Sweet Tart Cherry Muffins

Ah cherries! How we love the fresh black cherries here that are both sweet with a bit of tartness that explode in your mouth as a taste sensation as is. But then, there are all kindsa ways of dressing them up from Yogurt Parfait to these lovely muffins which are not too sweet and so excellent with a cup of tea or coffee it’s like a match made in Heaven.

Now we don’t normally buy cherries with such wild abandon but we had a lot of company over and whilst we chowed down quite a bit on the cherries still had a bunch left over. I could’ve just noshed on them with DH but even he looked at our leftover cherries and said, hmmm, maybe you could whip something up with them? They were just a teeny weeny bit sad looking so I said Muffins! and we both liked the notion.

So as you may know, I tend to make my muffins by hand. It’s easy and you are less likely to overwork them when mixing by hand. The result of overbeating muffins is a tough muffin, baby, not something you want. So get yourself a nice sized bowl and spoon, fork or whisk to hand and line up your ingredients.

Preheat your oven to 425 F/220 C. Yes, that high. No worries, they’ll only bake at that temp for 5 minutes so no stepping away from them! Next get your muffin tin at the ready and grease well. This recipe makes about 15-16 regular muffins so I generally use a 12 cupper muffin tin and a 6 cup muffin tin. Have them ready to roll since muffins shouldn’t sit around after mixing. They should be scooped straight into tin and hot oven, just sayin’.

Start by carefully measuring your flour since too generous a hand with the flour makes ’em heavy not fluffy. Then add the sugar, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and stir.

K. Now put in just a hint of almond extract, since a little goes a long way and we don’t wanna overpower the cherries. I usually dribble in about 1/8 of a teaspoon, but no more than a 1/4 teaspoon!! Then add eggs, milk/soy milk, oil in the middle of the bowl and stir under and over, scraping from the bottom just till combined.

Add the cherries which you’ve pitted, destemmed and cut in half.

With just a few stirs of the spoon, incorporate the cherries.

Immediately either using an ice cream scooper or approximately 1/3 cup for each muffin cup, scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins.

Pop into the oven which you’ve preheated (a must!) and after 5 minutes, without opening the door of the oven, lower temp to 375 F/190 C and bake an additional 13-14 minutes or so, checking with a wooden toothpick. If rounded tops and nicely golden brown, toothpick should come out with a crumb or two. Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks at least 5 minutes before removing from tin, they are much less likely to stick.

Sweet Tart Cherry Muffins

3 cups and 2 tablespoons (375 grams) AP flour
1 cup (200 grams) sugar
1 rounded teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (240 ml) milk/soy milk
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup (120 ml) canola oil
1 – 1 1/2 cups fresh (or frozen, but don’t defrost) cherries, halved, pitted and destemmed

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 F/220 C. Take a 12 cup muffin tin and a 6 cup muffin tin and generously spray with oil. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and salt till combined. Make a well in the middle and add the milk/soy milk, almond extract, eggs and oil. Combine just till ingredients are incorporated – do not overmix!! If you do, you’ll get a tough muffin. Fold the halved cherries into the batter and immediately scoop out evenly into the muffin tins. Pop into the hot oven and bake at 425F/220C for 5 minutes. Without opening oven door, lower temperature to 375 F/190 C for an additional 13-14 minutes or till tops are nicely domed and muffins golden brown and when checked with a wooden toothpick, it comes out with a few crumbs on it. Cool on wire racks at least 5 minutes before removing from muffin tins and you will see they are much less likely to stick.