What's Cooking Wednesday

Spiced Pear Loaf

I picked up a bag of pears at the grocery store last week and I knew I wanted to create some baked goodness with them so I searched Pinterest high and low and found this recipe.  Of course I tweaked it to make it slightly healthier!

Ingredients:
2-3 pears diced (I left skin on, but you can peel)
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup almond butter (or oil of choice)
1/2 cup egg whites (or 2 eggs)
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp ground flax
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees, spray a loaf pan or muffin tin with nonstick spray.

2.  Dice pears and set aside.

3.  In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, applesauce, almond butter and honey.  Add in vanilla and egg whites (or eggs).

4.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, ground flax, baking soda and spices.

5.  Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and then fold in pears.

6.  Spread batter evenly into loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes.  Allow to cool and remove from loaf pan.

This works well for dessert with a dusting of powdered sugar and a dollop of whipped cream or for breakfast with some fresh fruit and plain Greek yogurt!  I would also recommend adding a 1/2 cup of chopped almonds for added texture.  Enjoy!