My kitchen looked like a crime scene. Dark red splatters were everywhere. The sweet cherries burst as the pitter plunged through to extract the pit. The juices puddled on the cutting board and stained my fingers. These are cherries at their perfect point of ripeness. Their flavor needed no companion or accent. It is why I kept it simple and made cherry muffins.
I then cleaned up the kitchen and went to the store. The cashier gave me a strange look. After I got home I realized why. Those dark red splatters were all over my shirt and neck. Remind me next time to wear an apron. Checking how I look in the mirror before heading out the door would be a good idea too. I'm so glad it wasn't a busy time at the store. At least no one called the cops.
Cherries are one of my mom's favorites. She will snack on them as long as they are in season. I've made other cherry desserts for her including Chocolate Covered Cherry Cheesecake and Cherry Pecan Bundt Cake. This is the first time I've baked a quick bread with them. It won't be the last. They were so sweet and juicy.
The Twelve Loaves Challenge for July is to use stone fruit. It was difficult to decide which one to use when the event was announced. Peaches are very dear to me and apricots remind me of Germany for some reason. I'm glad I went with cherries. Take a look at what the talented bakers made for the challenge:
- Apricot Bread from Cake Duchess
- Peach & Apricot Honey Bread from Try Anything Once Culinary
- Peach Muffins from Ma Che Ti Sei Mangiato
- Peach Challah from Vintage Kitchen Notes
- Cherry Muffins from Magnolia Days
- Apricot Braided Loaf from Karen's Kitchen Stories
- Cinnamon Peach Monkey Bread from Hip Foodie Mom
- Peach Oat Quick Bread from A Baker's House
- Nectarine Cinnamon Rolls from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- Nectarine Raspberry Bread from A Handful of Everything
#TwelveLoaves July: Stone Fruit hosted by Paula from Vintage Kitchen Notes and Renee from Magnolia Days. Summer is when we get to enjoy an abundance of fresh stone fruits at our markets. Let's create some breads with their juicy deliciousness! Share your favorite stone fruit bread recipe (yeast or quick bread). Let's get baking!
Want to join the #TwelveLoaves group? It's easy!
- When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone's posts. Please make sure that your bread is inspired by the theme!
- Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme.
- Have your Twelve Loaves bread that you baked this July, 2013, and posted on your blog by July 31, 2013.
#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess.
Cherry Muffins
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- ½ cup milk at room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups pitted and chopped fresh sweet cherries
- Turbinado sugar for topping
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.
- In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the milk and beat until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl during the mixing process as necessary.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir to combine (do not beat or over-mix).
- Gently fold in the cherries. Fill muffin cups ⅔ full. Sprinkle tops with turbinado sugar.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool muffins in the pan on a rack for about 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the pan and cool on a rack.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my blueberry muffins.
I can just imagine how you looked b/c that's how we have been looking from digging into these amazing cherries. Your muffins look just perfect, Renee. So wonderful for our stone fruit challenge with #TwelveLoaves:)Thank you for hosting this month!
Thanks Lora and it was a pleasure to help Paula with the July stone fruit event.
Haha...I can totally relate. But it's usually flour all over my black yoga pants...lovely. I think your red splatters trump that, though 🙂
PS...your muffins look marvelous!
Thanks Liz and I can relate to the flour on black pants. I think they are a flour magnet.
Ha ha! My biggest issue is inadvertently wiping my hands on my pants and going to the store with crusty bread dough on my butt. =) BTW, I pit my cherries deep in a clean trash can, lol. Your muffins and cherries look amazing!
Great idea about pitting cherries in a deep container. Glad I'm not the only one who forgets to check out how I look before heading to the store.
For some reason I´ve never made a quick bread for twelve loaves. Cherry muffins, so good looking Renee! I adore cherries, probably my favorite fruit. And learned the hard way about cherry pitters and white t-shirts. Imagine explaining to the cashier about your `blob´...jaja
I thought about doing a yeast bread but muffins just called out to me. Next time I will wear an apron when pitting cherries. The splatter is crazy.
Too funny! I love cherries, but I agree the pitting can be painful. My boys are usually my helpers in the kitchen but that is one thing I don't want them to help with. Too much mess! But oh so worth the work 🙂 Your muffins look great 🙂 Krista @ A Handful of Everything
Thanks Krista. I could see how boys could make a big mess with pitting cherries. I made quite a mess myself. Next time I'll take more splatter preventing measures.
Renee,
love your story. . hilarious! I think I might have had a similar story where I had to run out to the grocery store and had four on my face . . but cherry juice on your short and neck?! classic. love this!
But I'm sure it was all worth it because of these delicious looking cherry muffins. . yum!
Thanks Alice. It seems now you can easily spot a food blogger by the splatters and flour on them.
So yummy!! LOVE THESE
Thank you!
Love this recipe, and your story cracks me up!!! You are such an incredible writer, Renee... you have a way with words- and food! 😉
You are so sweet! Thank you so much for the compliment on my writing. You made my day.
Thank you so much for this recipe! Have a Happy 4 July
You are welcome and have a Happy July 4th too!
I can picture your kitchen-- and the evidence on your shirt too! Sounds like you dove right into this month's baking and these muffins turned out beautifully. Thanks for hosting this month!
Thank you Holly. It really was quite a mess and very embarrassing once I saw myself in the mirror after going to the store.
I'm a sucker for muffins. I've only used the lighter colored pie cherries, but never these sweeter ones! I want to give this a try but I will take your advice and wear an apron! Heehee!
I haven't seen the lighter colored cherries at my market yet. I want to get some of them too.
I love cherry muffins and I actually don't mind pitting cherries, but it's so funny about the splatters! It's definitely a messy job, but those cherry desserts are so worth it.
Pitting cherries to me is like chopping onion or any part of food prep. To me it's relaxing. The only thing with cherries is the mess. Splatter everywhere.
Lol, you're hilarious, Renee! If it were me, my face and teeth would also be stained red because I'd be sneaking bites of cherry as I was making this. These muffins look so yummy - they probably made all the spatter worth it with every bite!
I ate a few cherries in the process. I probably did have red teeth too.
These look delicious. It's a great choice for this month's theme, I also made muffins.
Thanks Laura!