Dried Cherry Muffins

Yum! These came out very nicely when I made them for a brunch on Sunday.

The recipe I developed is a hybrid of different recipes that I found online. Most of the credit for my recipe goes to a B&B in Bristol, R.I., which created this recipe.

I liked everything about the B&B's recipe, but I added almond extract (which always seems to complement cherries) and I reduced slightly the amount of sugar, which seemed a bit high. I wanted muffins that were sweet, but not so sweet that you didn't get just a hint of tartness.

Dried, pitted cherries were once a little hard to find, but nowadays most large grocery stores have an aisle with several varieties of dried fruit.

Anyway, everyone raved about the muffins so this recipe is definitely a keeper. Here it is:

Dried Cherry Muffins

Yield: 1 dozen

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of dried tart pitted cherries


• 1/2 cup of butter (slightly softened)


• 3/4 cup of granulated sugar, minus one tablespoon


• 1 cup of buttermilk


• 2 eggs


• 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract


• 1-3/4 cups of sifted, all-purpose flour


• 2 teaspoons of baking powder


• 1 teaspoon of baking soda


• A pinch of salt

Instructions:

1) Place the dried cherries in a bowl and pour the buttermilk over them. Allow the cherries to soak for at least 30 minutes.

2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease the muffin tin.

3) In a large bowl, stir the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder together — set aside.

4) Drain the cherries, but add the buttermilk to a large bowl with the butter, sugar, and eggs. Cream the butter and other ingredients until smooth. Then stir in the cherries.

5) Incorporate the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, mixing together just until blended.

6) Fill the muffin tins to 2/3 full. Bake for about 20 minutes. Insert a skewer in the center of a muffin — when it comes out clean, the muffins are done.

7) Cool for 5 minutes before removing muffins from the tin.