Pear and Walnut Food-processor Muffins

Well this is a whole new take on a muffin recipe.

For the last ten and a bit years my day to day work has been in some kitchen some where cooking something. I have been in my new job at the pharmacy for just over two weeks and I think I am beginning to get “cooking withdrawals”, because I came home from work tonight, cooked tea, did the dishes and then decided to make up a new muffin recipe just for fun.
So this is what I made up, and I will say right now it is not your average refined white flour, high sugar fluff and bubble muffin. This is a REAL, hearty, healthy, satisfying and beautiful thing. You will feel like you have really eaten SOMETHING, and hopefully, you will feel good about it.
They are made with hardly any sugar, because when I do baking these days I am trying to make it as guilt-less as possible. Also I think it is good to train our tastebuds that they don’t need to be drown in sugar to be satisfied. With a little less sugar, we learn to eat less and actually enjoy the other flavours present like the spices or even the base notes that the olive oil imparts.
These are also a little different in that they use some old bread crusts instead of the usual amount of flour. I don’t even know how I came up with this idea but it may have had something to do with the lack of flour in my pantry, I am not totally sure :-). I will definitely do it again though, because it is a great way to use something that might otherwise have been thrown out, and you get great texture and all the extra whole grains etc in the bread. So many positives ✓
Anyway enough waffling, lets get to it :-
Into the food processor put
1 pear – cored and roughly chopped
3 crusts of wholemeal/seed bread – I used Burgen
1 cup whole rolled oats
Blitz this until it is crumbly then add,
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
4 TBSP sugar
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup natural yoghurt
1/2 cup milk
Blitz this until you have a batter-like mix then add
1 cup white flour
2 tsp baking powder
pulse until just mixed then fold in 1 cup walnuts.
Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake in a moderate oven until done.
Serve them up warm with butter and a cup of tea or coffee…. and I am thinking these would be great warmed up and served for breakfast. Yum Yum, a tasty wholegrain start to the day. ☕☀