Today I decided to try something incredibly new to me and it has less to do with the complexity of this recipe as it's a fairly simple recipe. As it has more to do with the fact that I altered a significant portion of the ingredients in the recipe to tailor to the ingredients I wanted to use. Mainly I wanted to use these ingredients as I thought that they would compliment each other and also because I had a lot of cherries around my house. You know how it is in the summer when you see all of the cherries on sale at your local grocery stores and you think "Hey, that's a good deal. I should get some" and they end up with like 10 bags of cherries because they all look good! Well okay so we didn't end up buying 10 bags but we did buy 4 bags and you don't want them to go to waste so I decided to find a recipe that included them but to no avail so I decided to make it my own. All in all, i ended up altering majority of the ingredients. After altering a lot of the ingredients I started to wonder "how much of a recipe does it take to be altered before it's considered a new recipe?" I'm still not really sure how much of it does but here goes the ingredients that weren't altered: flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, canola oil, vanilla, and almond milk ( I used almond milk instead of the suggested regular milk). As far as the changes I made include using:
1. 8oz of freshly pitted cherries instead of blueberries
~I tried using a trick I saw online to pit the cherries with a straw. However, the first trial didn't work as the straw was too small for the cherry pits. The second trial didn't work as the straw was too weak. The third trial kind of worked but was kind of difficult to completely remove the cherry pit. I ended up just using a knife to cut them down the middle and then cut them into fours afterwards. I also used an electronic scale to weigh the cherries (you can also use other types of fruits such as strawberries, etc.).
2. about 1/3 cup of mini chocolate chips
3. 1 flax egg instead of a regular egg
~I wanted to incorporate flax somehow and didn't see any other way, as I thought it would compliment the other flavours. To make a flax egg, I used a formula I used in a previous recipe with a ratio of 1tbsp flaxseed meal with 2.5tbsp of water. Stir and let it sit for about 5-8min to make sure it congeals properly.
4. 2tbsp of cocoa powder
~You could also use cacao powder or 2.5tbsp of cocoa powder if you prefer it to taste very chocolatey (Yes, I know that's not technically a word, but I thought it represented the taste the best.)
I also ended up baking the recipe for about 24min rather than the suggested 15-20min as I felt that they weren't quite ready yet at the 15 or 20min mark. As far the sprinkling of the sugar I ended up guessing how much I needed and randomly sprinkled an amount on top of each muffin, as I nearly forgot to put it on! However, adding the sugar on top always adds a nice crunch and glaze. Similar to the reasons as to why people use sugar on top for creme brûlée, however, for that you need a lot more sugar than what I ended up using. The recipe ended up making 9 regular sized muffins, which are pretty substantial in size. Oh I almost forgot I added in the cherries, mini chocolate chips, and cocoa powder at the last step, make sure that it combines well but not too much as this will affect the texture of the muffins. I also used margarine to grease the muffin pan, however, you could also use butter or the wrappers of the butter which some chefs use after they have used up a block of butter or cooking spray or any other type of oil you'd like to use such as olive oil, coconut oil, canola oil, etc. Also, to make this recipe completely vegan all you need to do is substitute the mini chocolate chips for vegan chocolate chips or use cacao nibs instead or remove them from the recipe altogether. It's really up to you and your preferences. Anyways, if you are still reading this post thanks for hanging in there I know this was a long one. Happy Baking :)
Here is the link to the recipe I based it off of (the alterations I made are listed above): inspiredtaste.net
