bakin' and eggs

With a fridge full of fresh cherries and strawberries, I found myself wanting to make a batch of muffins. I was looking for a very simple recipe where I could just stir in the chopped cherries and strawberries into the batter. I scoured the Internet for recipes and the only one that truly appealed to me was this recipe I saw on a blog I’m unfamiliar with, Cucina Nicolina.

I made six strawberry and six cherry muffins (I just divided the batter at the end). The muffins were exactly what I was looking for. I really enjoyed the texture and appreciated that they weren’t overly sweetened. The flavor of the fruit was the star.

Muffins are the perfect on the go breakfast. I usually just stash them in the freezer and grab one on my way out to work. These have been a welcome change to the banana muffins that I’m typically stocked with.

Strawberry (or Cherry) Muffins
(Recipe source Cucina Nicolina)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk (I used 2 percent)
2 cups cherries (pitted) or strawberries, roughly chopped (or 1 cup of each if you want to mix it up!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare muffin pan with cooking spray or liners.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, vegetable oil, sugar and milk. Make a hole in the dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients. Mix together until just combined. Do not overmix. Batter should still be fairly lumpy. Stir in chopped fruit (if you’re doing a combination, you will want to divide the batter first).

Fill muffin tins about two-thirds full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden in color.

Yield: 12 muffins