Cherry muffins are soft buttermilk muffins studded with fresh chopped cherries. They’re simple to make, ready in less than 30 minutes, and perfect for breakfast, snacks, or anytime baking.
These cherry muffins are a simple, classic way to use up fresh cherries when it’s cherry season. Made with buttermilk for a soft, tender crumb and filled with juicy chopped cherries, they bake up light, moist, and full of flavor.
They come together quickly in less than 30 minutes from start to finish, making them perfect for busy mornings, easy snacks, or easy baking. Whether you’re looking for a quick breakfast or a not-too-sweet treat, these muffins are an easy go-to recipe.
Ingredient notes and substitutions
- Flour: I recommend either weighing the flour (click “metric” just above the ingredients for the weights) or sift the flour, lightly spoon into a measuring cup, and level.
- Butter: If using unsalted butter, increase the salt to 3/4 teaspoon.
- Buttermilk: If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make a homemade buttermilk substitute.
- Almond extract: Almond extract adds a nice depth of flavor; however, you can use all vanilla extract if you don’t want to use almond extract.
How to make cherry muffins
Here you’ll find instructions and step-by-step photos showing how to make this recipe. The full recipe, including ingredients, is given below.
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400° F. Line 2 muffin tins with 18 paper liners and set aside.
Step 2: In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Set aside.
Step 3: In a separate large bowl, whisk together melted butter, sugar, and eggs until well combined.
Step 4: Stir in buttermilk, almond extract, and vanilla extract until well-combined.
Step 5: Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and stir in just until combined. Don’t overmix it needs to just be combined.
Step 6: Fold in the chopped cherries just until combined.
Step 7: Transfer batter to prepared muffin pan filling each cup about 3/4 way.
Step 8: Sprinkle coarse sugar over the muffin batter.
Step 9: Bake at 400° F for 5 minutes in the preheated oven.
Step 10: Without removing the muffins, decrease the oven temperature to 350F. Continue baking for about 10-15 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a couple of crumbs on it.
Step 11: Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Recipe Tips!
- Mixing: I highly recommend mixing the batter by hand to avoid overmixing. Overmixing will give you heavy or dense muffins.
- Mix-ins: You can add 1/4 cup mix-ins like mini chocolate chips or chopped nuts with the chopped cherries.
Storage
Store any leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature. The muffins will keep for 2-3 days when properly stored.
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Cherry Muffins
Equipment
- 2 Muffin tins
Ingredients
- 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup salted butter melted and slightly cooled
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups fresh cherries pitted, coarsely chopped and drained (or frozen pitted cherries, thawed and coarsely chopped)
- Coarse sugar or sparkling sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400° F. Line 2 muffin tins with 18 paper liners and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Set aside.3 cups sifted all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together melted butter, sugar, and eggs until well combined.½ cup salted butter, 1 cup granulated sugar, 2 large eggs
- Stir in buttermilk, almond extract, and vanilla extract until well-combined.1 ¼ cups buttermilk, ½ teaspoon almond extract, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir in just until combined. Don’t overmix it needs to just be combined.
- Fold in the chopped cherries just until combined.2 cups fresh cherries
- Transfer batter to prepared muffin tin filling each cup about 3/4 way.
- Sprinkle coarse sugar over the muffin batter.Coarse sugar or sparkling sugar
- Bake at 400° F for 5 minutes.
- Without removing the muffins, decrease the oven temperature to 350F. Continue baking for about 10-15 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a couple of crumbs on it.
- Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Flour: I recommend either weighing the flour (click “metric” just above the ingredients for the weights) or sift the flour, lightly spoon into a measuring cup, and level.
- Butter: If using unsalted butter, increase the salt to 3/4 teaspoon.
- Buttermilk: If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make a homemade buttermilk substitute.
- Almond extract: Almond extract adds a nice depth of flavor; however, you can use all vanilla extract if you don’t want to use almond extract.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
Nutrition
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