A damn good streusel topped cherry muffins.
Good morning everyone! How are y’all today?
It is good to be back. I missed posting. I actually had not stepped foot in my wordpress admin page since last week. It was really good to be back in there creating. Today I have a short story for you and when the day looks like this…gray skies, cold, and rain, especially in July… Then, it’s a great morning to make Cherry Muffins!
Let me ask you this :”how many times while prep muffins you thought about difference between a muffin and a cupcake ?”. I’ve always wondered what the difference between muffins and cupcakes was. It seems to me that a muffin is just an acceptable way to eat cake for breakfast, while cupcakes are a big no no. Also muffins are dry and crumbly, while cupcakes have a lighter, and more consistent texture. Cupcakes are miniature cakes while muffins are miniature quick breads.
After hours of research (yes really, I love researching important issues like this 🙂 ) and got many websites, I kept seeing, “cupcakes have frosting and muffins don’t.” No way, any 5 year old can tell you that. I didn’t spend half a day researching to go with frosting being the only differentiating factor.
For me, a muffin is still something that’s relatively healthy. It’s not too sweet, is perhaps made with whole wheat flour, and is more likely to be loaded with fruit than candy. A muffin can also be savory instead of sweet. The texture is usually dryer and slightly denser than their cupcake cousins.
On the other side Cupcakes are, well, miniature cakes. They’re sweet by definition, coming in flavors like vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet. A cupcake is tender and rich with eggs and butter. They’re a dessert item, not an everyday breakfast food. And cupcakes always have frosting.
Okay, so now we know the difference and today I want to share with you some damn good streusel topped cherry muffins. Not cherry cupcakes. No frosting allowed here. The crumb easily holds up the cherries. Dense, but moist. And the best thing is since it’s a muffin, we are allowed to eat it for breakfast. This little old muffin will never make you wait in a line. With little more than a few simple pantry ingredients and a whisk, hot fresh muffins can be had anytime your heart desires.
That being said, I’m not anti-cupcake, just strongly pro-muffin. I’ll enjoy the occasional cupcake but I’ll take the muffin any day.
What do you prefer? Muffins or cupcakes? Comment below!
- 3 large eggs
- 1½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 2½ teaspoons baking powder
- pinch of salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
- 2 cups (one dry pint) pitted fresh or frozen cherries (if using frozen, do not thaw)
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin; or line the tin with papers, and grease the papers.
- For Muffins
- In a medium sized bowl whisk the eggs with the milk and vanilla extract.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour with the sugar, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or your fingertips. (The mixture should look like coarse crumbs.)
- Remove one cup of the mixture and set aside in a separate bowl to make the streusel topping.
- Gently fold cherries and lemon zest in the remaining muffin batter.
- Add the milk and egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir just until combined.
- Fill each muffin cup about ¾ full with the batter, using two spoons or an ice cream scoop.
- Streusel Topping
- Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and stir into the reserved one cup of flour mixture until it is crumbly and looks like coarse meal. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of the streusel on top of each muffin.
- Bake the muffins for about 20-25 minutes, until they’re light golden brown on top, and a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.
- Remove the muffins from the oven, loosen their edges from the pan, and after about 5 minutes transfer them to a rack to cool.
- Yield: 12 muffins.
- * If using fresh cherries, dust them lightly with flour; this helps prevent the cherries from “bleeding” into the muffins. If using frozen cherries, add them frozen to the batter; this will help prevent them from “bleeding” our their juices.
I made these muffins on Sunday morning and they were absolutely delicious! So moist and fluffy. And I loved the crumb topping.
Thanks Kate,
I’m so glad that you enjoyed both in making and eating Cherry Muffins with Streusel Topping.
Pingback: Banana Muffins & Cherry Stredual Muffins | Jayashiangel
Pingback: Muffins - Yeast Breads, Pastries, Rolls, Quick Breads, Muffins | Pearltrees
Made these today and they turned out pretty good! I only had Unsweetened almondmilk on hand so I used that, I think I should have added more sugar to the batter to compensate because the actual muffin part wasn’t quite sweet enough for my tastes. Luckily I added some sugar to the struesel topping and that helped. Yummy and easy! (Also turned out fine for my elevation, at 4,500 ft I usually have issues baking!) Thanks for the recipe. Oh and I used salted butter and it still turned out great, not too salty at all. Next time I’ll use normal milk and add more cinnamon and maybe more lemon!
A little chewy at high altitude, and need more cherries than listed, but pretty good.
These are fantastic! Moist, flavorful…I had fresh cherries on hand and most of the cherry muffin recipes I found call for dried. They were a hit at our brunch, and the guest of honor asked for the recipe. Thanks!
These are one of the best muffins I have ever had! I used frozen sweet cherries and just thawed them about 15 seconds in the microwave to soften before cutting. I think it’s the almond extract that gives them the unique delicious flavor! I also used more sugar on top that just the 1 Tbl total – I probably put 1 tsp of sugar on each. It gave a nice crunch.
In the oven and it smells très bon
I only have one thing I’m not understanding about this recipe, the typical recipes always have the streusel part divide away from the actual recipe , this ones included with the actual batter? If I’m wrong please correct me. I’m slightly confused, and would love to make this recipe as it looks like the best one I’ve seen online.
Thank you
In the oven right now, the only thing I spaced was dusting the cherries in flour.. woops! Oh well, I am looking forward to trying them! This recipe was super simple and easy to follow! Thanks !