These past few weeks have been a blur and to top it all off, I’m starting to get sick. Who gets sick in June? I guess I do. And when you have a sick child in the house it’s kind of inevitable that someone else gets sick and it’s usually me.
Thank goodness I had already baked these cherry chocolate hazelnut muffins to keep me company this weekend as I was running around like a madwoman. Whoever invented the muffin is a genius. I mean, you get so much baked deliciousness in a little compact muffin.
What could be better?
Cherries!
My family and I love cherries so I’m thrilled that the theme for Twelve Loaves this month is cherries! So I pitted these babies by hand . . with a plastic straw and ended up with these lovelies.
It took a lot of strength not to just eat this entire bowl. . but I resisted and these all went into my batter. And ever since making this orange and hazelnut cake from Paul Lowe’s cookbook, Eat and Make, I’ve been in love with hazelnut flour. So so good. So, of course I had to mix some into my muffin batter as well.
These muffins are bursting with sweet, juicy cherries, hazelnut flour and significant semi-sweet chocolate chunks. They were so delicious and served as my weekend treats as I carried these around with me all weekend. You need to bake these muffins!
Enjoy!
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup buttermilk
- 1⅔ cups all purpose flour
- 1 heaping cup hazelnut meal/flour or finely ground hazelnuts
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- a pinch salt
- 2½ cups sweet cherries, pitted
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks or morsels
- Special equipment suggested: a cookie scoop
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line your muffin tin with paper or silicone cupcake or muffin cups.
- Using a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, and the vanilla. Add the melted butter and the buttermilk and whisk again.
- Using a separate large mixing bowl, combine the flour, hazelnut flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix with a whisk to remove any lumps. Add the cherries and toss to coat.
- Pour the dry flour/cherry mixture into the wet ingredients, and mix well. Lastly, mix in the chocolate chips and using either two spoons or a cookie scoop, fill the muffin wells with the batter and bake for about 25 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a rack to cool for about 5-10 minutes.
Recipe adapted from chocolateandzucchini.com.
#TwelveLoaves June = Cherries!! The month of May was filled with lovely onion breads! We have chosen cherries for our June theme. Choose a recipe including cherries (fresh, dried, canned, jam, or preserves). Whatever you bake, (yeasted, quick bread, crackers, muffins, braids, flatbreads, etc.) have fun and let’s have a delicious month of baking with cherries. Let’s get baking!
- Buns with Cherries and Beetroot wrapped in Bacon from Luisa of Rise of the Sourdough Preacher
- Cherry-Almond Focaccia from Lora of Cake Duchess
- Cherry Almond Sweet Rolls from Renee of Magnolia Days
- Cherry Almond Twists from Dionne of Try Anything Once Culinary
- Cherry English Muffins from Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Cherry Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins from Alice of Hip Foodie Mom
- Cherry Cream Cheese Danish from Heather of girlichef
- Cherry Oatmeal Muffins from Kathya of Basic N Delicious
- Cherry Quick Bread from Holly of A Baker’s House
- Cherry Sweet Bread Twist from Stacy of Food Lust People Love
- Cherry Swirl Overnight Sweet Rolls from Donna of Cookistry
- Double Cherry Muffins from Liz of That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- Gluten Free Cherry Almond Muffins with Streusel Topping from Sherron of Simply Gourmet
- Dried Cherry and Mahlab Scones from Felice of All That’s Left Are the Crumbs
- Sweet Cherry Rolls with Almond Cream Cheese Glaze from Renee of Kudos Kitchen by Reneé
If you’d like to add your bread to the collection with the Linky Tool this month, here’s what you need to do!
1. When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone’s posts. Please make sure that your bread is inspired by the theme!
2. Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme.
3. Have your Twelve Loaves bread that you baked this June, 2014, and posted on your blog by June 30, 2014.
#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess. #TwelveLoaves runs smoothly with the help of our friends. And a BIG huge special thanks to the wonderful Renee Dobbs and Liz Berg for their help this month!
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Soo this is the result of the video I saw when I cringed at the sight of you pitting the cherries! Dude, I got so nervous watching that. I think I’ve seen too many scary movies that it had me on edge. Oh! The suspense. I think I was the only person who felt that way! Haha!
Anyhow, I really hope you feel better soon and if you have extra of these muffins, try to eat them… at least for me because they look so friggin good!
haha, thanks so much Connie!
