Have I told you, dear readers, how much I love Lottie and Doof‘s “Black Sesame and Pear Cake”? When I could get Western pears, I loved making that cake in Japan, where black sesame is a common ice cream and wagashi flavor. I wanted to adapt the flavors of this cake into something smaller, less sweet, and more portable for weekday breakfasts, hence the muffins.

For the sesame, in the US I typically buy a jar of black sesame seeds from Uwajimaya and grind them in the spice grinder or the blender. If you’re in Japan, you can buy them pre-ground (surigoma, すりごま) fairly inexpensively, or if you don’t have the tools to grind them, you might be able to find them at your local Asian market or online.

Black Sesame and Pear Muffins

Inspired by Lottie and Doof‘s “Black Sesame and Pear Cake”

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients

100 g (3.5 oz / 7 TBSP) unsalted butter
60 g (1/3 cup) sugar
2 eggs

150 g (1.25 cups) all-purpose flour
150 g (1.25 cups) whole-wheat pastry flour
12 g (3-1/3 tsp) baking powder
30 g (1 oz.) ground black sesame

140 mL (scant ~2/3 cup) milk
1 Bosc pear, peeled, cored, and diced

Equipment

-A muffin tin or silicon muffin cups

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 180º C (350º F).
2. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg and mix well.
3. Mix together the dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, ground sesame). Alternating milk mixture and dry ingredients into the batter in three parts, gently stir the batter to incorporate. Fold in the diced pear. Do not overbeat.
4. Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Japanese ingredient translation

unsalted butter (muen batâ, 無塩バター)
sugar (satô, 砂糖)
egg (tamago, 卵)
whole-wheat pastry flour (okashiyô no komugiko,お菓子の小麦粉)
all-purpose flour (komugiko, 小麦粉
black sesame seeds (kurogoma, 黒ゴマ)
ground black sesame (surigoma, すりごま)
baking powder (bêkingu paudâ, ベーキングパウダー)
milk: gyûnyû, 牛乳; low-fat milk: teishibônyû, 低脂肪乳; soy milk:tônyû, 豆乳
pear (yônashi, 洋梨)

a muffin tin (mafin kata, マフィン型) or silicon muffin cups (mafin kappu, マフィンカップ)