Cherry, Almond & Chocolate Chunk Muffins

'Muffins' we wrote with a flourish in the weekly  'menu' for the things I could make for the kids' school snack box. This snack went on the day of the week when they could take 'junk' food.  I know, if I were a kid, I would have probably wanted them at least 2 days a week to school. Too bad, we had no snack break at school and my mother did not bake either. 

My children would surely be excited to take muffins to school, home-made ones at that! I would be equally happy at the thought of starting my day with smell of vanilla and the sight of little fresh muffins materializing out of the oven in so little time with even lesser effort! The rewards - delighted kids who 'just can't wait for short break' and a happy mother. The simple pleasures of life often come in tiny packages - in this case some simple but versatile muffins. 

 Now I must include that a good, dependable muffin recipe is a must have in every home-baker's repertoire. Joy to make these little treats at a moment's notice with whatever you have on hand or whatever your kids fancy at the moment. Relatively healthy these are as is, you could sneak in some whole wheat or almond meal and some chopped  fresh fruit for some more goodness. I see more muffins landing in the snack boxes!

With cherries in season, I made some with fresh cherries, almond meal and dark chocolate. Yum!

Recipe adapted from Better Homes And Gardens Homemade Bread Book. This recipe appears as Best Ever Muffins in this book,  variations below.

Ingredients -
All purpose flour - 162 grams / 1 1/4 cup

Almond meal - 1/2 cup (or whole wheat flour or more APF)

Baking powder - 2 1/2 teaspoons

Salt -  1/2 teaspoon

Sugar, super fine - 6-8 tablespoons (read note)

Egg, beaten - 1

Milk - 3/4 cup

Vegetable oil - 1/3 cup

Vanilla - 1 teaspoon

Add ins -
2/3 cup pitted, chopped fresh cherries

Dark chocolate chunks - 1/2 cup

Procedure: Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C / 400 degrees F. Line your muffin cups with liners (12 for this recipe).

Whisk or sieve together the flours, baking powder, salt and sugar into a large bowl. In another small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, oil and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, dump the wet ingredients all at once in the well. Stir until just before the flour disappears. Add the cherries and chocolate. Stir till just moistened. Do not over mix.

Fill the greased liners 2/3 full. Bake for about 18-20 minutes or till risen and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Variations :

Lemon Blueberry muffins : Fold in 3/4 to 1 cup fresh blueberries or frozen berries, thawed and drained along with 1 teaspoon lemon zest.

Cheese muffins : Reduce sugar to 1/4 cup, stir in 1/2 cup grated sharp natural cheddar cheese into the dry ingredients.

Date and Orange muffins : Substitute 3/4 cup orange juice for the milk, whisk in 1 teaspoon orange peel in it. Stir in 1/2 cup finely chopped dates, 1/2 cup chopped nuts.

Fresh fruit, juice, coffee and walnuts, Nutella swirl or chocolate swirl. And of course more variations as you please.

Sugar : Add sugar according to taste and with the other add ins in mind.

PS: The pictures here are taken by Ajay, my neighbor who happens to be a very keen photographer. These are the first few  of his food photography shots. Thanks so much Ajay for the lovely pictures and all the time and effort you put into this! The chocolate chunk and mint muffins above are some this shining new baker just stepping out of IIT made for himself!