Very Cherry Pie Muffins
October 7, 2007
Cherry muffins can be made with fresh cherries, frozen cherries — or as I found out — canned cherry pie filling.
I call these Very Cherry Pie Muffins.
Cherry muffins sounded good in a cheery kind of way on a icy cold winter day, but when I checked, all I had on hand was a can of cherry pie filling. Not willing to drive to town for a single item, which we deliberately refuse to do for both economical and ecological reasons, I chose to work with what I had in the pantry.
By popular vote, I only baked mini-muffins this time. It seems, here at the cottage, mini-muffins are the favorite size of muffin. In fact, into our second week of Muffin Monday, Muffin Monday has been renamed Mini Muffin Monday. Such is the enthusiasm for Muffin Monday, that I was repeatedly reminded on Sunday that Monday was only a day away.
Very Cherry Pie Almond Muffins
2 and 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 21 oz can of cherry pie filling
1 cup toasted almond slivers
Optional: Reserve about 1/3 cup of cherry pie filling syrup before adding can of cherry pie filling to the muffin batter. After you spoon muffin batter into the individual muffin pan cups, make an indent in the top of each muffin and add a small dollop of the cherry pie filling syrup before baking.
Sift dry ingredients together. Make a well in the middle and add wet ingredients. Mix together. Add cherry pie filling and almonds. Spoon muffin batter into mini-muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Check periodically with toothpick for doneness. Remove and cool on rack about 10 minutes before removing muffins from muffin pan. These are moist and very cherry mini-muffins.
This is what mini-muffins look like when you follow the directions and fill the cup two-thirds full.
As opposed to my normal habit of heaping the muffin batter above the muffin cup.
The results of my rule-breaking baking are shown in the first photo.
