Cherry Crumble Muffins

Soft, sweet, almond-flavored muffins. Topped with a rich, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth crumble. Studded with fresh cherries, baked, soft, juicy.

These muffins are something special. They’re just decadent enough, without being too much for the morning. I’ve been trying out protein shakes for breakfast recently, and these muffins are a welcome break.

They would also make a beautiful Valentine’s Day breakfast.

Just last week, I found myself with a bag of cherries to cook with and no clue what to do with them. I searched through so many recipes. I exhausted the possibilities of jams, sauces, and pies.

And finally, I settled on the one thing I found no cherry recipes for.

Muffins.

You know your favorite blueberry muffin? The one at your corner coffee shop, insanely delicate and buttery and perfect with coffee? Simple, but so, so good?

I wanted that softness, sweetness, and lightness… with cherries.

This is how we work. On the dining table, pot as mixing bowl.

Just an egg white for this tiny batch! We’re only making 6 muffins, so just the white it is. If you’re doubling for a dozen, go ahead and throw in a whole egg in place of two whites.

Use almond extract. Your muffins will be just fine without it, but this stuff is the tiny flavor boost that will take them over the top.

Your dough will look kinda like this after it’s mixed. Clumpy, wet. Leave it like that— don’t over mix.

Stir in those cherries!

Spoon it all into your muffin cups…

Then it’s crumble time!

When these little guys come out of the oven, they should look like this. Golden brown and toasty.

Go ahead, split one open.

• Servings: 6 muffins
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Ingredients

For the muffins

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg white
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 3/4 cup cherries, halved and pitted

For the crumble

• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, chilled

Directions

For the muffins

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl and set aside.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, egg white, milk, and almond extract until thoroughly combined.
4. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring as you pour. Mix until the ingredients come together with no large lumps. Small clumps are flour are fine. Avoid over mixing.
5. Fold the cherry halves into the batter. Spoon the batter into 6 lined muffin cups.
6. Divide the crumble evenly between all 6 muffins. Scatter it on top.
7. Bake for 30 minutes. Check for doneness half way through baking. If the crumble is getting too brown or close to burning, place a small piece of foil over the muffins to shield them from direct heat. You don’t need to wrap the foil around the muffins– simply let the foil rest, balanced, on top of the muffins.
8. Allow muffins to cool completely. Store in a closed container at room temperature.

For the crumble

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and sugar.
2. Cut in the butter, crumbling it into the flour with your fingertips. Continue until thoroughly combined. The mixture should resemble course crumbs.
3. Keep chilled until ready to use.

Notes:

You may increase the amount of cherries if desired, though this may make an extra muffin or two. I used 3/4 cup of cherries, measured after they were halved and pitted.

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