We love our Christmas fruit baskets from Harry and David! This year I poached some and baked delicious bread and muffins! Simple and delicious, it is so perfect for making a day in advance for breakfast, afternoon tea, or dessert. This recipe is low in sugar and very low in gluten. Best to use firm pears. I used three very large pears for this recipe. I recommend reading the recipe completely before starting the baking process.  It is very simple and rewarding!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup Light brown sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey or agave
3 eggs lightly beaten
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cardamon
1/2 tsp allspice
2 cups *gluten-free flour
1 cup Einkorn flour
3 tbsp hemp seed
5 cups pears, very firm, peeled, and diced ( I do this once I have made the batter so the pears don’t turn brown)

Preheat oven to 350F
Lightly grease muffin tins with butter. (this recipe makes 18 muffins or 1 dozen muffins and one small loaf)
I love the option to freeze the muffins as they are easy to warm in the morning when desired.
In a large bowl combine brown sugar, olive oil and honey. Stir together, add eggs and vanilla. Mix all ingredients.
In another large bowl, sift flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice, cardamon, flours…then, mix in hemp seed.
Gently fold in honey mixture into dry ingredients until completely moistened.
Fold in pears lightly until batter is distributed evenly.
Scoop batter into loaf pan and muffin tin. Fill to 3/4 from top.
Bake 20-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out pretty dry.
Let chill on a pastry rack for a few minutes. Remove from pan/tin and let it rest on rack til cool.
Keep in fridge for 5 days or store in freezer for a few months.
Warm frozen muffins/bread in oven @ 325F for 10 minutes on a cast iron pan.

Bon Appétit