Healthy Cherry Muffins

I’m so sorry I’ve been neglecting you dear internet. There’s some evil pollen out there, and it appears to be in cahoots with my stupid immune system to stymie me! I haven’t cooked anything good in DAYS!

I felt a little better this morning, so I decided to make you some muffins for Sunday brunch!

So, I present to you–

Cherry Muffins!

They may not look like much, at least not with my photography skills, but they are crazy good and pretty good for you! They’re made with ricotta cheese and whole grain flour, so they have over a gram and a half of protein and over four grams of fiber per muffin! But don’t worry, they are definitely NOT like those nasty colon-blow bran muffins that everyone thinks of when they think “healthy muffins”. These are really moist, sweet and fruity! They’re so popular around here that I like to pack them instead of the ubiquitous pb&j’s in Simon’s lunches. They do have 140 calories per muffin, but even that’s not so bad compared to store-bought muffins!

Healthy Cherry Muffins (2.88 WW Points per muffin)
Makes 18 muffins

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (You can use AP, but the nutrition info will change.)

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1 Tbs lemon zest (I didn’t measure, I just used the zest of one lemon–the very outer yellow part only please.)

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup ricotta cheese (I use the lowfat version.)

1 cup buttermilk (I’ve never tried this with ersatz buttermilk. Just buy the buttermilk.)

2 large eggs

1 Tbs lemon juice

4 tsp vanilla (Just FYI, 4 tsp is the same as 1 Tbs plus 1 tsp.)

4 Tbs butter, melted (You can use 1/4 c. canola oil if you’d prefer.)

1 1/2 cups frozen cherries, cut up (I keep a bag of dark, sweet, pitted cherries in the freezer at all times.)

1. Heat your oven to 350° and spray or oil your muffin cups.
2. In a sifter or in a small bowl with a wisk, combine your flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, lemon zest, and sugar.
3. In a larger bowl, whisk your ricotta and butter milk together.
4. Mix in your eggs, one at a time; and then mix in your vanilla and lemon juice.
5. Throw your flour mixture and butter in with the liquid ingredients, and fold together a little with a rubber spatula, and then add cherries. (Don’t defrost your cherries before you add them, and don’t overmix if you can help it.)
6. Distribute your batter evenly between 18 muffin cups, and bake for +/- 20 minutes, or until a tester is clean. (You can try making 12 muffins, but the tops will definitely overflow. Sometimes I go for that, but I like to make more small muffins with this recipe because they’re pretty filling.)
7. Cool them on a rack before eating. (Cool completely before putting them away or they get soggy.)