Ever since Panera discontinued their Cherry-Vanilla Bagels from their seasonal menu, I've been suffering serious withdrawl symptoms. I needed some kind of cherry-vanilla fix so I decided to come up with my own dessert to satisfy my cravings.
Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick of butter melted and cooled
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of vanilla*
1 cup of dried cherries
some brown sugar & sliced almonds for sprinkling
*use high-quality vanilla. This is a lot and any of that alcohol stuff you get
at the supermarket just won't cut it.
Yield: 1-1/2 dozen mini muffins or 1 dozen larger muffins
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Then add brown sugar and and dried cherries and mix into the dry ingredients.
Add the 2 eggs, sour cream, melted butter and vanilla to the dry mixture. Mix thoroughly until you get a nice thick batter.
Scoop large spoonfuls of batter into cupcake liners. I made 18 mini muffins but 12 larger muffins would work better. Sprinkle each with brown sugar and some sliced almonds. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Enjoy with a nice hot cup of tea!
Swell! It's great to reinvent flavors that suddenly stopped existing or went out of business.
ReplyDeleteI do the same with a special kind of pickled gherkin from Finland that existed here in Sweden for about six months 20 years ago. The secret is to add an ingredient or two that really made the difference.
In your case it's the combination of cherry and vanilla. In my case it was the addition of black curant leaves to otherwise bland pickled gherkins that made it.