Chocolate Cherry Muffins?

[Vicanddi]

I have some dried cherries and have a craving for chocolate/cherry muffins, but have not found a recipe. Anyone have any tried and true of this combo? TIA :)

Dianne

[Aubergine]

Viccandi, i haven't tried it, but Alton Brown has a terrific sounding "true chocolate muffin" recipe in I'm Just Here for More Food. i can post it later if you'd like.

[pilgrim719]

What about just subbing your dried cherries for dried cranberries in a chocolate cranberry muffin recipe? We swap around chips, nuts, and fruits in cookie recipes, so why not in muffin recipes? :) I never thought about a chocolate dried cherry muffin, but after eating a bunch of those decadent Black Forest Cookies from Everyday Food, I think I may have to try a muffin version! :D

Kari

[Chocolate Rose]

I haven't tried this recipe but I bet you could sub your dried cherries:

* Exported from MasterCook *

Chocolate Cherry Cordial Muffins

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 12 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Breads & Muffins To Try

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 cups flour
1 pkg Nestle Toll House milk chocolate morsels (2 cups) -- (11 1/2 oz) divided
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped candied cherries -- maraschino cherries or raisins
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375º. Grease 12 muffin pan cups or line with paper liners.
In large bowl, combine flour, 1 3/4 cups chocolate morsels, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in cherries. In small bowl, combine milk, oil and egg until well blended. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients; stir just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffing cups until full. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup chocolate morsels. Bake 18 –20 minutes or until muffins are golden. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan; serve warm or cool completely on wire rack.

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[Chocolate Rose]

Look what I just came across:


* Exported from MasterCook *

CHOCOLATE CHERRY MUFFINS

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 12 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Breads & Muffins

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
3/4 stick unsalted butter -- (6 tablespoons)
5 oz bittersweet chocolate (not extra-bitter) -- coarsely chopped
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried sour cherries (4 oz)

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.
Heat butter and half of chocolate in milk in a 2-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until just melted. Remove from heat. Cool 15 minutes. Add eggs and whisk until smooth.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl until combined well. Add chocolate mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in remaining chocolate and cherries.

Divide among 12 greased (1/2-cup) muffin cups. Bake until a tester comes out clean, 14 to 18 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 5 to 10 minutes.

Source:
"Gourmet Magazine, Jan. 2005"
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[pilgrim719]

Chocolate Rose, those Chocolate Cherry Muffins look delicious! They sound like they'd be pretty rich and chocolatey...a perfect after-dinner muffin for me! I'll have to try those soon! Thanks so much for sharing it! :)

Kari

[Chocolate Rose]

Kari, I thought they sounded really good, too! Let us know how they turn out!

[pilgrim719]

Originally posted by Chocolate Rose
Kari, I thought they sounded really good, too! Let us know how they turn out!

I definitely will! I hope to make them this week if I get to the store for more dried cherries.

Kari

[Vicanddi]

Rose, thanks for the recipes, they look great. I am going to make the Chocolate Cherry Cordial Muffins, with just a few changes to lighten it, tonight...will let you know how it turns out.

Kari, I was thinking I could just sub cherries for a cranberry recipe, but thought I'd check to see if any good choc/cherry recipes were out there. Thanks!

Dianne

[Vicanddi]

I made the Chocolate Cherry Cordial Muffins that Rose posted. They are good, but a little dense and cakelike. I made several changes, mostly to lighten the recipe. I used WWP flour, decreased the chocolate chips to 1 cup from 2 cups, used only brown sugar, 1/3 cup, used dried cherries, skim milk and decreased the oil to 1 Tablespoon, added 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 1/4 cup NF yogurt. I guess the recipe was a blueprint! I will make these again, but think I will add some cocoa, and omit the chocolate chips on top, will also add a few more cherries, 3/4 to 1 cup. Thanks again for the recipes....will try the chocolate cherry muffins next time.

