These Pear Muffins are a delightful seasonal treat packed with fresh pears and fall spices. With a tasty crumb topping and vanilla icing drizzle, you'll want to make these fruit muffins all year round!
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Pear season is my favorite season and I feel that it's way too underrated. Let's pause on all the apple love and give pears their moment to shine!
These pear muffins are the perfect way to show the "other" fall fruit some serious love. The muffin batter is absolutely packed with pears, so the flavor truly shines. And with a tasty crumb topping and vanilla icing drizzle, you'll be excited to make these all fall long... And maybe even throughout the whole year!
There are a few steps to making the muffins, including mixing up the actual batter, making the crumb topping, and whipping up the vanilla icing, but overall, they're so easy to make.
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
If you love pears or have someone in your life who does, you need to make these pear muffins immediately!
The easy recipe makes a dozen muffins perfect for enjoying for breakfast or with a cup of tea or coffee as an afternoon snack.
With they're warming spices, they'll immediately get you totally in the fall spirit.
🗒 Ingredients
It may seem like you need a lot of ingredients for the muffins, but many of them are spices and other baking ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen.
I personally always have all of these ingredients in my kitchen, aside from maybe pears (which I also generally have during the fall season!).
Also note there are 3 components to the pear muffins (muffin, crumb topping, and icing drizzle), but you are welcome to make them without the crumb topping or icing drizzle if you prefer. Though both are highly recommended!
Here's everything you need to make pear muffins (please see recipe card at bottom of post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):
For the muffins:
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground ginger
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Large eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Whole milk
- Diced pear: you can leave the skin on or peel them; whatever you prefer!
For the crumb topping:
- All-purpose flour
- Light brown sugar
- Ground cinnamon
- Unsalted butter
For the vanilla icing:
- Confectioners' sugar
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
❓ What's the best kind of pear to use?
Great question! I used green anjou (or d'anjou) as they're favorites of mine are often recommended for use in baking.
Bosc would also be great! And while they're not always the most recommended for baking, I've baked with bartlett plenty of times and find they generally work quite well.
It's OK to bake with pears that aren't totally ripe and, in fact, it might even be better as they can hold up better than over-ripe pears when introduced to heat.
Here's a fabulous guide to pear varieties if you're interested in learning more.
🍐 How to make pear muffins
You'll want to start by making the batter, which is just as easy as any muffin batter!
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and place muffin papers in a 12-cavity muffin tin.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer (if you don't have either, you can use a mixing bowl and rubber spatula), cream together butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Add vanilla and mix to combine.
Add half the milk and ½ the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add remaining milk and remaining dry ingredients and mix again until just combined, taking care not to over-mix.
Now it's time to add the diced pears. You are welcome to peel your pear if you want, but I always leave the skin on since I like the added nutritional value and don't like to spend time peeling.
You'll just want to be sure to dice them.
And fold the diced pear into the batter.
Fill muffin papers about ¾ of the way with batter.
And make the crumb topping.
To do so, just mix together flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add butter.
And use your fingers or a fork to work into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
Evenly disperse crumb topping over the tops of the batter in the tins.
And bake muffins for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let muffins cool in tin for a few minutes before moving to a metal rack to cool completely.
While they're cooling, make the vanilla icing.
Just combine confectioners' sugar, milk, and salt in a small bowl and whisk until well combined.
When muffins are totally cooled, drizzle them with vanilla icing.
See? I told you you could skip this step, but why would you want to? The icing adds the perfect touch!
I made several different iterations of these pear muffins until I got the flavor and consistency exactly where I wanted them to be.
That meant adding more spices (cinnamon and ginger!) than I initially thought necessary. 'Tis the season and I wanted these muffins to taste like fall!
⏲ How to store
I recommend making these pear muffins and sharing them with friends and family! Something tells me they won't last too long in your house.
But you can store them in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. I recommend putting a paper towel on the bottom of the container to absorb any moisture.
If you want to keep the muffins longer, you can also freeze them by putting them in a large Ziplock bag. They should keep for 3-4 months in the freezer... So, when we're in the dark depths of winter and you need a little boost of fall happiness!
👩🍳 Variations on recipe
I love how these pear muffins came out, but there are also lots of things you can do to put your own spin on them! Here are some ideas for things you can add:
- Ginger: These muffins already have ginger in them, but eliminate the cinnamon and add some grated fresh ginger and a ginger pear muffin.
- Vanilla: They also already have vanilla in them, but add some vanilla paste to the batter for an extra boost.
- Chocolate Chips: Add chocolate chips or white chocolate chips to the batter for some extra yumminess. Cinnamon chips would also work really well!
- Apple: Combine the diced pear with diced apple for a delicious fall combo muffin.
- Cheese: OK, this one might sound a little odd, but I love pears and cheese together on a charcuterie board. A more savory pear and cheddar muffin would be delightful. I'd probably just cut down on the sugar and spices.
🧁 More muffin recipes
If you're looking for more delicious muffin recipes for all seasons, I have some great recipes for you! Here are some of my favorites:
- Tuscan Lemon Muffins
- Muffins with Pancake Mix
- Sweet Potato Muffins
- Fresh Corn Muffins with Basil
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Muffins
- Raspberry, Mango, and Ginger Muffins
- Carrot Raisin Muffins
- Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins
- Raspberry and Dark Chocolate Muffins
I hope these pear muffins bring some festive fall happiness into your end of year!
But since pears are available at grocery stores all year, I know I'll be baking these all year!
📖 Recipe
Pear Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup diced pear, from about 1 pear (can be peeled or unpeeled)
Crumble Topping
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into pieces
Vanilla Icing
- ½ cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- ¼ teaspoon sat
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and place muffin papers in a 12-cavity muffin tin.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
- Add eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Add vanilla and mix to combine.
- Add half the milk and ½ the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add remaining milk and remaining dry ingredients and mix again until just combined, taking care not to over-mix.
- Fold the diced pear into the batter.
- Fill muffin papers about ¾ of the way with batter. Equally disperse crumb topping over the tops of the batter.
- Bake muffins for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let muffins cool in tin for a few minutes before moving to a metal rack to cool completely.
- Once completely cooled, drizzle with vanilla icing.
Crumb Topping
- Mix together flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Add butter and use your fingers or a fork to work into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
Vanilla Icing
- In a small bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar, milk, and salt until well combined.
Cindy says
The muffins were delicious! I am at high altitude, so I did have to make some minnor adjustments but otherwise delish! This recipe is most definitley a keeper!
Lyndsey says
I made these for a bake sale at work. The guys loved them!
Laura K says
Delicious! Made them with grilled pears. Don't skip the drizzle!