Triple almond cherry muffins

The bowl of cherries on the counter is slowly disappearing, one by one, then fistful by fistful. Sometimes the pits are scattered willy nilly around the kitchen as if a band of squirrels has paid us a visit. Cherries are my favorite fruit but I don't think I've ever made anything with fresh cherries. I have a pitting phobia. I just can't imagine trying to get those little pits out of enough cherries to make it worthwhile.  But today I got an idea.  If I make cherry muffins, I only need to pit a reasonable amount of cherries, I'm thinking about a cup and a half.
My recent success with Blueberry muffins, and my love of all things almond is motivating me to overcome my unreasonable fear of extracting that tiny pit. Here I go.

It wasn't pretty, but I got the job done.  I used a combination of methods.  First I used a lobster pick that I found in the back of a drawer; this gouged out the pit leaving the cherry mangled but whole.  Then I tried slicing the cherry in half, working off one half and then using my fingernail to get the pit out.  This was less messy.  One caveat...wear an apron!

Triple Almond Cherry Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 heaping cup fresh pitted cherries, roughly chopped
•   1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 tube almond paste
• extra almonds for topping

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray a muffin tin with Pam.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt, baking powder and almonds. Crumble in the almond paste and work in with your fingers so there are no large lumps.  Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measure; add the egg and enough buttermilk to fill the cup. Add the extracts and blend.  Mix this into the flour mixture. Fold in the cherries. Fill 6 or 7 muffin cups, (they will be heaping) and sprinkle with a few sliced almonds.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done

In my cherry/almond induced frenzy I dumped my cherries into the batter without chopping them.  The giant cherry pieces (in many cases whole) had their charm, but I would probably chop them next time!
I'm not the only one around here who loves cherries...