Dianne

[pilgrim719]

Ok, I made the Chocolate Cherry Muffins today and WOW are they good! They taste just like the Black Forest Cookies that wow'ed me last month, only in muffin form. They have a rich dark chocolate flavor, which is complemented nicely by the cherries. The muffins turned out big (batter went to the top of each cup, and they crowned up high) and moist, with a fine crumb...pretty much like a cupcake, but I suppose the term muffin makes them sound healthy. ;) My only change was to use skim milk because it's all I had, and I'm not sure these could be any better if I had used whole milk. I used a bittersweet bar of Ghirardelli chocolate and Ghirardelli cocoa powder. Man are these good! You guys must try them if you like chocolate and cherries, or even leave out the cherries if you just love dark chocolate! Thank you so much for posting this recipe, Chocolate Rose!! :D

Kari

[Molli526]

Thanks for the rave review Kari! I pulled the recipe from Gourmet to try, and now I will have to put them on the list this week.

[MISSINDI]

Those Chocolate Cherry Muffins sound great - thanks for posting! I haven't gotten to my January Gourmet yet. Will try these tomorrow.

[Chocolate Rose]

Thanks for the reviews, you two! I'm going to have to put dried cherries on my grocery list! YUM!

[tholbrook]

I made the Chocolate Cherry Muffins (the ones from Gourmet, January 2005 posted by Chocolate Rose) this morning and they are SO good! Definitely not very sweet, but I thought they were just right, especially since we had them for breakfast.

I used semi-sweet instead of bittersweet, and dropped the dried cherries into the melted chocolate mixture while it was cooling so the cherries could plump up a bit.

The only change I might consider is increasing the amount of cherries. There weren't very many in the muffin I ate, but the batter seemed very thin so maybe they all sunk to the bottom while I was scooping the batter into the muffin cups. I won't be surprised if the next muffin I eat has a ton of cherries in it.

Thanks for posting the recipe, Chocolate Rose!

[Aubergine]

tholbrook, i think the reason your dried cherries sank is because you plumped them and they were weightier. mine didn't sink.

i made the Gourmet recipe on (monday?) and posted my thoughts on the muffin thread, but i'll re-post here, especially as i (muffin novice) have now made 6 batches of muffins in 10 days and have a frame of reference.:) kari, this is all your fault!

Missindi posted there that she didn't like them at all, and i said i could understand why; they definitely aren't sweet. however, SO couldn't get enough of them. i would up the sugar slightly, or use a semisweet chocolate (i used TJ's 70%, which to me is a bittersweet).

my real problem is that it cost me almost $3 at Target for the 1-cup bag of dried cherries. i can't justify that on a long-term basis. i'm going to try the original recipe next with halved, drained maraschinos, since i see that DD has got 3 open jars going in the fridge.:rolleyes::mad: they can only add some sweetness.

[Okiedokie]

Anyone who hasn't tried the dried cherries is really missing a treat. Those things are really good in cookies, and scones among other things. I sometimes make a cookie we like, Sour Cream Cherry Drops, which is a cake like cookie, with a little spice. Thanks for posting the recipes, Chocolate Rose.

[Aubergine]

i was just over at epicurious trying to pull up the Chocolate Cherry Muffins that Chocolate Rose posted on this thread from the Jan. 2005 Gourmet. we had a love/hate relationship among ourselves here, and i was always curious to see how the reviews would run at their site. however, it doesn't seem to exist...:confused::( anyone know why that would be?

[Okiedokie]

Originally posted by Vicanddi
I made the Chocolate Cherry Cordial Muffins that Rose posted. They are good, but a little dense and cakelike. I made several changes, mostly to lighten the recipe. I used WWP flour, decreased the chocolate chips to 1 cup from 2 cups, used only brown sugar, 1/3 cup, used dried cherries, skim milk and decreased the oil to 1 Tablespoon, added 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 1/4 cup NF yogurt. I guess the recipe was a blueprint! I will make these again, but think I will add some cocoa, and omit the chocolate chips on top, will also add a few more cherries, 3/4 to 1 cup. Thanks again for the recipes....will try the chocolate cherry muffins next time.

Dianne

Dianne, I think the additional cherries is a very good idea. I'm wondering if the whole wheat flour you used made them more dense? It certainly would change the texture. The brown sugar should tend to make them more tender. Just looking at the things you did to change the recipe, I can easily see why you got a much different result. I rarely make a recipe as it reads, and I would probably use either evaporated milk or 2%, add 1 tsp. of vanilla, and 1 tsp. of cherry extract, possibly more cherries, maybe, even throw in a few chopped pecans, but I think you might be better pleased with the recipe had you stayed a bit closer to it as written than you did. The ratio would have been better. Just my 2¢ worth. I'm going to go try both of these, because they should, in all honesty, be really good.;)