Ginger Pear Bran Muffins

I just whipped up a batch of these bad boys, and now my kitchen smells like heaven. This recipe might just be the best thing that ever happened to me. I was inspired after making this ale bread, which despite my bumbling in the kitchen turned out pretty well. I used whole wheat flour and an oatmeal stout- next time, I will use more salt and less beer. I stupidly bought too big a bottle, and then had to guesstimate how much of it to use. But I digress. The Cooking By the Seat of My Pants writer who provided the ale bread recipe linked to Farmgirl Fare in that post, and I think that I have found another favorite blog. This girl up and moved from Northern California to a remote farm in Missouri, and now farms, cooks, and writes. She's even building an artisan bread factory on her farm- how freaking cool is that? Based on these muffins, as soon as her bakery is up and running, I will be her first mail order customer. I will drive out there myself weekly to get her goods if I have to.
I made the muffins with the Trader Joe's pear halves (in a glass bottle), and used a cheese grater to mush them up. The only other tweaks I made (because I can't leave well enough alone) are to use 1/3 c molasses instead of 1/3 c of the honey, and to use a little more vanilla than called for (that's how my mom taught me to make baked goods taste better). I wish that I had used fresh pears like the recipe suggested (I was too lazy to go to the market and then wait for the pears to ripen), but that didn't stop me at all from eating a whole muffin when I was only planning to eat half. I will be happy to make these again, fresh pears or not. Holy crap, are these muffins good. The cake-y part tastes like a muffin, and not like a quick bread, which is great, and the whole grains make the texture interesting. The added moisture of the pears is divine, and the little bits of ginger are unexpected and give a whole other layer of warm flavor to the muffin. If I had a star rating system, these would get a billion stars.