Rainier Cherry Gingered Sour Cream Muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup pitted Rainier cherries
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, at room temperature
6 whole cherries with stems attached (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Grease or line 6 wells in a muffin tin. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix together oil, sour cream, milk, egg and vanilla until blended. Add the dry ingredients. Mix the batter thoroughly then fold in cherries. Fill each well about 3/4 of the way.



Top each with a cherry if desired. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean or with just a few dry crumbs. Remove to rack and allow to cool before serving.

Note: Please take care if you top the muffins with whole cherries. The pit can present a choking hazard. However, the cherries are quite easily removed before biting into the muffin.

My thoughts:

It is truly too hot to be baking but I have always wanted to make cherry muffins so I went for it. They are light and almost creamy tasting. Rainier cherries are quite delicate and normally rather expensive so I was delighted to see a whole pound of them for less than $2 at my local grocery store. They are a sweet cherry but not cloyingly so and have a soft texture that works well in the muffin; they almost seem to melt spreading their juices throughout the muffin.