Pear Applesauce Muffins

Over the weekend, I discovered that I had 2 pears I needed to use up. I love to eat them when they are really really soft (my husband thinks this is disgusting because they are basically rotten by the time they are soft enough for me) but even these ones were a bit past that. I would feel bad wasting them and decided they would be okay to bake with (you can bake with black bananas so I think you can bake with squishy pears).

I found this recipe for muffins and doubled it so I could use both pears. I left the pear skin on and it wasn't a problem. I also used cinnamon instead of Chinese five spice powder because I had no idea what that was so I definitely didn't have it in my pantry. The only other minor change was not using brown sugar on top. We tried to sprinkle it on a couple but the sugar was too clumpy and wasn't working out so only like, 3 got any.

These tasted really good! My husband doesn't normally like chunks in things (like apples in apple bread) so he was unsure until he had one. Even he liked them! I do have a couple complaints, however. First, they stuck to the liners. Well, only one batch stuck to the liners and we can't figure out why they weren't the same. It was the same batter and the same liners but whatever. Some people say this could be because of the liner you are using. Others say it happens with low fat recipes. I'm not sure these qualify as low fat because they do still have half a stick of butter in them but maybe. Next time, I'll just grease my muffin tin instead.

Second, they dry out really fast. By the second day of sitting on the counter, they were pretty hard (but still edible). Now, they are in the cookie jar and doing slightly better but we still find if you warm them up for about 10 seconds in the microwave, they're much better. In other words, don't make a double batch if you aren't prepared to eat 24 muffins in a day or two!

But other than that, these are really good, quick, and easy! I will definitely make them again. Maybe I'll freeze some of them next time before they get too hard.