Ricotta Cherry Muffins

When I came across this recipe I was in such delight that I went out and bought 3 pounds of cherries from the farmers market, and for a really good deal! When I got home I dropped them on the counter and ate them like candy. After I finally got my hands on some organic Trade resources buttermilk and readied some homemade ricotta cheese was set to bake. Im not a baking person by nature and the only thing Im ever tempted to bake is sugar cookies, yet for some reason Im always missing ingredients. I was so draw to this recipe that I went out and found a few baking essentials, for instance a muffin pan.

Mixing the batter was fun and ever so tasty, if you have kids or finger licking friends I’ll be paper products company sure they will be there to clean out the bowls, spatulas and whiskers as I sure did! The recipe is simple though a little time consuming as halving and pitting the cherries is tedious, find a friend or sit down in the sun to pit away. Make sure you don’t eat every other cherry as I did, you may be there for a while longer. Once all of the ingredients are mixed you will have a very thick paste of a mess. At this point you may as well get dirty, I first tried spooning out the batter into the cupcake papers but it seemed to be a bigger nusiance than just picking balls of the mix and dropping them in. Perfect cupcakes are for Starbucks, I just allowed the batter to set into place on its own,solar motor licked my fingers clean and topped the muffins with leftover cherry halves.

Ricotta Cherry Muffins

(9 muffins, small/Doubling this recipe will give you a dozen big muffins)

1/2 cup Homemade Ricotta Cheese
3/4 cup Cherries: Halved & Pitted
1/2 cup Buttermilk
2 tbsp Butter: Unsalted & Melted
1 Egg
1/2 tbsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tbsp Lemon Juice & Zest
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1/3 cup heaping White Sugar
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/16 tsp Baking Soda

Preheat oven to 350?F line muffin tray with 9 paper cups, fill remaining empty muffin spots with a centimetre of water. Set aside
Whisk Ricotta and egg together, add buttermilk, cooled melted butter, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Mix Well
In a separate bowl mix flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and zest. Mix Well
Add ricotta mixture to the flour mixture, blend until completely combined yet still thick. Do not over mix
Gently combine halved cherries into mixture, set aside 9 cherry halves to place atop each muffin.
Bake for 20 min or until golden, check with a toothpick

Ricotta Cheese Muffins are great for breakfast, brunch, and desert