Remarkable - that's what my husband said when he tasted these. I was worried that my pear was too hard but it softened very nicely when baked. I was also concerned that they were going to bake over the pan as it seemed like there was a lot of batter for 12 muffins. But they turned out beautifully. I reduced the amount of cinnamon a bit to suit our tastes. Will definitely make these again.

Could you substitute the sour cream for Mascarpone? They seem to be the same thickness, so I gather the measurements would be the same? Or does the high fat content of Mascarpone call for an adjustment to the amount of oil too?

My guess is that mascarpone would just make the muffins a bit richer. I think it would be fine - just give it a try and see if you like the results - you might discover a real winner. Mascarpone can be quite expensive though. It's up to you but you may not notice a big difference in flavor, so they might turn out to be expensive muffins when they don't need to be. If you decide to go for it, let us know how they turn out. Happy baking!

The hardest part of this recipe is waiting the 10 minutes for the muffins to cool down before gobbling them up!

I used light sour cream (5% M.F.) and they still taste great. If my math is correct, they are about 220 calories each which is far better than similar store bought muffins.

I will definitely be using this recipe again!

It looks like I can't win them all :)
Last night I started to make these muffins and in the middle of mixing I realized the sour cream I wanted to use had expired and tasted funny, so I had to substitute it with what I could find in the fridge, and that was whipping cream. Another change that I had to make is using just backing powder, since there was no more baking soda in the kitchen (It on the grocery list now!). I'm not fan of changing recipe when trying them out for the first time, but I had no choice.

The end result were soft muffins which were somewhat hard to get out of the tin in one piece (I mostly managed, breaking two of them). Muffins have decent taste, however, I do miss fullness (richness) of the taste. I guess it's the whipping cream that's responsible for that? I think I had some cooking cream, not sure if that would have been better replacement?

I haven't make muffins for very long time, so I made another mistake to put too much batter into muffin tin, but that was just presentation problem since it had risen to much while in the oven and resulting muffins where not as good looking as the could have been. I guess when you're not a pro there is some part of luck involved :)

Good for you for trying to improvise; however changing ingredients such as baking powder for baking soda and adding a more liquidy ingredient instead will definitely impact the final result, especially when it comes to baking.

I would say try them again with the correct ingredients and see how you like them then. Cheers!

Thank you adding the suggestion of using other fruit at the bottom of this recipe. I had Rainier cherries, so decided to make cherry streusel muffins. I added some sliced almonds to the streusel topping and also dripped on some lemon flavored icing. So good!

I have a couple question regarding muffins. In this case, why is oil called instead of butter? Wouldn't butter give a better taste?
The other question was, why do many muffins recipes call for melted butter instead of butter that has been creamed with a mixer? Are the results different?
Thanks for you help.

Muffins often call for oil because it makes them moist and provides a denser texture. Yes, butter tastes better, but it's just the way some recipes are. With oil, you don't have to take that extra step of melting or creaming it. When it comes to melting or creaming butter, again, this has to do with texture. Creamed butter and sugar provides more air in the batter and can make the muffins lighter in texture. This will be covered in more detail in a lesson on basic mixing methods. Cheers!

Thanks so much for your input...in the meantime, while the next lesson is ready, is there any favorite muffin's recipe book you would recommend?
I am trying to reproduce a heavenly muffin that I had in New York from the Petrossian pastry shop that was light and absolutely delicious. Best pastries I have ever had in the United States.

This particular muffin book seems to have some pretty solid reviews. Cheers!

Hi guys,
I'd like to double this wonderful recipe for my rather large family, but I only have half the needed amount of sour cream. Could I substitute cream cheese? I usually use Greek yogurt but am short at the moment. I use whole wheat flour and half the amount of sugar and they come out lovely!

Cream cheese is rather thick, so you may need to mix the softened cream cheese with some of your Greek yogurt (or buttermilk) to obtain a similar consistency to the sour cream, but I think it should be fine. Cheers!