Honey Pear Muffins Recipe (lightly sweetened)

A lightly sweetened honey pear muffins recipe with fresh pears, oats, walnuts and wheat flour. Perfect for breakfast, as a snack or with coffee! 

this Recipe

These pear muffins are so delicious, I’ve been eating them non-stop. After a few rounds to get them just right, I tested them again just to be sure. Or, so I tell myself. It’s a good problem to have when your kitchen is overflowing with freshly baked muffins.

A dozen for me, a dozen for the neighbors. Lightly sweetened and bursting with pear flavor, put this pear muffin recipe on your must-make for fall.

Ingredients for this Honey Pear Muffins Recipe 

Dry Ingredients

• Whole wheat flour 
• All-purpose flour 
• Baking powder and baking soda
• Spices: ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt
• Old fashioned rolled oats 

Wet Ingredients

• Fresh pears. This is a great recipe to use up fresh, ripe or overly ripe pears. The riper the better as ripe pears provide more sweetness in this pear muffins recipe than underripe pears.
• Walnuts
• Eggs
• Vanilla extract
• Honey
• Oil. I usually use olive oil, avocado oil or canola oil when I bake. This is a great post on why seed oils are not inflammatory.) 
• Almond milk (or milk of choice)
• Walnuts. You can also use pecans or other nuts if you don’t have walnuts. 

What pears are best for pear muffins?

The best pears are ripe pears, both Anjou pears, Bartlett pears and Bosc pears will work in this recipe. Because the pears add so much sweetness to this recipe, you’ll want them to be as ripe as possible.

How To Make These Honey Pear Muffins Recipe

Whisk together dry ingredients

To make these incredibly moist pear muffins, whisk together all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl: all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

Whisk together the wet ingredients

In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients of honey, large egg, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract.

Combine wet and dry together

Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and mix until just combined, taking care not to over mix.  I don’t recommend using a stand mixer or hand mixer for muffins as you don’t want to over work them.

Fold in the chopped nuts

Finish by folding in the finely chopped pears, rolled oats and walnuts. 

Fill a muffin pan and bake

Lightly spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray, or use muffin cups, then divide the batter into the muffin pan and cook until just tender, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Tip for a bakery style muffin! 

For fun bakery-style muffins, I recommend mixing together a little brown sugar, rolled oats and finely chopped walnuts and sprinkle on top of the muffins before baking. I typically do about 2 tablespoons of each. 

Pear Muffins are a Great Make Ahead Snack

Since I work from home, my food intake is much more sporadic than it used to be when I was working in an office. Sometimes I eat three square meals and a few snacks, other days I tend to graze without ever sitting down for an actual meal. Being in control of when and where I eat allows me to really tap into my intuitive eater with very few exceptions, which I’m fortunate to have the flexibility to do. 

However, on crazy busy days, it’s not uncommon for me to head straight to my computer and blow past hunger signs, continuing to work on a project until I’m so famished I can’t think anymore. The exact opposite of an intuitive eater.

For days like these, I like having ready-to-go snacks and meals at the ready, like these honey pear muffins. To appeal to the side of my brain that doesn’t want to stop and take a break and the other side, who dreams about food all day long.

I know I’m not alone in this struggle; I hear from clients that the hardest meals for them to enjoy tend to be the ones they eat at work. They drink only coffee for breakfast, or are too busy to make time, or they scarf down whatever is readily available. Yes, I remember this feeling well. My office meals would sometimes consist of whatever food samples were sent in that day, a spoonful of peanut butter, or a package of almonds I had thankfully stashed in my purse.

Making time for meals is so, so important, even if you can’t imagine giving up 10 minutes to eat. Eating without distractions helps with pacing, allows you to better understand your fullness cues, and improves satisfaction of the meal. How often do we scarf food at our desk only to be “starving” an hour later? Sure, we ate, but it really wasn’t a break. Take the time for yourself.

If your office breakfast or lunch tends to consist of donuts in the break room or pretzels from the vending machine (I’ve done both), then a bit of planning ahead will help. Of course, this honey pear muffins recipe tops the list. A bite here, another one there, the perfect fuel for busy Monday mornings. Make a batch to take to work with you and you’ll be the office hero. Who needs a stale, grocery-store donut when you’re bringing in homemade honey pear muffins!?

If you’re looking for more muffin recipes, try these:

• Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Vegan Banana Muffins
• Lemon Olive Oil Muffins
• Vegan Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins (and Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins!) 

If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, and tag your Instagram photos with #delishknowledge . I absolutely love seeing your creations. Happy cooking! 

This recipe was first published in 2016 and updated in 2022.