Five years ago, I planted a Montmorency cherry tree outside my kitchen door. Today, I picked cherries from that tree and made these sour cherry muffins. Food bliss…
Mom, let’s go feed the horses.
Rubber boots on bare feet, worn out hoodies to protect from the horse flies, her hand in mine we walk through the fresh-cut pasture under a gigantic summer moon with a bag of over grown gnarly carrots.
I love our family, she sighs.
I know.
Mother bliss…
SOUR CHERRY CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS
Preheat oven 425*F.
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
½ cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups fresh tart cherries, cleaned, halved and pitted
coarse sanding sugar
THE STEPS:
- Spray muffin tin with a non-stick spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, brown sugar until well combined.
- Whisk in buttermilk, oil, and vanilla extract.
- Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and gently mix, by hand, until all the flour is off the bottom of the bowl and no big pockets of flour remain. The batter will be thick and a little lumpy.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and cherries
- Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins, filling all the way to the top.
- Sprinkle with coarse sanding sugar.
- Bake at 425*F degrees for 5 minutes.
- Keep the muffins in the oven, reduce oven temperature to 375*F and continue to bake for 20 minutes until tops are lightly golden. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
- Allow muffins to cool for 10 minutes.
- Store muffins at room temperature in an airtight container.
THE LOVE: If you can’t find fresh tart cherries, use dried.
Thanks for reading.
