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You’ll love these pear streusel muffins loaded with chunks of pear, topped with an easy oaty streusel and a simple fig glaze. These are the muffins that’ll make all the other muffins jealous.

This muffin happened because I found an intriguing yogurt flavor: Siggi’s Spiced Pear and Fig Skyr. They had me at cinnamon and cardamom. The very idea of such a thing sounded too good to pass up. While I thought this was a winning idea, I was not expecting these to be one of the most delectable muffins I’ve ever baked. I couldn’t decide if these ones or my lemon zucchini muffins had more flavor. Who cares, they’re both good and deserve to be made!

Truly, these are bakery style muffins that would put any good coffee house muffin to shame. Did I mention they’re easy? And if you cheat like I do often and make your streusel ahead of time, you can make a batch of pear muffins in the time it takes for the oven to heat up.

So crack open your best yogurt–pear streusel muffins are on the menu!

Pear Streusel Muffins

Why you’ll want to make pear muffins yesterday

Fancy yogurt: good ingredients make better bakes if for no other reason than the best ones have extra layers of flavor built in. The spiced pear and fig yogurt already has extra layers of flavor from fig and pear purees as well as cinnamon and cardamom. That makes your job of building flavor easier!
Apple pie spice: while you’ll still end up with a delicious muffin with cinnamon alone, my homemade apple pie spice with the little bit of vanilla sugar adds incredible flavor.
Streusel: I’m German enough to know that streusel is the magic dust that makes most bakes better. The buttery crunchy layer with some oats (it’s the same streusel as my strawberry crisp) will make you believe the same.
Fig glaze: I love adding jams to glazes. It’s an easy way to add a little color and flavor. Here I use fig jam for it’s added Fall flavor, though you could use apricot or plum.

Ingredients you’ll need to make pear streusel muffins

Muffins

Pears
All-purpose flour
Light brown sugar
Baking powder
Apple pie spice: or cinnamon
Baking soda
Salt
Siggi’s pear fig skyr: you can use your favorite vanilla yogurt or plain Greek yogurt.
Butter
Eggs

Streusel

All-purpose flour
Light brown sugar
Old fashioned oats
Apple pie spice: you can use cinnamon alone instead
Salt
Butter

Fig glaze

Powdered sugar
Fig jam: you can substitute apricot or plum jam or even apple butter
Milk: just to thin things out

How to make the best pear muffins

Pear ripeness: this recipe works best if your pears are kind of half way between being extra ripe and rock hard. The rock hard pears won’t bake up in the time we need them to do so, and extra ripe pears will be far too juicy to chop into nice slices and chunks. Pick a pear that’s about avocado ripe: where the skin yields just a little if you poke it, but it’s not mushy.
Keep your streusel cold: I’m always preaching that the best streusel goes into the oven cold, and this is no exception. You’ll get the best texture doing it this way.
Let the glaze set: You’ll get the prettiest bakery style muffin if you let the glaze dry before serving. Dry glaze is extra shiny and pretty, and we all want that, no?

FAQ about pear muffins

I can’t find the pear and fig skyr. What can I use?: Use your favorite Greek yogurt or vanilla yogurt. You’ll still get a lot of flavor either way, and any yogurt you use will give the muffins the tender crumb we’re after.
Do I need to use Apple Pie Spice?: Nope, but do yourself a favor and make a batch. You’ll find use after use for this amazing combo. If you don’t have the ingredients on hand to make a batch, just use cinnamon on its own.
What can I use besides fig jam?: I don’t always find fig jam either, and because of that, I buy a lot of it when I do! Use whatever jam you have on hand in the glaze. I think apricot or plum are particularly nice here. Date paste will give you a really similar flavor to the fig.

Pear Muffins with Crumb Topping

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Author: Elizabeth Farr

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Description

Moist muffins loaded with pear chunks and double topped with crunchy oat streusel and a fig glaze perfumed with apple pie spice for a perfect Fall muffin.

Ingredients

Scale

Oat Streusel topping

6 Tablespoons all-purpose flour (49 g)
1/4 cup (53 g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons old fashioned oats (24 g)
Pinch apple pie spice
pinch of salt
2 Tablespoons butter (28 g), melted

Pear Muffins

2 pears, about as ripe as a good avocado
2 cups all-purpose flour (260 g)
1/3 cup light brown sugar (76 g)
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon apple pie spice
1/2teaspoon baking soda
1/2teaspoon salt
5.3 oz container of Siggi’s pear fig skyr or 150 g of Greek yogurt
5 Tablespoons melted butter (70 g)
2 large eggs

Figgy glaze

3/4 cup powdered sugar (90 g)
1 Tablespoons fig jam
1 Tablespoon milk

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Instructions

Mix the flour, brown sugar, oats, apple pie spice, and salt in a small bowl.
Pour over the melted butter, then use a fork to mix into coarse crumbs. Set in the freezer to chill while you prep the muffins.
Preheat the oven to 400 F (205 C).
Brush a 12 cavity muffin pan with 1 tablespoon of melted butter.
Peel the pears, and then cut each in half. Scoop out the seeds and the stringy bit attached to the stem.
Slice one of the halves into thin slices, then cut those slices in half along the length.
Cut the other 3 pear halves into rough 1/2” chunks.
Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and apple pie spice in a large mixing bowl.
In another bowl, mix the yogurt, eggs, and the rest of the melted butter.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the egg/yogurt mixture, then stir everything together until the flour is just moistened. Be sure to scrape down to the bottom of the bowl as there’s usually flour hanging out that you missed! Fold in the chopped pears with a few turns of your spatula.
Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups.
Top each of the muffins with a 1 or 2 of the sliced pears, then spread streusel over the top of each muffin.
Bake the muffins for 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or the middle of a muffin springs back when you touch it.
While the muffins are baking, mix together the glaze ingredients in a small bowl.
Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then pop them out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
Spoon the figgy glaze over the warm muffins in loose zigzags over the streusel and pears.
Muffins are best the day that they’re me, but you can freeze unglazed muffins for up to 2 months.