It's all because of my friend Heidi and her generous neighbors, with too many pears on their pear tree. I had come home with LOTS of freshly picked pears -- not all of which were picture perfect. Some had bad spots -- that were just growing bigger and worse as the pears ripened on my counter. I hate wasting food. Knowing that pureed fruit can be terrific in baked goods and it's inclusion can allow one to completely avoid using any oil, I decided to cut up the pears with bad spots, which weren't even optimally ripe yet and remove the bad spots. Then I placed all those oddly shaped pieces into my blender and processed on high until it looked like apple sauce. I planned to store the puree in glass jars in my freezer to be used at some later date in my baking.
But I couldn't stop there. I added some pitted dates, fresh stevia leaves (picked, washed and spun dry a few days ago, when I trimmed up my stevia plants) water, vanilla extract and then added that mixture to a mixing bowl full of sorghum flour with a few added things. Then I folded in frozen blueberries....and baked them. The result was spectacular.
Here in more detail is what I did, in case you'd like to try this too:
Ingredients:
3 cups of pear puree (apple would work just as well here too)
1 cup of firmly packed pitted Deglet dates
1 cup of loosely packed stevia leaves (or substitute about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of stevia extract to taste)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBS lemon juice
1 1/2 cups of water (divided in half)
3 cups sorghum flour
1/2 cup ground golden flax seeds
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp Rumford baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
3 cups frozen or fresh blueberries
Instructions:
But I couldn't stop there. I added some pitted dates, fresh stevia leaves (picked, washed and spun dry a few days ago, when I trimmed up my stevia plants) water, vanilla extract and then added that mixture to a mixing bowl full of sorghum flour with a few added things. Then I folded in frozen blueberries....and baked them. The result was spectacular.
Here in more detail is what I did, in case you'd like to try this too:
Ingredients:
3 cups of pear puree (apple would work just as well here too)
1 cup of firmly packed pitted Deglet dates
1 cup of loosely packed stevia leaves (or substitute about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of stevia extract to taste)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBS lemon juice
1 1/2 cups of water (divided in half)
3 cups sorghum flour
1/2 cup ground golden flax seeds
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp Rumford baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
3 cups frozen or fresh blueberries
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line two dozen muffin cups with unbleached parchment paper liners.
- Measure out 3 cups of well-pureed pear or apple into a large blender. Add the dates, Stevia leaves vanilla and lemon juice. Cover and blend on high until totally blended. Add half the water and blend again.
- Into a large bowl, place the flour, flax, arrowroot, xanthan, baking powder and baking soda (tip -- hold a fine mesh strainer over the bowl and dump the teaspoons of baking soda into the strainer and then use the measuring spoon to push any lumps of the soda through the strainer and into the bowl so you don't have clumps of the stuff in your finished muffins.) Stir all the dry ingredients well with a wire whisk.
- Pour the contents of the blender into the bowl of dry. Then add the remaining cup of water to the blender and swish it around to get every last bit mixed in -- then add this too to the bowl.
- Use a spatula to blend the wet and dry -- just until you don't see any dry left -- but don't over mix! Then stir in the frozen blueberries and quickly spoon into the muffin cups. Put right into the hot oven and bake at 350 for about 45-50 minutes -- just until the tops start to brown.
