Sweet Melissa Sunday - Pear Cranberry Muffins with Gingersnap Crumble

I almost forgot to post this! Been a busy weekend and a busy day and now, at 9:30 Sunday night I just realized I hadn't posted for SMS yet. Nothing like getting in under the wire! :D

This week's recipe, chosen by Jennifer of Maple N' Cornbread was Pear Cranberry Muffins with Gingersnap Crumble. I love muffins and was excited to try these. I baked a lot of different things this weekend and one of the things I baked was Molasses spice cookies and I decided to use them for the gingersnap crumble.

These were quick and easy to pull together. I didn't make any changes in the recipe. I just read the posts on the P&Q and saw that a lot of people made changes to keep the muffins from being too dense, but I missed that, and, after trying these, didn't think they were too dense for my tastes.

The gingersnap crumble was also easy to pull together. I only wished I had known how much the muffins would spread as they baked. I put on what seemed like a "ton" of crumble only to have it separate and spread out over the top of the muffins so it seemed like there wasn't much at all. I am sure the muffins would be even better with the crumble covering the muffin tops rather than just here and there.

These tasted delicious. I could detect the orange from the zest , not overpowering, just a nice undernote. The tart cranberries were a nice compliment to the pears' sweetness. And, the occasional crunch from the gingersnap crumble contrasted nicely with the moist crumb of the muffin. My hubby and I ate two of them, each, for breakfast this morning.

I loved this batter and am already thinking of the different ingredients I could add to it. Of course, apples and raisins were the first ones I thought of, but the variations are endless. This is a good recipe to keep handy. I am planning on making these again tomorrow morning, to take to my son and daughter-in-law's house for breakfast.

So, thanks again Jennifer. Great choice! And, if you would like to see what the other bakers thought, click here!

Sweet Melissa Sundays - Caramelized Onion, Sage and Cheddar Muffins

This week's recipe was Caramelized Onion, Sage, and Cheddar Muffins. It was chosen by Hanaa of Hanaa's Kitchen.

I have to admit I wasn't going to do this one. I am not much on savory muffins. I like my muffins sweet and fruity. Onions? Sage? Cheese?? In a muffin? But, I decided to pull some chili out of the freezer for dinner tonight and figured I might as well try the muffins. Thought they might go well with the chili. I cut the recipe in half, because I didn't want to have a dozen muffins I didn't like sitting around the kitchen. Silly me!

These muffins were delicious!! And, they were so easy to put together. I think I had them in the oven in under 30 minutes, and that included frying up the onions. I followed the recipe just about word for word, omitting only the cayenne pepper. My hubby isn't big on pepper of any kind. I left in the black pepper, but cut it back a bit.  I fried up one white onion in some olive oil until the peices were nice and brown and caramelized. Love the smell of onions cooking. Should have know these would be good just because of the onion. I chopped up some fresh sage and tossed that in with the onions and 1/2 cup mild cheddar cheese. (Didin't have any sharp on hand). Filled my muffin papers up with the batter and tossed them in the oven to bake for the 30 minutes.

The smell of them baking was wonderful! After 30 mintues I took them out of the oven and put them on a rack to cool. They puffed up and you could see little pieces of onion and cheese peeking out through the crusty top. I let them cool for about 30 mintues or so and then tried one.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, they were delicious! I think I would kick up the sage a tiny bit and also the cheese. I cut the recipe in half, but think while the onions were about perfect as far as flavor went, the other two flavors were almost overpowered by the onions. But, still, the texture was perfect, nice crusty top and moist and tender inside. The flavor combination was great and I think they will go wonderfully with the chili later. I am thinking about trying the Bosc Pear, Blue Cheese and Walnut ones next. I have to say this recipe certainly changed my opinion about savory muffins.

Head on over to SWS to see what the other bakers thought.