Banana Pear Chocolate Muffins and Mexican Wedding Cookies

Thanks to Bountiful Baskets, I've had several Asian pears around that I've had no idea what to do with. I'm not crazy about eating pears just as pears, so I wanted to find a recipe I could use them in. Thankfully, I found this recipe (I also had bananas from the load, which are easier to eat/deal with but there were a lot of them and they were going bad), and got to work.

In addition to bananas and pears, I added--yes--Dove dark chocolate. I'm all about being healthy and fresh, but let's not get too crazy. I used one and a half chocolate bars, or about 1/4 cup - 1/2 cup after chopping. When I prepared these ingredients, I was originally going to use two pears instead of the suggested one, but when I got one chopped up I realized how much it was.

First step: mix the banana, eggs, sugar, vanilla, olive oil. (I have to say here--I love that this recipe calls for olive oil. It's so unusual for a muffin recipe. The ingredients are listed as "olive oil" and "vanilla (if you have any)," like someone was more likely to put olive oil than vanilla in muffins. Made me laugh).

Adding the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt. DO NOT OVERMIX your muffin mix! They will come out like rocks. Mix only until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.

I roughly chopped my chocolate instead of using chocolate chips, because 1) the chocolate bars are what I had and 2) it give the muffins a more rustic look anyway.

Waiting to be mixed together. (I added the pears and chocolate just before the dry ingredients were fully incorporated, so as not to overmix.)

I can't tell you how impatient I was for these to be done baking. They were SO good, and a great mixture that's somewhat unusual.

Some things you should know about this recipe as written:
-The recipe claims it will only make 10-12 muffins, which worried me. However, my batch made 23 muffins, so the work is worth it. (It might help that my pears and chocolate were roughly chopped and took up more space.)
-These muffins didn't puff up nearly as much as other recipes I've made, so don't be afraid to fill the cups a little fuller.
-The recipe says to bake them for 20-30 minutes, which seemed like waaaay long to me. I baked mine for 15 and it was plenty of time. Plus, my oven cooks fast; know what you're working with and adjust as needed.
-Anything baked with bananas has a distinct flavor; I was afraid that one of the banana, pear, or chocolate flavor would overwhelm the others, but the balance was great (unless you want more of one thing, then I'd recommend upping the amount).


Also this week, I made Mexican Wedding Cookies from this recipe. They are my favorite under appreciated "Christmas" cookie. I won't write up the tutorial, since the process is so similar to the shortbread or tart shell tutorials you already know from the blog. They didn't have many ingredients, were quick to make, and are fun to powder and have around. Highly recommend them.