Low-fat pear oat muffins

subtitle: a health conscious muffin for an otherwise carb obsessed office

toto, we aren't in kansas anymore. shocking how the food expectations rapidly decline from soho, ny to secaucus, nj. okay, maybe not that surprising. anyways, i decided the polite thing to do would be introduce myself with muffins (duh). i wanted them to have oats (more breakfast like to me), be low-fat (because, well, muffins can be scary), and have pears (because they're delicious and would add flavor in case everything else went to crap). clearly, i had a lot of requirements, so it may not be surprising that i had a hard time finding a preexisting recipe. it was easier to just take a base muffin recipe (bittman!) and make the adjustments that i wanted.

i subbed some of the fat with unsweetened applesauce, added fruit, and swapped out half of the flour for instant oats. what resulted was a deliciously sweet, flavorful and moist muffin. the only downfall was that i didn't have turbinado sugar to sprinkle on the top...


low-fat pear oat muffins
adapted from mark bittman's muffin recipe in how to cook everything
1 cup flour1 cup instant oats1/4-1/2 cup brown sugar1/2 tspn salt3 tspns baking powder1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 tablespoons unsweetened apple sauce1 egg1 cup low fat milk1 cup pears, finely chopped
preheat oven to 355 degrees
combine dry ingredientscombine wet ingredients and mix into drystir until just combined (don't overmix! lumps are good)
bake for 20 minutes or until golden on top and cooked through