Cherry-Almond Muffins

I recently wrote about making two batches of Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins using two different recipes and comparing the results.   The one that came out the worse of that comparison was a recipe from My Gourmet Connection.  That one wasn't the only muffin recipe I've tried from that site, though, and the other one - a recipe for Cherry-Almond Muffins - turned out vastly better. 

I pitted and chopped a lot of fresh, sweet cherries to make these muffins (1 1/2 cups of chopped cherries, in fact).  As a result, the muffins had a delightful and rich cherry flavor.   The cherries were supported by almond flavor, provided by almond extract in the muffins and a topping of chopped almonds.  

The muffins were light and moist and really quite delightful.  Not only were they vastly better than the Lemon Poppy Seed muffins I made from a recipe at that site, but they were in fact one of the best batches of muffins I've ever made.  This is a good time of year to purchase fresh cherries in the grocery stores, and this muffin recipe puts cherries to excellent use.  If you try out the recipe yourself, I'm confident you'll agree.