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Double Chocolate Maple Pear Muffins

Today we’re talking moist, not too sweet, double chocolate maple pear muffins that leave warm smidgens of chocolate all over your fingers– whole grain muffins, sweetened with chunks of pear and pure maple syrup, and lavished with dark chocolate morsels!

Chocolate Maple Pear Muffins arrange decoratively on a board

The finger-licking chocolate-y fruitiness going on in these muffins is a welcome treat any time of day. You could definitely serve them for dessert, maybe with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Tilt your head in a muffin-y nod to the classic French dessert, Poire Belle Hélène–perfectly poached pears with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream.

You should see Robbie gobble these down, a guy who professes to not like chocolate. I had to hide them from ourselves in the freezer, which works for me, but after dinner he just reaches in, opens the container, and eats one frozen!

Chocolate Maple Pear Muffins cooling on a wire rack

Are they muffins or cupcakes?

Where do you draw the line between a muffin and a cupcake? I mean, we’ve all had a muffin somewhere so loaded with sugar they truly qualify as a cupcake, without the frosting.

Here’s my logic. If they have frosting, they’re cupcakes; if not frosted or glazed, they’re muffins. These chocolate and pear muffins are made with whole wheat flour, unsweetened yogurt, and coconut oil. In each muffin there’s a tablespoon of maple syrup and a heaping tablespoon of chopped ripe pear for natural sweetness. And nary a creamy gild-the-lily swirl of frosting on top, so these are healthy chocolate muffin treats!

Chocolate Maple Pear Muffins on a wooden surface, one broken in half

If you love chocolate muffins, try these honey-sweetened chocolate zucchini “muffins”. Even without frosting, they’re sweet enough to serve as individual birthday cakes. (I know of someone who served them unfrosted for her little girl’s birthday!)

Chocolate Maple Pear Muffins recipe details:

  • A muffin trick, meant to catch the rising batter at its peak with nice muffin tops, is to preheat the oven to 25 degrees warmer than the temp you bake them at. When you slide in the muffin tins into the oven, dial the temp back down for baking.
  • About cocoa powder: Natural or Dutch process? In this recipe either one works. The alkaline baking soda in this recipe is there to balance the acidity of the yogurt. If you’re slow to get these babies in the oven, you can actually witness the reaction of the two. Baking powder, already a combo of acid and alkali, evens things out. As in, with “double acting” baking powder, some of the rise happens as soon as the batter is mixed, the second rise with the oven’s heat.
  • You might also like these cinnamon poached pears with chocolate sauce. The pears are poached in a pressure cooker.
Chocolate Maple Pear Muffins 3 in a row with a pear in the back and chocolate chips all around

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3 comments

  • Teri

    I can’t find plain, whole milk, Greek yogurt. Only 2% or nonfat. Can I simply strain some plain, whole milk, regular yogurt since my understanding is that’s how Greek yogurt is made? Reply · 16 October, 2017

    • Yes you can sub in whole milk plain yogurt. The Greek is thicker and letting the regular yogurt drain in a strainer for 10 minutes so it thickens a little. Reply · 17 October, 2017

      • Teri Thomas

        Done. The Mountain High yogurt now speaks Greek. Reply · 17 October, 2017

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