I feel like this is something that I’ve made quite a few times before. In a sense, I have. One has only to look several posts back to see a few other muffin recips that look very similar. The only thing I’ve not used before was the quark. Quark feels sort of like a cross between yogurt and cottage cheese. It’s not a common cheese in the US, and I’m not sure why that is. You can make your own. The kind I used was store bought.

Originally these muffins were supposed to have a lemon glaze, but guess what? I accidentally poured the lemon juice that was supposed to be for the glaze into the batter. Immediately after I poured it in, I knew it wasn’t supposed to go in, but it was too late to fish it out! So I just mixed it in and hoped for the best.

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And guess what? Even with a 1/3 cup of lemon juice in the batter, I think they were pretty good!

In fact, I think the lemon juice made the texture a little softer and spongier! Now I need to make them again, the right way, to see if the lemon juice glaze would’ve been better. But I also wouldn’t mind making it again with the lemon juice in the batter. Overall, Ben and I both liked the texture, and that they were not very sweet at all. The cherries definitely went well with the quark, which was something I researched extensively online just to see if there were some recipes containing that combination.

Lemon Cherry Quark Muffins (based on Vermont Creamery’s Lemon Quark Muffins)

ingredients

2 cups All-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons honey

2 large eggs

1 cup Quark

1/4 cup melted unsalted butter

1 Tablespoon lemon zest

1/3 cup lemon juice (I added this to the batter, although you’ll notice that this was supposed to be for the lemon glaze topping. OoUpS!!)

1 cup of cherries (I used canned dark sweet cherries).

method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line or grease 12 muffin molds. Set aside.

Sift and whisk the dry (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt) ingredients in a bowl and set aside. With a hand held mixer, mix the melted butter with the sugar, adding the eggs, honey, quark, lemon zest. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix without over mixing. Add the lemon juice and mix until lemon juice has been completely incorporated into the batter. Fold the cherries into the batter. Divide batter into the 12 muffin molds and bake for about 15 minutes, or until toothpick test comes out clear from the middle of a muffin. (This is what I did. For the original recipe that calls for the lemon glaze topping, click on the link above.) Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm. Enjoy!!

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