Lately Instagram has been a font of baking inspiration. 😉 I don’t remember where I saw it and they didn’t share a recipe, but someone’s delicious cherry chocolate muffin photo got my brain percolating.
I still have frozen cherries in the freezer from last summer’s u-pick adventures, and last week I found a good base recipe to riff on from King Arthur Flour. The original recipe says cherries and almonds are made for one another, and they definitely are, so that’s why I swapped in some almond flour. But you know chocolate and cherries are pretty amazing together too, and come on cardamom! These came out deliciously light and tender and just plain yummy.
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup chopped chocolate or mini-chocolate chips
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup spelt flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 1 cup chopped cherries (drain before adding to batter)
- 1/4 cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted
- granulated sugar, for topping the muffins
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line with paper, or lightly grease a 12-well muffin pan.
- Mix all the dry ingredients, including sugar and chocolate, together in a medium bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, butter, buttermilk, and extract together.
- Blend wet ingredients with dry until just mixed. Gently fold in chopped cherries.
- Spoon batter into muffin cups, and sprinkle toasted almonds and granulated sugar on top.
- Bake for about 30 mins. or until a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean.
Cardamom & Creme 