Cherry Blondie Muffins with Hazelnuts

I wanted to tell about a beautiful afternoon spent picking cherries in Virginia.  It was amazing and made me though of Nappa, Provence and Tuscany.  It made my kids dirty, hungry and exhausted and it made me come home with a at least 200 tons of cherries, and a cherry pitter.  In case you missed the story here it is.

After eating pounds and pounds of cherries every day for a week I finally decided to make something with them and I chose these blondies.  They are easy and remarkably good looking, plus you can make them with any fruit.  So if you come back with way too many peaches, berries even plums you will thank me.

You will need: 1 1/3 cups of flour, 1 1/3 cups of light brown sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 eggs, 1tsp vanilla, 1 cup pitted cherries, 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts (optional).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Into a bowl add flour, brown sugar 1 tsp baking powder

add salt

vegetable oil

two eggs

and 1 tsp vanilla

Mix on low speed in a mixer until blended.  The batter will be thick.

Grease and flour the muffin pans.  I use Bakers Joy spray.  It is like Pam with flour.

Fill the muffin tins half way with batter

Pit and slice the cherries and toss with 1tbs flour.

Scatter the cherries over batter and spread about 1/2 tbs on top.  Make sure the muffins are only 3/4 full because they will rise.

Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts.  I love hazelnuts but you can omit them.  If you love pecans and hate hazelnuts then use those.

Bake until golden brown or about 35 minutes.

Cool on the rack.  This recipe made 8 large muffins.  They were really large but were still eaten in one piece.