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I was very pleasantly surprised to see that fresh cherries were $1.99 in the Wednesday grocery ads.

Of course I had to have some.

So, this week I have been experimenting with fresh cherry recipes.

There is just something about the combination of cherries and chocolate that is irresistible to me.

These muffins are rich and chocolaty, but not over-the-top sweet — perfect with that morning cup of coffee.

To make the full-size muffins, I like to quarter the cherries, but, for the small muffins, I coarsely chop them.

Cherry Chocolate Muffins

1 cup butter, 2 sticks, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 cup milk

1 1/3 cups fresh pitted cherries, quartered

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease the muffin pan.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa.

Add the dry mixture and milk to the butter mixture, mixing just long enough to blend the ingredients. being careful not to overbeat.

Fold in the cherries.

Fill the muffin cups to the top with batter.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 20 minutes for full size muffins, about 12 for small.

Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing them and placing them on a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Makes 12 muffins.

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