I loved these! What a great new idea for using freshly picked pears. I substituted the oil with applesauce because of my diet and they were sooo good. Thanks for sharing!

These muffins positively need more sugar, at least for our taste preferences here! I would increase it to 3/4 or even 1 full cup of sugar, if you like them sweeter. (And our pears were very ripe and sweet---but they still need more help.) When I made them, I added an extra 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, added 1/4 tsp. ginger and doubled the nutmeg and cloves. I THINK with added sugar they might be pretty good. I was in a huge hurry, trying to get them made in time for my son to have with his smoothie before school, so cut the pear up in too large of chunks. I'd recommend to dice it in small cubes---and I used 2-1/2 small pears to make a heaping one cup. We didn't find them dry at all, the texture was nice. I did use King Arthur white whole wheat flour, which might have helped with the nice texture. I only used 3/4 tsp. almond extract, but could easily have used the full teaspoon, since I didn't taste the almond at all. Didn't add the chopped almond--and if I did, I would definitely use the blanched almond slices and chop them finely. Otherwise, like another reviewer said, you're going to have little rocks in your muffins.

These are more like little cakes. In itself not a bad thing but not quite a satisfying texture for muffins. They're dry and bland.

This was alright. It was a little bland. Increasing sugar by 1/4 cup and spices to your liking might help. The almond pieces are also rather hard compared to the soft texture of the muffin.

These muffins have a delicate flavor and are not too sweet--the texture is not dense but made moist by the pieces of pear. I liked that the spices did not overwhelm the muffin so that I can taste the pears and the almond flavoring. But if you like spicier and sweeter muffins, add more cinnamon and sugar. I followed the recipe except for cutting the almond extract to 1/4 tsp, but I will probably use 1/2 tsp next time. I loved them Frances, thank you for sharing.