Gingerbread Muffins with Chocolate and Cherries

Monday is my Baking Day, and yesterday I made buttermilk rolls, two loaves of potato bread, and muffins.

I had a box of gingerbread mix in the cupboard, and I decided to experiment with it. I wanted something sweet and fruity that would go well with the day's last cup of coffee, taken at the kitchen table while looking out at the north wind stripping the yellow leaves from the maples. Pretending, perhaps, that I was in a cafe in Paris or at a coffee house in Prague.


One box of gingerbread mix

2 eggs

1 1/4 cup lukewarm water

1 cup pitted black cherries. I used Morrelo cherries from a jar I bought at Trader Joe's

3/4 cup of chocolate chips


Put the gingerbread mix in a bowl and stir in the water, then the eggs. Add the cherries and the chocolate chips and mix well. Spoon the batter into muffin tins sprayed with canola cooking spray or greased with butter. Fill each muffin cup three quarters full. These muffins are dense and do not rise to the height of more conventional muffins. Bake at 400 degrees for twenty to twenty five minutes. This recipe makes about 18 medium sized muffins.