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Darn, I so wish we could grow sweet cherries. Alas – all of our attempts to date have failed, resulting in scraggling, pathetic trees that eventually give up entirely and die.
Fortunately, all of our other fruit trees seem to be pretty happy here, though we’ve not seen any fruit from them yet. That is nothing to fret about though, since they are still not old enough that we would be expecting much out of them. Except staying alive and growing larger that is, which they all seem to be doing.
Fresh, homegrown cherries seem unlikely to be happening around here anytime soon though, but we get by. The stores all have a good supply this time of year, which we think is pretty awesome, since we are kind of freaks about them. Indeed, we come so close to gluttony, that it is nothing for the two of us to polish off an entire pound in a sitting.
Given that, I don’t often bake with cherries. A lot of years I’ve already sworn off turning on the oven by the time they are in good [read: cheap] supply, and it can be difficult to convince myself to stop eating them long enough to make anything of them.
But the cool summer we’ve been having is good for something, so these muffins came to be.
These Fresh Cherry Almond Muffins are sweet and moist, with just a tiny touch of almond extract to bring out the flavor of the fruit. Please trust me and don’t add any more than the 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract in the recipe – a little bit goes a long way, and too much is not tasty at all.
Fresh Cherry Almond Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup roughly chopped pitted sweet cherries
- 2 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup plain regular yogurt [any fat level will work though the higher the fat count the richer the muffins will be]
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- raw or sparkling sugar for the tops
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF, and line a 12 spot muffin tin with muffin papers.
- Prepare the cherries first, pitting whole ripe cherries, and cutting them roughly in quarters - set aside.
- In a medium bowl, which together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt - set aside.
- In a larger bowl, whisk together the yogurt, milk, eggs and extracts.
- Add the dry ingredients and fold the two mixtures together. When they are about half combined, add the cherries and continue folding. Don't over-mix; fold just until barely combined.
- Portion the batter evenly in the muffin tin, filling each cup nearly full.
- If desired, sprinkle the tops with raw or sparkling sugar.
- Bake at 425º for 10 minutes, turn pan and lower heat to 350º and bake an additional 10 minutes. A toothpick inserted near the center of a muffin should come out with no more than a few moist crumbs.
- Remove them from the tin and cool muffins on a rack.
- Serve warm with butter and honey or jam. refrigerate leftovers
They are pretty amazing if I say so myself – I use the same technique in these as I did in my Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, to make sure I got that same high domed effect. The sugar on top gives them a very pleasant crunch, and the cherries are just as good as I had hoped.
Enjoy!
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Molasses Crinkles Cookies
Quick and Easy Chocolate Snack Cake
Almond Brownies
Butter Pecan Waffles
Upside Down Ginger Pear Cake
Skillet Pumpkin Fudge Brownies
Fresh Ginger Cookies
Chewy Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
I hate to hear that cherries are hard to grow b/c we just planted one this spring
I don’t think they are hard to grow everywhere for everyone Debra – we just haven’t had any success with them. We aren’t giving up though!
The classic is usually the best, I love these muffins!
Thanks Sue – I agree!
They have turned out amazing! I wish I had bought some fresh cherries this morning when I did grocery shopping.
Thanks Angie – I think they might be the best muffins I have ever made 🙂
Donalyn , those muffins look delicious, I have to bake them when I return to the states, although cherry season will be over, maybe I use dried cherries. My absolute favorite are sour cherries to cook with. A friend of mine at home in Santa Cruz managed to grow a tree in his backyard near the Pacific Ocean , which is amazing . Maybe you have better luck with a sour cherry tree.
I hope you’re enjoying your trip Gerlinde! We do have a sour cherry tree which is doing well and I am looking forward to some cherry pies in the next couple years!
I am also a big cherry fan. Cherries go so well with almonds, I can imagine how delicious your muffins must be…
Thanks Sissi – it is a very good flavor combo!
I love muffins and these look so yummy. I’ve never made cherry ones before but now I definitely have to try. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Tina and I hope that you have a chance to try them!
Great muffins, love the cherry almond combo. Wow you tried to grow some, impressed.
Hi Evelyne – we are trying to grow everything – with obvious mixed results 😉
These muffins look absolutely perfect for breakfast 😀
So full of flavour and who can resist cherries?
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thanks CCU!
It too bad about your cherry trees. I love sweet cherries too, it would be fun to have my own tree. Your muffins look really tasty. I love the almond and cherry combination.
Thanks Dawn – I am sure that we will try again 🙂
I’m so impressed that you can grow fruit! Even my chilli plant died on me! The muffins looks glorious Donalyn!
In the interest of full disclosure, Lorraine, I should probably note that so far the only fruit we have grown are blueberries – and we will soon have some raspberries if the birds don’t get them first.
I’ve made similar muffins and they’re so, so good! You’ve made me hungry!!!!
Thanks Liz – go make some!
What beautiful muffins! I wish I had one right now to go with my morning tea!
Thanks MJ – I’m wishing the same thing 🙂
What great looking muffins! We don’t bake that much with cherries, but should. Starting with these muffins. Bummer you can’t grow them — it’d be awesome to have your own cherry trees. Anyway, really nice recipe — thanks.
John – we never know when to give up, so I am sure we will plant another tree!
These muffins are going to become my new favorite breakfast! Love the fresh cherries!
Thanks Pamela – cherries go in my breakfast smoothies very often!
I’m loving the cherries this year and they are plentiful in Atlanta. I can’t think of a better way to use them than in a muffin and your version looks fantastic. Great idea to pair the cherries with almond flavor. Great recipe, Donalyn!
Thanks Bill – we are going to get out to pick some this weekend I think – lots of cherry orchards around the Finger Lakes here in NY 🙂
I haven’t made muffins in ages… but darn these look fabulous!! I just might have to surprise the kids this weekend.
I wish we have even one fruit tree, but we don’t… I would love to eat cherry muffins – I usually love berries and never even attempted to make ones with cherries. Cherries are so delicious and very seasonal so I would love to enjoy all kinds of cherries while they last! Your muffins look amazingly delicious!