Sorry to hear that you’ve been feeling unwell lovely! Argh, it makes perfect sense to get sick in June over here (in Winter!) but it’s horrible to get sick in Summertime! Oh well. If anything can make you feel better on a sick day, it’s a deliciously chocolatey treat like these choc cherry and hazelnut muffins. Yum! Gorgeous recipe… a perfect use of Summer’s cherry bounty! xx
Seriously scrumptious muffins Alice. And now you have me intrigued and wanting to try hazelnut flour too.
Renee, thank you so much!! you’ve got to try hazelnut flour soon!! it’s SO good!!! I use Bob’s Red Mill hazelnut meal/flour!
Thank goodness that cherries have plenty of Vitamin C…hope they keep your illness at bay. I’d use any excuse to eat all your fabulous muffins!
I hope you feel better soon! Hehe, I remember seeing you pitting the cherries on instagram and knew something delicious was about to happen in your kitchen. I’ve never baked with hazelnut flour before but am dying to try! Thank you for the inspiration!
Thank you so much, Min!! and yes! you’ve got to try hazelnut flour soon!! it’s SO good!!!
Those chunks of cherries and chocolate are magical, Alice! And you know, some sort of “ick” is going around here too right now…in June! So crazy. I blame it on the long harsh winter. All of those germs are unfreezing ;). Hope you feel better!
Chocolate cherry is one of my favorite combos EVER. Also, I hope you feel better soon. These look like a sure-cure!
You had me at chocolate. I love this combination. I use almond flour all the time but have not given hazelnut a try. That shall soon be amended. I hope you will start to feel better sooner than later. It is absolutely not fun to be ill especially when summer is upon is knocking at the door.
Girl these muffins will cure anything you got! They are gorgeous. Hon, seriously, I hope you are feeling better and taking care of yourself. You have a lot on your shoulders!!
I am a big fan of muffins and how portable they are. In a pinch, they can become a sandwich! These muffins are gorgeous and they are now on my to do list. I hope everyone at your house feels better soon. 🙁
Alice, I’m so sorry to hear you’re getting sick! You’ve been so busy, I’m sure it’s your body’s way of telling you that you need to slow down and take a break. I hope you get the chance to rest. Good thing you had a batch of these muffins lying around. They look fantastic! Those giant chunks of chocolate and juicy cherries are calling my name! You’re a total boss for pitting those cherries with a straw. I don’t think I would have the patience or endurance! PS – thank you thank you thank you for that amazing comment you left on my blog post yesterday. I’ve been overwhelmed by everyone’s wonderful response so I haven’t had the chance to reply yet, but I will. Love ya too, girl!
Part of my family has been under the weather too for what seems to be weeks now. I hope you are all feeling better soon:)These muffins are gorgeous, Alice! Love your photos and the addition of hazelnut and chocolate-delicious!!
Mmmmh look at those muffins, simply delicious.
Big chunks of chocolate, fresh cherries…what one could ask?
Wonderful recipe
Alice, these muffins look positively dreamy! And I’ve been sick all week–I guess it’s a June thing? Cherry + chocolate is a beautiful combination and I love that you added hazelnut. Can’t go wrong!
Thanks so much Amy!!! and I hope you feel better soon too!!!
I’d love to know who invented the first muffin as well, Alice, because we owe him or her a great big thank you! Your muffins turned out brilliantly. I love the additional of the ground hazelnuts. I use ground almonds in baking all the time but hardly ever think to substitute other nuts. Why?!
Stacy! haha, yes, I agree! and you must try the hazelnut flour. . SO good!!!
These are the prettiest muffins EVER! Pinned!
Thanks so much, Dorothy!
Cherries and chocolate sounds so great together! My in-laws grow cherries at their home and always give us a huge box of cherries every summer. This would be a great recipe to try with them!
Hope you feel better!
I love the flavor combo! they look delish
Fruit in muffins may be the best cure for a cold ever (well, maybe besides chocolate). Alice, get well soon–sending lots of good and muffin-filled vibes your way!
Thank you so much, Ala!! 🙂
Oh so sorry to hear you are getting sick.. I’ve been sick recently too. No fun. These muffins look like just the thing to get you through. Feel better soon! 🙂
Yummy!
Looks really good
Alice, those muffins look so gorgeous! Your photography is amazing! Hope you feel better!
I think these muffins could cure any ailment– hope your family is feeling better by now and that you were all cheered up by these goodies!
Thanks so much, Holly!!
Seriously the best combo ever – cherries and chocolate. Lovee!
Wow, look at all of those cherries and chocolate chunks in those muffins. And what a great idea to pit the cherries with a straw.