Dried Fruit Muffins

A couple of weeks ago, I woke up with a severe muffin craving. When I say severe, I mean gigantically huge! All I could think of was muffins, but then the question came up: What kind of muffins do I want? I raided my shelves for possible ingredients, possible flavor combinations, any hint of what my brain/body wanted. I found that I had a lot of dried cherries and dried apricots, so I looked through my cookbooks/bakebooks, and in the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book I found this recipe. It spoke to me, telling me to try it out and enjoy the muffin-y amazingness that morning. 30 minutes later, I was enjoying these yummy muffins, really noticing how well the ground cinnamon mixes with the dried fruits, and how the butter and sour cream gave these muffins a light airy-ness and moisture that blew my foggy-just-woken-up mind away.

Dried Fruit Muffins
*makes 12 muffins*

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
8 oz dairy sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup snipped dried apricots
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
extra sugar

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 400F. Line twelve 2 1/2-inch muffin cups with paper bake cups; set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda; set aside.
2) In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add the 1 cup sugar; beat until well combined. Beat in eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until just moistened (batter will be lumpy). Stir in dried fruit and nuts.
3) Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each almost full. Sprinkle with additional sugar. Bake about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups; serve warm.