Almond Cherry Muffins #MuffinMonday

Toasted almonds, ground almonds and almond liqueur complement the dried cherries perfectly in this tender muffin. Superb for breakfast or teatime. 

I was thinking the other day, as I made the chocolate shot cookies, that they would also be great with almond flour, for a sort of almond shortbread. Or maybe I could substitute coconut for the oatmeal and roll them in some toasted coconut. All of these things may happen one day but meanwhile, it’s Muffin Monday so I decided to take the first idea and muffin with it. You know, like “run with it” but in a muffinly way. At the suggestion of my friend and fellow blogger, Ishita, I celebrated the fact that I now have a liquor license, which permits me to buy alcohol in Dubai, and added a little Amaretto! I also added dried cherries because almond and cherry is a classic combination and when you are making up new verbs and celebrating being 18 again at the age of 51, you have to show that you aren’t a completely crazy renegade or no one will take you seriously. That’s a fact.

Despite the expiration date, I just got the card. It seems the date starts
from your application, even if it takes them more than a month to process. 

I used this recipe from King Arthur Flour as my jumping off place.

Ingredients
1 cup or 200g granulated sugar
1 cup or 125g flour
1 cup or 100g ground almonds
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon Amaretto or almond liqueur
1 cup or 140g dried cherries
1 cup or 75g shaved almonds, lightly toasted

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C and either grease your 12-cup muffin tin or line it with paper liners.  (I use paper liners but give the whole thing a quick spray with Pam so that any drips will clean off easily.)

In one big mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients: flour, ground almonds, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In another small bowl, whisk the eggs with the milk, oil and liqueur.

Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, stirring until just combined.

There should still be some dry flour showing. Take out a good handful of the cherries and the toasted almonds and set them aside for decorating the muffin tops. Fold the rest of the cherries and almonds into the batter.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups.

Top each with some of the reserved toasted almonds and poke a piece or two of dried cherries into the batter.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Remove from the muffin pan and finish cooling on a rack.

Enjoy! Have you muffined anything lately?

P.S. I have two giveaways ending shortly. The great Cookie Week baking package including baking ingredients, equipment and four cookbooks ends at Midnight New York time today!

And the Food Truck Road Trip - a Cookbook giveaway ends at Midnight New York time on Tuesday, that is to say tomorrow.

Don't miss your chance to enter and win!