Dark Sweet Cherry Muffins with Almonds

Large Dark Sweet Cherry Muffins

We have ordered a lot of fruit from Bithell Farms and everything that we have ever ordered is fabulous.   So of course, I have a lot of frozen fruit in the freezer that is needing used up.

I don’t know if you can order from Bithell Farms as an individual.   We always tack our order on with a local church or other organization that is doing it for a fund raiser.  I would definitely seek out a source for this fruit.

The dark sweet cherries are our favorite thing to order.    They are individually frozen and they are huge.   We enjoy them in a number of ways.

  • Three or four stirred into oatmeal is plenty.
  • Thawed out and heated a bit with a little drizzle of cream.
  • Mixed into a bowl of vanilla bean.
  • Popped in your mouth plain, straight from the freezer.

My favorite recipe with these cherries has to be my Dark Sweet Cherry Pie.

Delicious!

To continue with our 2012 Clean Out, I found these cherries in the freezer and some almonds in the pantry.   I have been in a baking mood so I  searched for a muffin recipe.  (Sorry, I didn’t have time to search through  my cookbooks so I reverted back to Google searches.)   I found a great recipe at Jane’s Sweets & Baking Journal for Jumbo Sweet Cherry Muffins.   Actually, I am glad I did a Google search because Jane has a great blog that I will now follow.

Dark Sweet Cherry Muffins with Almonds
I added almonds and changed up the directions a bit.  Otherwise, this recipe is Jane’s.

3 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
3/4 t. fine sea salt
¼ t.  ground cinnamon
¼ t. fresh ground nutmeg
1 1/2 c.  brown sugar
1 c. almonds, chopped fairly fine
2/3 c. canola oil
2 large farm fresh eggs
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. almond extract
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
2 c. frozen dark sweet cherries, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare muffin tins by spraying with cooking spray or lining with muffin cups.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.   Whisk to combine.   Add the brown sugar and whisk it in as well.   Add almonds and whisk again.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract, and buttermilk.

Make a well in the dry ingredients.    Pour in wet ingredients and make about 6 strokes with a spoon.   Add cherries and continue to stir until JUST combined.  Don’t over mix.

Fill prepared muffin tins 2/3 full.  Place in oven at 400 degrees and bake for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake for 10 minutes more.

Let them cool in the pan for five minutes.   Then remove to wire racks.

Makes 24+ regular muffins.

I I got 24 plus 6 minis out of this recipe.

I will definitely add this recipe to my quick bread and muffin list of “musts make again.”   Thanks, Jane.   (I hope you all check out her blog.)

Enjoy with coffee or a cup of tea.

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