Cherry Muffins

These cherry muffins are bursting full of juicy cherries and with soft fluffy interiors, and crunchy tops, they have to be one of our absolute favourite muffins!

We love these cherry muffins so much we have them for brunch, breakfast, in lunchboxes or an easy snack and for dessert.

We like to make a couple of large batches when cherries are in season to serve at family brunches or for a convenient snack and then freeze any extra (see storing instructions below).

This muffin recipe is very simple and it also works well with many other fresh, frozen or dry fruits.

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For more muffin recipes try our yummy banana muffins, these very popular savoury broccoli and cheese breakfast muffins or try something a little different with a blueberry muffin loaf.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Helpful tips
• Pitting cherries
• Substitutions
• Storage
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• 📋 Recipe

Ingredients

Tips about the ingredients you will need:

• cherries – wash and dry fresh sweet pitted cherries (see how to pit cherries below), or use them frozen – no need to thaw. This recipe was made with pitted frozen cherries.
• flour – all purpose flour (for measuring guidelines, see our helpful tips below).
• sugar
• baking powder – make sure it is good quality and within date or your muffins may not rise.
• salt
• egg – remove from the fridge an hour before to bring to room temperature so it will mix well with the other ingredients.
• milk
• yogurt (not pictured) – adding plain yogurt to the mixture not only adds moisture but the acidity reacts with the alkaline baking powder producing carbon dioxide, which gives a lighter and fluffier loaf.
• butter
• almond extract
• cinnamon – ground (not pictured)

See recipe card for quantities.

Helpful tips

These are our helpful tips for best results:

• Remove the chilled ingredients from the fridge an hour before to bring to room temperature so they mix well with the other ingredients.
• Wash and dry the fresh fruit.
• If using frozen berries they can be used straight from frozen.
• To measure the flour accurately, spoon it into a measuring cup or bowl then use the back of a knife to level it off.
• Take care not to over mix the batter, only mix it till just combined. The small lumps and streaks of ingredients are fine (see image below).
• You do not need to use muffin liners, just make sure the muffin trays are greased to prevent sticking.
• Do not fill the muffin cups to the top or they will spill over – up to three-quarters is fine.
• Some ovens have heat spots so you may need to turn the muffin tray during baking.
• Leave the muffins in their trays to cool before turning out.

Pitting cherries

If using fresh cherries, you will need a cherry pitter, but if you don’t have a pitter you can use a chopstick:

• First remove the stem and hold the cherry between thumb and index finger.
• Poke the smaller end of the chopstick through the stem hole.
• Gently and firmly push the chopstick down towards the pit, pushing it out the other side.

Substitutions

A few tips for substitutions if you are missing any of these ingredients:

• all purpose flour – use equivalent amount of almond flour. This will give a more nutty flavour.
• milk – use the same quantity of almond milk but reduce the cooking time by a few minutes or the muffins will be a little dry.
• yogurt – use the same quantity of sour cream
• almond extract – use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract instead.

If you don’t have any muffin tray, bake the mixture in a loaf tin or pan of similar size. You will need to bake it for longer so follow the baking instructions for our blueberry muffin bread.

Storage

Once cooled these cherry muffins will last up to 4 days in a sealed box.

To prevent the muffins from becoming soggy, wrap them in a clean tea towel or kitchen paper before placing in the box, then keep the container in a cool area.

Note: The muffins may dry out if wrapped in plastic wrap or kept in the fridge.

Like most muffins, these cherry muffins will freeze well for up to 1 month. Once they have cooled, place a few at a time in a single layer in a sealed container or freezer bag with a piece of kitchen paper to absorb any extra moisture.

Thaw overnight in the fridge or on the kitchen counter.

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