Homemade Cherry Muffins are made from scratch with fresh, sweet cherries. Make these muffins quickly and easily with yummy cherries and some simple pantry ingredients.
I’m seeing fresh cherries pop up in my local grocery store and my favorite farmer’s markets, which means that it’s time for baking with cherries and making some cherry muffins! I’m also making this gorgeous Cherry Pie recipe with all of these fresh cherries.
These muffins are best when made with in-season cherries, whenever that season is for you. In the US, sweet cherries are available between May and August, so for me, this is a summertime must-have.
Why You’ll Love This Cherry Muffin Recipe
These muffins are just sweet enough. Not overly sweet and a little bit tart from the cherries, we aren’t adding a lot of extra sugar. This makes them perfect for breakfast. If you prefer your muffins on the sweeter side, you can add more sugar to the recipe without any issues.
Almond Extract is added to complement the flavor of cherries, and makes these muffins extra special.
Everyone loves muffins. A batch of fresh muffins like these would make an amazing gift for a new neighbor or friend who needs a little boost. Wrap them up with a bow and make a delivery!
You could also make my Morning Glory Muffins, Cranberry Orange Muffins, Strawberry Banana Muffins or Lemon Muffins.
These muffins have a bakery-made texture with a dense, moist crumb and beautifully peaked tops. They look as amazing as they taste.
Homemade cherry muffins are made with simple everyday ingredients and are prepared and baked in about a half-hour.
Ingredients in Cherry Muffins
- All Purpose Flour – This recipe was tested using regular all-purpose flour and works beautifully this way.
- Baking Powder – This is our leavener, and helps the batter rise as it cooks to create the perfect muffin texture.
- Salt – A bit of salt helps balance out the sweet flavors.
- Granulated Sugar – Sweetness comes from sugar; just a half cup because we don’t want to overpower the flavor of the cherries.
- Vegetable Oil – This adds moisture to the batter and keeps things from drying out.
- Milk – Any type of milk will work here. Milk loosens up the batter and aids in texture.
- Egg – Just one large egg is needed for the whole batch.
- Almond Extract – There is just something about the combination of almond and cherry that makes it a perfect flavor combination. You can use vanilla if you prefer though.
- Fresh Cherries – Remove the pits from the cherries and leave them whole. If you need to cut them to get the pits out, that is ok, but I love the look and texture of big juicy cherries inside these muffins.
How Do I Remove Pits from Cherries?
Pitting cherries is not an easy job, but it’s totally worth it. No matter what, you’ll probably need to do one cherry at a time.
If you like to bake with cherries, I suggest using a cherry pitter tool. This tool takes each cherry and pushes the pit out of the center leaving a small hole, and a whole cherry.
Without a cherry pitter, you can just carefully cut each cherry in half and then remove the pit with your fingers.
How to Make Cherry Muffins
Before you do anything, get your oven ready to bake by preheating it to 390°F/200°C.
- Combine: In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. This step ensures that all of the dry ingredients are mixed well and you don’t get any pockets of baking powder in your finished muffins.
- Whisk: In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar with oil, milk, egg, and almond extract. Mix until well combined.
- Add Dry Ingredients to Wet Ones: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk just until combined. Do not overmix.
- Add Cherries: Fold in the cherries. The muffin batter should be thick enough to hold up the fruit, I did that on purpose because we don’t want the cherries falling to the bottom of the muffins.
- Fill Muffin Pan: Divide the batter between 8 lined muffin cups so that each is ¾ of the way filled.
- Bake: Bake for 20 minutes or until done. Allow the muffins to cool on a wire rack completely before eating or serving.
More Easy Sweet Breakfast Treats
Frequently Asked Cherry Muffin Recipe Questions
I like to use muffin liners because then I can be certain that my muffins won’t stick to the pan. It’s really up to you how you do your muffins though. If you aren’t using paper liners, be sure to grease the pan generously to prevent sticking. Cooking spray is probably the easiest way to accomplish that.
Fully cooked muffins will be golden brown on top and if you press on them they should bounce back. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean, without any liquid batter on it.
While you can bake with either sweet or tart varieties of fresh cherries, this recipe has been tested with the sweet variety.
Sweet cherries are the most common varieties that you’ll find in grocery stores. They are delicious for eating fresh and make the most wonderful baked goods. You will also find tart cherries at the store or at markets. You can bake with these as well, but you will want to adjust this recipe and add more sugar so that the muffins aren’t sour.
I haven’t tested this recipe with canned cherries, but I think it would be ok to try! Rinse and dry your cherries very well before adding them to the batter, as you don’t want any of the extra moisture in the recipe.
Happy Baking! I know you’re going to love this cherry muffin recipe as much as I do. Pin this to save for later or to share with others.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Cherry Muffins
Equipment
- 12 cup muffin pan
- Mixing Bowls
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Sifter or fine mesh sieve
- Rubber Spatula
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (180 g) all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3 g) salt
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) vegetable oil
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) milk
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract can substitute with pure vanilla extract, but almond extract is highly recommended for its pairing with cherries
- 1 ¼ cup (190 g) fresh cherries pitted and left whole
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 390°F (200°C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with 8 paper liners or lightly grease 8 cups.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, vegetable oil, milk, egg, and almond extract until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk just until combined. Do not overmix.
- Gently fold in the cherries. The batter will be thick to help suspend the cherries throughout the muffins.
- Divide the batter evenly between the 8 prepared muffin cups, filling each about ¾ full.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.
Notes:
- Fresh cherries are best, but you can use frozen cherries. If using frozen, do not thaw before folding into the batter.
- Be sure to pit the cherries completely to avoid biting into a pit.
- Almond extract complements the cherry flavor beautifully, but if unavailable, pure vanilla extract is a fine substitute.
- The batter is quite thick which is great as the cherries won’t sink to the bottom and you don’t need to flour the cherries.
- This recipe was tested using sweet cherries. If using sour cherries, add an extra ¼ cup of sugar.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
Carolyn says
Could you use frozen sweet cherries?
Little Sunny Kitchen says
I haven’t tested this recipe with frozen cherries, but if you try it, please let me know how the muffins turn out!
Belinda Hart says
Great recipe! I made these gluten free and used half monk fruit sweetener. I also chopped my frozen cherries and added them to the flour mixture so they wouldn’t stick to the bottom. I love that they’re not very sweet just right. Thank you!
Little Sunny Kitchen says
Thank you for sharing your substitutions to make them gluten free and low sugar! Enjoy!
Nancy says
would whole frozen cherries work in this in the off seasons? would they need to thaw or just put in last minute frozen? Thank you
Little Sunny Kitchen says
I would probably put them in frozen, but you may find that they release too much moisture that way. I’d want to test it with frozen cherries, and I haven’t done that so far! If you try it, please come back and let me know how the muffins turn out!
Genevieve says
I suspected my baking powder may not be fresh still, and sure enough my muffins didn’t really rise, so definitely listen to the authors advice about that! The muffins were still delicious though even if they ended up denser than intended.
Little Sunny Kitchen says
Hi Genevieve! Definitely try the recipe again with a fresh container of baking powder. Thank you for the great feedback.