Orange Cherry Oatmeal Muffins (Monday or President's Day Muffins)

I cannot tell a lie.  Yesterday morning we were walking the dog to the grocery store to pick up cream for my tea when we saw some guys cutting down a tree.  I admire their gumption--it was cold as heck out, and to be hanging from a rope way up high, with a chainsaw?  Yipes.  Then I got to the store and saw cherry pies on sale.  It wasn't until after I bought the pie that I realized it was for President's Day.  So here's a President's day muffin recipe for you, using cherries and oranges.  These muffins are perky, if a muffin can be called that.  The flavor is bright and brightens my morning.  My kids eat them for breakfast and after school snacks, so perhaps they brighten the whole day!  Sunny citrus in action.

I adapted this recipe from the most excellent Muffins: A Cookbook by Joan Bidinosti and Marilyn Wearing.  I made these before the Band Fruit Fundraiser oranges arrived.  Had I been swamped with fresh oranges, I'd substitute a blended navel orange for the juice.  The original recipe called for raisins, but I've got a lot of dried cherries so I snipped them in small pieces and used those instead.

The cherries forgot to join the party when this photo was taken.

Orange Cherry Oatmeal Muffins

1 cup oats (old fashioned for me--it's how I roll)
1 cup dried cherries, snipped into small bits
1/2 cup (120 ml) orange juice (or a blended navel orange if you've got Band Fruit Fundraiser surplus)
1/2 cup (120 ml) boiling water
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Stir oats and cherries with orange juice and boiling water in a large bowl.  Add butter on top.  Let sit for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours on the counter.

When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and spray a regular 12 cup muffin tin or line with muffin papers.  Whisk stir sugars, egg, and vanilla into oat mixture.  Dump dry ingredients on top.  Whisk stir until just combined.  Fill muffin cups (I use a scoop**) and bake 15-18 minutes.  Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then flip onto a rack to finish cooling.  These freeze well.

**My scoop holds 3 Tablespoons (1 ½ ounces) by volume, though the muffin batter is mounded in the scoop so I'm pretty sure I'm putting a good 3 ½ to 4 Tablespoons into each muffin well.  The muffin wells in my regular muffin pans each hold 3 ounces by volume.

This post is linked up with the Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up at Gastronomical Sovereignty, Taste and Tell Thursday, the Farm Girl Blog Fest at Let This Mind Be In You, the Creative Homeacre Blog Hop at Self Sufficient Home Acre, and Food on Friday (twice).