Sweet cherry muffins with streusel topping

A flavourful, not-too-sweet breakfast treat!

Regular visitors to this site or viewers of my TV show, Paula Roy’s Favourite Foods, will know that my love of muffins runs deep. There are about two dozen recipes in the Constantly Cooking archives and I make all of them regularly, but that doesn’t stop me from experimenting. This season’s spectacular cherry crop was the inspiration for this new creation and it’s one I’ll be repeating – even with frozen cherries in winter – quite often. The crunchy topping really makes them spectacular.

Ingredients

Streusel topping:

• 1/2 cup (60 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon (12 g) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (55 g) brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons (13 g) sliced almonds, chopped
• 1/4 cup (56 g) salted butter, melted

Muffins:

• 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (96 g) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (55 g) brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (52 g) sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) milk
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Few drops almond extract (optional but delicious)
• 1/2 cup (112 g) salted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 2/3 cups halved fresh cherries, stems and pits removed (about 25)

Method

• Preheat oven to 400F. Line 15 regular or 12 large muffin tin compartments with papers; set pan aside.
• In a small bowl, combine all the dry ingredients for the streusel topping. Drizzle melted butter over top and stir with a fork just until flour is incorporated, leaving lots of coarse (larger) crumbs in the mixture. Refrigerate until needed.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, sugars and almonds.
• In a separate medium bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, vanilla and almond extracts and cooled, melted butter.
• Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients. Gently stir with a spatula just until dry ingredients are moistened.
• Fill muffin tins 2/3 full with batter. Press three cherry halves into each muffin’s batter then sprinkle the tops of each one with streusel topping, breaking up really large clumps with your fingers as needed.
• Bake for 18 – 20 minutes, until tester comes out mostly crumb-free.
• Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Makes 12 muffins.