Cherry Vanilla Muffins

Every Friday afternoon during the summer, I host a playgroup at our house for my sons and all of their Montessori classmates (they're in the same class). It's really not as crazy as it sounds. Not every child attends every playgroup, and I encourage the parents to stay and attend, too, so there is lots of supervision.

Today I decided to make some muffins for the playgroup's afternoon snack. I didn't have any fresh fruit left but I had plenty of frozen fruit. So I selected some lovely cherries from our freezer and modified my blueberry muffin recipe to accommodate the different fruit.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup sifted white whole wheat flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup thawed, pitted, quartered cherries (plus the juice from the thawing process)

Directions:
Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar over the cherries and toss them so they are covered, then let sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

I use a stand mixer for all of my baking, which makes very quick work of it. Cream the butter and sugar. Add milk and egg and beat until smooth. While the mixer is running, add baking powder, vanilla and salt. Add the flour. Mix until moistened. Fold the cherries (with juice) into the batter. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 375F degrees for 15 minutes. Don’t overcook!

Tip:
You can tuck a 1/4 cup of ground flaxseed into each batch of muffins to add fiber and Omega-3 - add an additional 1/4 cup milk to balance it out.