Cherry Almond Muffins

UPDATE* I should mention that I ran out of almond extract and only put in 1 tsp. and 2 vanilla. Today I made the muffins again (they were gone before Friday evening.) To appease my mother, I tried them with the sour cherries. This time, I also used the called for amount of almond. It may be a little strong. I'll know better tomorrow. I like the sweeter cherries better, mom however, prefers the sour :) *

The Blueberry muffins were a bomb, not the bomb, a bomb...as in FAILURE! The girls did not like them. I did, but we won't be making them again.

At Trader Joe's on Monday, I saw a sign for a featured item, Almond Meal. I love almonds and said, "Oooooo, but what would I do with Almond Meal?" Maddy just blankly stared into my eyes. I bet she had a few ideas, none of which, I would be thrilled about. I went over to check it out and saw that the sign had a description. Wonderful! Almond meal can be used in recipes to replace 1/2 your amount of flour! Of course, because of this baking kick I've been on, without hesitating, I grabbed a bag. I'm sure it may ruin some recipes, but adding a nutty flavor to muffins couldn't hurt. And what better recipe to try it out in, than Cherry Almond muffins?

Here's the recipe, I can post the original if anyone is curious. But for now, I'll post mine:


3T Butter
3T Cinnamon Applesauce
2/3C Sugar
2T ground Flaxseed with 6T water
1C Whole wheat flour
1/2C Almond meal
1C Oats
2t Baking Powder
1/2t Salt
1/4C Milk
1/3C Sour Cream
1 1/2t Almond Extract
1 1/2t Vanilla Extract
1 1/2C frozen cherries, quartered

Topping
2T Almond meal
2T Sugar
1/4t Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375. Grease pan or use muffin cups.

Cream Butter and Sugar. Add Applesauce and Flax/water mixture.

In separate bowl, mix Flour, Almond meal, Oats, Powder, and Salt. Add to Butter mixture.

Add Milk, Sour cream, Vanilla, and Almond extract. Mix thoroughly. Fold in cherries. Spoon into muffin cups.

Combine Almond meal, Sugar, Cinnamon. Sprinkle over muffins.

Bake 25-30 minutes. They were delicious!!!! Soo good!