Chocolate Pear Muffins

I've never been a huge muffin person but I had quite a few leftover pears from a certain catering event and they were getting pretty soft. I've already experimented with pear sorbet and caramelized pear ice cream this fall (both David Lebovitz recipes that I highly recommend) and have recently been inspired by the muffins at my place of work. So...

Recipe:

I was trying to get the tops right. The top is undoubtedly the most important part of the muffin and to achieve the maximum surface area and crispyness I greased the top of the muffin tray and filled the muffin holes themselves much higher than I normally would-- to the point where I knew they would overflow and run into each other. Then I sprinkled them with brown sugar. It was a pretty successful go.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (divided in half)
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
3 VERY ripe pears, peeled, cored and chopped into cubes
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 450F. Grease 8 muffin cups.

In a small bowl mix flours, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt and set aside. In a separate, larger bowl, cream the butter with the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well. Gently mix in the buttermilk. Using a spatula incorporate the flour mix to the butter/sugar/egg mix. Carefully mix in the pear cubes and chocolate chips.
Pull out your greased muffin cups and fill them to above the brim. Fill them more than you've ever filled a muffin cup before. Once you've filled your cups (I only had enough batter for 8) spkrinkle the tops with the remaining 1/4 cup of brown sugar.
Bake at 450 for 10 minutes then turn the oven to 400 and bake for 15 more minutes. Let cool for five minutes in cups then unmold them and move them to a cooling rack.
These will last two or three days (if they don't all get eaten first).