Another Monday, another idea for your not-too-unhealthy snacking pleasure. Once again these are quick and easy recipes to throw together to brighten up your tea break, and I seem to be on a muffins kick again this week.

I’ve been trying out different oatbran recipes recently, just to see if I can make a few healthier treats. Oatbran has lots of good things in it, including soluble fibre and beta glucan, and I’ve also been able to reduce the refined sugar content and saturated fat and increase the fruit content in these pear & gingerbread flavour muffins without sacrificing the flavour.

Hope you like them!

Pear & gingerbread oatbran muffins recipe

Ingredients

• 170g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 80g oatbran
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 medium pears, peeled, cored and roughly chopped (approx 250g)
• 50g dark brown soft sugar
• 50g golden syrup or honey
• 5 tablespoons (75ml) sunflower oil
• 5 tablespoons (75ml) milk
• 50g plain Greek yogurt
• 1 egg, beaten (or vegan substitute)

Substitutions for hard to find ingredients

Oatbran isn’t always easy to find so it can be swapped with an equal weight of porridge oats. You could also replace the oatbran and the white flour and use 250g wholemeal flour instead.

Self raising flour is fine to use in this recipe, just omit the baking powder.

Dark brown sugar can be swapped with light brown soft sugar, which will give more of a toffee flavour, or just use plain old white sugar. Old dark brown sugar that’s dried out and clumped might need to be broken up with a fork and fully dissolved in warm milk before using, or the muffin mixture will cook unevenly and spoil the appearance of the bake.

No golden syrup or honey? You can substitute with another syrup such as agave nectar. You can also use black treacle, AKA molasses, which will give your muffins a hint of parkin-like flavour and darken the colour a little.

No pears? You can substitute an equal weight of apples and it will still work very nicely.

Method

Makes 12 standard sweet muffins.

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C / 160 C fan oven / Gas Mark 4.
2. Line a muffin tin with paper cups, or grease a 12-hole silicone muffin tray.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the oil, milk, beaten egg, sugar, syrup and Greek yogurt.
4. In another bowl, thoroughly mix together the flour, oatbran, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and spices. Then stir in the chopped pears.
5. Add the liquid mixture to the flour and pear mixture and stir quickly to combine, then divide the mix equally between the 12 muffin cups.
6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until cooked (a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin should come out clean).

If you want an optional decoration for these muffins, add a thin slice of leftover pear to the top of each one before baking as I’ve done in the picture above. You can also use water icing, or brush the tops of the muffins with a tiny amount of warmed golden syrup for an attractive finish, but it will of course increase the sugar content.

Have you made oatbran muffins before? These pear & gingerbread muffins are a fairly wholesome nibble but they’re still pretty tasty.