Cherry Coconut or Cherry Almond Muffins

Sorry for the long silence!  I hope that I can make it up with some good recipes!

Nothing says summer to me than a big bowl of cherries.  I have always eaten them fresh but this year decided to experiment with baking them.  What a great discovery!  I love the tartness of the cherries with the sweetness of baking.  Today I'm going to post one muffin recipe with two options - either cherry almond or cherry coconut.  Both are delicious!

Cherry Almond (left) & Cherry Coconut (right)

Cherry Muffins
(adapted from Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice)

• 2 cups white, unbleached or white whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 heaping cup pitted cherries, coarsely chopped
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2/3 cup sugar or 1/2 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt
• for Coconut version: 1/2 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
• for Almond version: 1/2 cup slivered almonds & 1 teaspoon almond extract

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare a muffin tin.
*In a small bowl whisk flour, baking powder and salt.
*Toss cherries with 1 tablespoon flour and set aside.
*In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla (and almond extract if making the almond version).  Beat 3 minutes.
*By hand alternate mixing in flour and milk.
*Fold in sour cream, cherries and coconut or almonds.
*Spoon into muffin tin, filling almost full.  Sprinkle with coconut or almonds.
*Bake 18-22 minutes.
*Cool in pan for 5 minutes and then put on wire racks to cool.

I also made a batch of mini muffins with no coconut.  The kids loved them.

Enjoy!
-C :)