Cherries are in the local markets now and I’m super excited. I love cherries and usually just pop them into my mouth fresh, but sometimes I get a hankering for something a little different. Sometimes it works, like these cherry muffins below, and sometimes it doesn’t.
As my bag of cherries began to dwindle and there only seemed to be the ugly testical-looking cherries left alongside the softer, darker ones that I don’t like to eat. I figured muffins would be the way I could save these sweet babies from the compost heap. So I got to pitting and chopping them and threw them into a simple muffin batter. I went with a whole wheat pastry flour since I got a huge bag for cheap at my local Chinatown grocer. If you don’t have access to ww pastry flour, try half white and half whole wheat to help cut through the heaviness of regular whole wheat. The resulting muffins were light, tasty and were an easy way to grab something quick for breakfast.
In other food news, this past weekend I attended the Eat! Vancouver festival and got to interview celebrity chef, Bob Blumer. Read my write-up about it on the Food Network Canada site.
whole wheat cherry muffins
2 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 t salt
1 T baking powder
1/4 c brown sugar
1 c fresh pitted cherries, chopped
1 egg
3/4 c skim milk
1/2 t almond extract
1 t vanilla
1/4 c melted butter1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. In a smaller bowl, mix together the egg, milk, vanilla, almond extract and melted butter.
2. Dump the cherries into the flour mixture and then add in the liquids. Mix until everything has blended together.
3. Grease 12 muffin tins and then spoon batter into cups. Bake at 375 until tops are golden, about 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.