A collaboration . . .

This was one of my favorite baking collaborations. My part was easy: I found the recipe in the Penzey's Spice Catalog and gave it to my daughter. She tweaked it just the tiniest bit and then made the muffins. Turns out she doesn't have muffin tins (Note to self: get her muffin tins for her birthday), so she used mini bundt pans. The best part of our collaboration belonged to granddaughter Nora. She was the taster! My girls (daughter and granddaughter) are taking them to Nora's ECFE class tomorrow. It's their turn to bring the treat, and what a wonderful treat it will be!


















Dark Chocolate & Cherry Muffins
Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
4 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups sour cream
1-1/2 cups sour cherries (see note)
1/2 of a 10 oz bag 60% cacao dark chocolate chips by Ghiradelli
8 Tbsp. (1 stick) butter, room temperature
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°. Grease and flour muffin tin cups or line with paper muffin cups.
Combine flour, soda and salt in a bowl and mix well.
In a separate mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, almond and vanilla extracts, sour cream and dry ingredients. Mix until just moistened (overmixing will make the muffins tough).
Fold in the cherries. Fill the muffin cups about 2/3 full with batter.
Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops are lightly browned. 



Note: Sour cherries can usually be found frozen, canned or dried. If frozen or canned, drain off any juice before using. If dried, chop into smaller pieces. We found them at Traders Joe's. 

Prep. time: 15 minutes
. Cooking time:20-25 minutes
. Yield: 24

Recipe from Penzey's Spice Catalog