and almost velvety texture.