Gluten Free Pear Corn Muffins

I saw another great dessert on Martha Stewart’s Show last week, Corn Muffins with Pear and Candied Ginger. Of course I had to create a gluten free muffin recipe version. The original recipe called for candied ginger which did not sound appealing to me, but I will never know, as I did not have any on hand. The recipe below calls for many ingredients, but is fairly simple to make. This is the best gluten free muffin recipe I have ever made or ever tasted – straight out of the often and when cooled.

Gluten Free Pear Corn Muffins

Gluten Free Muffin Recipe: Pear Corn

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sweet rice flour
• 1/2 cup white rice flour
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca flour
• 1/4 cup potato starch flour
• 1/4 cup gluten free oat flour
• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon + 3 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon xanthan gum
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup grape seed oil
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 2 Tablespoon melted shortening
• 1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon non-fat Greek yogurt (I use FAGE brand.)
• 2 ripe pears, chopped (1/4 cup reserved for tops + 1/2 pear reserved for pear sauce)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Whisk all dry ingredients together in a large bowl; set aside.
3. Peel pears; reserve one half for pear sauce.
4. Chop 1 1/2 pears into 1/4″ pieces.
5. Chop 1/2 pear about the same size; place into small sauce pan with 1/4 cup filtered water.
6. Cook until tender (about 5 minutes).
7. Run through mini food processor or mash by hand, makes about 2 Tablespoons.
8. In a medium size bowl whisk eggs; add all wet ingredients together, including pear sauce, but not the chopped pears; whisk well.
9. Add the pears to mixture and fold in.
10. Make a well inside the dry ingredients; and add the wet ingredients.
11. Fold together until well blended.
12. Oil muffin pans, and fill cups with mixture a little over the top so that they are rounded.
13. Smooth out tops, as whatever they look like after being smoothed is somewhat the shape they will be afterbeing baked.
14. Add the extra pears to the top of muffins; and push into dough half way.
15. Bake for approximately 28 – 30 minutes or until golden.
16. Remove from oven and set muffin pan on a baking rack to cool for at least 5 minutes before removing from pan. The sooner you remove them the more fragile they will be, but I successfully lifted them from the pans after 5 minutes of cooling.

Note

• The muffins appear to be crispy in the photo above (where brown), but they are not. They are very moist and soft.

Hints and Substitutions

• You may substitute the homemade pear sauce for unsweetened apple sauce.
• You may melt the butter and shortening together to make 1/3 cup.
• If you use 1/3 cup melted butter instead of 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of shortening your muffins may be a little heavier.
• If you attempt to substitute the sweet rice flour for all white rice flour your muffins may be more dense.
• If your pears are over ripe use less water when cooking the pear sauce.