These cake-like muffins are made with fresh, sweet cherries, delicious vanilla, and topped with cinnamon sugar.
This summer, I was able to score fresh cherries for only $0.99 per pound. Let’s just say I purchased several pounds and I regret absolutely nothing! I made everything from home canned cherry pie filling to cherry chocolate chip waffles. But these Cherry Vanilla Muffins are by far the best thing I made!
We love having muffins available for a quick breakfast or as a snack when we’re on the go. And I know I may have mentioned this before, but man, kids snack a lot! I feel like every time I turn around, my kids are telling me they’re hungry or asking for a snack. I always try to pack a little something for us if I know we’ll be out and about for a few hours. These muffins are as filling as they are delicious!
Having healthy, homemade snacks and treats around is so easy to do when we take just a few minutes of our day to prep. While this recipe is a sweet treat and should be enjoyed periodically, it's packed with fresh cherries, which are high in vitamins, A, C, and K. They’re also full of potassium and magnesium which has been proven beneficial for heart health.
You’ll want to make double or triple batches of these sweet treats to have on hand for when snack time hits. These muffins freeze beautifully and can thaw at room temperature in about 20 minutes. They're also a great addition to home-packed school lunches!
To Make these Cherry Vanilla Muffins you’ll need a few simple ingredients:
Cake Flour
I used standard cake flour for this recipe. To ensure accurate flour measurements, use a spoon to add the flour to your measuring cup and level it off with a flat edge, like the back of a butterknife. If you don’t have cake flour on hand, no worries! Here’s a quick substitution recipe:
For a quick cake flour substitution, 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour and ¼ cup cornstarch may be used. Simply whisk flour and cornstarch together gently then continue with the recipe as directed.
Baking Power
To get a nice, tall rise from your muffins, you will need a leveling agent like baking powder. I don’t recommend substituting baking soda for the baking powder in this recipe.
Butter
We love the richness real butter adds to baked goods, but you can certainly replace the butter with a neutral oil like olive oil or avocado oil.
Eggs
Fresh eggs help not only add flavor and moisture but also help create structure and stability within the batter.
Sugar
Sugar helps to keep baked goods soft and moist.
Salt
Salt helps to preserve the flavor and prevent staleness.
Vanilla Extract
I absolutely love my homemade vanilla extract and will likely never return to the store-bought version again! Homemade extracts offer a cleaner flavor, meaning they don’t taste artificial like the common store brands. They are also really affordable to make and easy to customize. You can check out my favorite homemade extracts here!
Making these Cherry Vanilla Muffins is Easy!
The short version of making almost any muffin, cake, or baked good is to combine wet ingredients in one bowl, combine dry ingredients in another bowl, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir well. It may seem unnecessary to dirty up so many bowls, but there's actually some pretty cool science that happens when we separate the ingredients like this. When we use leavening agents, also known as aeration agents, like baking powder or baking soda, we want to make sure they are being dispersed evenly. This helps to ensure an even rise and consistency in flavor.
So, let’s get to it!
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk
2 cups fresh cherries, pitted, coarsely chopped
Cinnamon Sugar Topping
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick spray or paper liners.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar by using a mixer on medium-speed for approximately 1-2 minutes or until mixture is light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time to butter and sugar mixture, beating each on low speed with mixer.
Add vanilla extract.
In a medium bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add flour mixture one-half cup at a time to butter mixture using low speed on mixer.
Add milk and continue mixing until well combined but do not overmix.
Gently fold in chopped cherries by gently incorporating them into the flour mixture.
Carefully spoon muffin batter to prepared muffin tin ensuring each cup is approximately ¾ of the way full.
Top each muffin with approximately ½ teaspoon of cinnamon sugar mixture.
Bake for approximately 28-33 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the center of one muffin, if the toothpick comes out clean and free from any wet batter, the muffins are baked completely.
Allow muffins to cool in the pan for approximately 5-7 minutes.
Carefully remove muffins from pan and allow to cool completely on wire baking rack.
Muffins may be stored at room temperature for three days, or can be frozen for up to three months.
To freeze these Cherry Vanilla Muffins
Place muffins on a cookie sheet uncovered in the freezer for approximately 1 hour. Remove from the freezer and place the frozen muffins in a freezer-safe storage bag for up to 3 months.
To thaw, simply remove the desired amount of muffins from the freezer-safe storage bag and place on a plate. Allow to thaw at room temperature for about 20 minutes or reheat in the microwave for approximately 2 minutes.
If you tried this Cherry Vanilla Muffin recipe, we'd love to hear how it turned out. Be sure to let us know in the comments below, tag us on Instagram @TheAzaleaHomestead, or share with us on Facebook!
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