I recently found my old cast iron muffin pan hiding in the basement over at the loft. I totally forgot I had it and was very much happy to find it not covered in rust and still looking all nice and basically ready for use. Not even the seasoning and non stickness that I worked hard to produce on it was messed up, which is amazing because I also found another cast iron pan that I left down there and it did not fair as well. It had a little rust and was grimy. Fine by me, I didn’t even want that pan anyway.
And that is basically why I made muffins. Because I wanted to use my muffin pan again.
These muffins. First off, muffins are muffins and are not meant to be a pain in the ass to make. This muffins are not, unless you think pitting cherries is a pain. For that I am sorry, but that is a small price to pay for a tasty ass muffin situation. Secondly, these muffins are well worth the tiny effort it takes to pit cherries because you end up with cherry muffins, and that alone should be enough of a reason. And the fact that they are damn tasty. The mr, who eats everything but never says too much about whatever is going into his mouth, texted me at 630 in the morning while I was at the gym just to tell me how amazing he thought they were….
Amazing at 630 am. That’a validation.
Now go get yourself some cherries and make some muffins. And it is ok if you don’t have a super sweet cast iron muffin pan. Most don’t. But you are still cool, don’t worry.
To the muffins!
The stuff. In the bowl is flour, rolled oats, baking soda and powder, salt and cinnamon. Also have cherries, brown sugar, almond milk, canola oil, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, and a lemon.
Hardest part of the whole shebang… pitting the cherries. Not my favorite thing to do, but definitely not the worst.
Do it any way you see fit, but I just cut them in half and kind of wedge the pit out with my thumb.
Once all the pits are removed, chop those sherries up into small pieces.
Then make the batter. Mix the dry together with the sugar and the zest of the lemon. Just make sure there are not huge clumps of the sugar in the mixture. Then add in all the wet and gently mix until combined. And then fold in the cherries.
So purty.
Fill up well grease muffin pans with the batter then sprinkle a little brown sugar and a few oats on top.
Pop those soon to be muffins into a hot oven.
Baked for your pleasure.
Remove the muffins from pan and let cool on a wire rack.
Cherry oat muffins. You are good.
-C
Cherry Oat Muffins
makes 11-12 muffins
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup of old fashion rolled oats (plus 2 tablespoons to sprinkle tops with)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar (plus 2 tablespoons to sprinkle tops with)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
A lemon (juice and zest)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup plant based milk
1/3 cup canola oil
Preheat oven to 350
First thing first, remove steams and pits from cherries. Do it any way that you want, but I find just cutting them in half and kind of popping the pit out with my thumb works best for me. Anyway, once the pits are remove, chop cherries up into small pieces.
Place flour, oats, baking powder and soda, salt, cinnamon, brown sugar, and zest of lemon into a big bowl. Mix together until completely incorporated. Make sure there are not huge clumps of brown sugar, if there are, break them up with your fingers. Add in the milk, oil, vanilla, vinegar, and juice of half a lemon. Gently mix until just incorporated. Now fold in chopped cherries.
Evenly scoop the batter into a well greased muffin tin. (There is enough batter for12 normal sized muffins.) Sprinkle the tops with the extra brown sugar and oats then pop the pan Ito the oven. Bake for 28-32 minutes or until the tops of the muffins are a nice golden brown and a taster poked into one of the muffins comes out clean.
When fully baked, remove muffins from oven and pop them out of the pan. Let cool on a wire rack but feel free to eat one or two warm.
Store any extra in an airtight container on counter for a day or two but in the fridge for about a week. Individual muffins can be wrapped and frozen for a good long will too.