Pear and ginger muffins (soaked) recipe

I adapted this recipe from the NZ Woman's Weekly Pear and Ginger bran muffin recipe, which someone brought to a coffee morning last week. Her muffins were delicious, and I highly recommend that recipe.

However, I decided to have a go converting the recipe to a (hopefully) more nutritious soaked flour one. My soaked recipe worked, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

The reasoning behind soaking the flour first is to break down phytic acids in the grain which, according to Nourishing Traditions, would otherwise prevent our bodies from absorbing nutrients in the grain. This is a confusing issue, but if you would like to find out more, Katie over at Kitchen Stewardship has done a great job of trying to understand and explain it.

Ingredients

• 1/2c butter, melted
• 1/4c honey, warmed
• 3c stone-ground whole-wheat flour 
• 1c sour dairy, eg. yoghurt, kefir, or milk with 3T lemon juice added
• 1/2t vanilla
• 1/4c unrefined sugar, eg. jaggery
• 1/2t natural sea salt, eg. Celtic sea salt or Himalayan sea salt
• 1 pear, peeled and grated
• 2 eggs
• 2t ground ginger
• 2t baking soda

Method
1. In a small saucepan melt together butter and honey.

2. Pour honey butter mixture into a glass or plastic bowl (not metal) and mix together with flour and sour dairy.

3. Cover bowl with a clean tea towel and leave to soak for 8-24 hours.

4. When you come back to the mixture after the soaking period, it will have stiffened so stir it with a wooden spoon to soften it.

5. Preheat oven to 160°C and line twenty muffin moulds with cupcake patties.

6. Add sugar, vanilla, salt, ground ginger, grated pear and eggs to soaked mixture and beat to combine.

7. Add baking soda and beat again.

8. Spoon mixture into muffin trays lined with cupcake patties.

9. Bake at 160°C for 20-25 minutes, or until muffins spring back when lightly pressed.

Makes 20 muffins.

Variation
This is a variation that I thought of but haven't actually tried yet. If I do get around to trying it, I'll let you know how successful it is.

• After adding the baking soda, stir through a second pear, this one peeled and diced. That way you will end up with lovely chunks of moist pear throughout your muffins.