Lemon Cherry Think-of-me Muffins with Maple Syrup glaze

It's finally hit me!! I'm leaving Spore in 2 days time, and thus begins my long-waited university studies. Terribly nervous, darned excited, worried, exhilarated & so terribly melancholic too. My baggage has exceeded its limit. I hardly think I'll be able to move out of the terminal with 2 crazily heavy & large suitcases AND with myself strapped down with my laptop & large tote. Thank God I believe in miracles (someone have a little faith in me). Folks out there, do say a little prayer for me too that I can get to my university safely and without hurting anyone else either. I can already foresee maybe a broken toe (considering I keep dropping my luggage on my toes yesterday when I was trying to weigh them), a black eye, maybe a papercut from my x-ray sheets...GOSH! I can only hope.

Anyway, thinking that I've only 2 days left, I just had to say a temporary goodbye to my beloved oven & bake something for the family once again. Wouldn't hurt to fatten them a little so I won't feel so out of place when I come back home for Christmas all pudgy, round & wobbly :) And ah-hah, what did I think to bake today? My favourite food! MUFFINS!!! Of course, I was v determined to make large, oversized, giant muffins but think they didn't turn out that way. Just very dense, juicy pieces. But I'm still overjoyed with my non-texas-sized muffins because the flavour was just wonderful. something interesting yet mild enough to match the quiet sentiments & racing thoughts in me now. It's what I say would look simple & so ordinary but would be quite a sensory explosion in your mouth.

This recipe involves the use of a whole can of dark pitted cherries (abt 1,1/2cup or less if you're worried abt the moisture) so expect a nice juicy muffin :) Also, to mask a little of the heavy syrup taste (which I find a little too fake for my liking), I added grated lemon zest. I love lemons with just about anything. Fish, the ham in my sandwich, roasted chicken, of course lemon poppy seed cake so why not add em here? If you want an even greater tang, add a squeeze of juice as well or you can save the juice for a superb lemon glaze -- all you have to do is squeeze the juice into a saucepan & heat it after stirring some icing sugar into the pan. this is really great & it's easy to control the sweetness as to your liking. :)

Towards the end, if you're a chocolate fan, throw in crushed/chopped bits of dark chocolate. What I used here was Lindt Extra Fine Dark Chocolate 70% dark. I believe you can make use of whatever chocolate you have sitting around or whichever suits your taste the most. Milk, white, dark, extra dark. You choose!

Whenever I make muffins, I take joy in the fact tt I can cater to every single person in my family -- be it the chocolate-hating mother, the sugar-fearful dad, or the chocolate-obsessive sisters of mine. I cut the maple syrup glaze for my dad, didn't add any chocolate for my mom & drizzled a pretty generous amount for my sisters and slightly less for the currently-dieting me. :p Finally, would just like to say, this recipe was just something I wanted to give my family. It's simple & full of taste. luxurious & indulgent but not something as great and earthshaking as I would like to think. :D So just enjoy this, with a cold beer on a hot day if you'd like, or over good coffee & the morning paper.

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
a can of dark pitted cherries, drained & patted dry
maple syrup for glazing

Preheat 190dC.
Cream butter with sugar & salt. Beat in eggs one at a time.

In separate bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing until just incorporated.

Add grated zest (and a squeeze of lemon wedge for juice if you want) & fold carefully. Next up are the cherries. Fold in carefully & break a few pieces & watch how beautifully the cherry juice blends into the batter. It's really quiet beautiful :)

From here, spoon generously into muffin cups & bake for 30min.

Once they're done, remove em from the oven & immediately brush maple syrup onto the tops. A heavenly smell shall waft up your nose from here. It's a smell I find so hard to describe! The scent of the cherries, the lemon twang and that luscious maple syrup scent is just too great to try to put words to it. I have only one solution for it. Let it cool for bout 3-5min & then grab one and DIG IN!