No Sugar Cardamum-Pear Muffins

So, I've started on 'no sugar' since the beginning of the year (got on board a little late and so the 3rd was my first official day), and I found this recipe today in a magazine for muffins.  I love muffins.  I usually like to grab a bran muffin when we go out vs a doughnut because, to me, they taste better and give me more energy.  Well, muffins have sugar.  The ones from bakeries have lots of sugar.  So... no muffins for 90 days?  Really?

As I was reading the recipe (in my 'Fresh Juice' magazine), I noticed that it did have sugar, but I've modified a few of my tried tested and true recipes to remove sugar completely, and figured I wanted to give this one a shot as well.

So, I did!

I actually changed the recipe quite a bit... and I doubled it so I could use up ingredients that I had that were needing to be used up NOW.  I don't want to trash good Greek yogurt, after all!  Oh the horror!  So, this is the recipe, and the changes I made to it.

Cardamom-Pear Muffins

Ingredients
1 398mL can pear halves in juice from concentrate, drained
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
3 Tbsp oil
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar (I used about 1 Tbsp honey instead... yes, it is sweet enough)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup natural bran
1 cup each whole wheat flour and all purpose flour
1/3 cup ground flax seed (I don't have this, so I used some hemp seed hearts for salads)
1tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cardamom or cinnamon (mm... cinnamon)
dash salt
1/3 cup chopped pecans (optional... I actually used almonds instead)

Preheat oven to 375F.  Line 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners, grease, set aside.

In a large bowl, mash the pears, add milk, yogurt, oil, egg, molasses, sugar/honey, and vanilla.  Beat until blended.  Stir in bran and let sit 5 minutes.

In a separate large bowl, mix flours, flax seed, baking soda, cardamom/cinnamon, and salt.  Mix the wet and dry ingredients until the flours are incorporated (mixture is actually really thick!).

Spoon into prepared muffin cups, filling to top.  Sprinkle with nuts.  Bake in center of 375F oven for 25-30 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack.  Let cool.