The combination of cherry and almond is a favorite of mine, so that must have been the appeal when I stumbled across this recipe in Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison’s A Real American Breakfast Cookbook, which is something of a bible of breakfast recipes. I used to make these muffins all the time. I had a friend whose mother loved these, so I would always take her a batch when I visited. These turned up a Christmas and Easter, baby showers and brunches for years. But like many things, somehow they fell by the wayside. And the cookbook got filed away on a shelf, so I didn’t think about it much. I was recently tasked with bringing muffins to an event and out of the blue popped this idea. So I dug out the book and made a batch, and instantly remembered why I loved it so much. The muffins are packed with flavor, marrying sweet dark cherries with rich almond paste in a unique way.
The original recipe called for sour cherries, but I have never consistently found those here, so I use dark sweet frozen cherries which I can always find, and are much quicker to deal with as they are already pitted. Pureeing some of the cherries for the batter amps up the cherry flavor, but also lends a purpley-pink tinge to the finished muffins, immediately marking them out as unique. I snip some of the cherries in half and leave some whole so there are just bursts of cherries everywhere. Rich almond paste adds a toothsome density and lovely almond flavor (you will have some leftover, it keeps well wrapped in the fridge for three months, or can be frozen). Crystalline turbinado or demerara sugar sprinkled on top creates an amazing crackly crust, but granulated sugar works too.
Ingredients
2 cups frozen dark sweet cherries, thawed completely
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 ounces almond paste
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Turbinado or demerara sugar for sprinkling the tops, or more granulated
Directions
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with baking spray such as Bakers Joy.
- Puree ½ cup of the cherries in a small food processor or blender. Snip about 2/3 of the remining cherries into pieces using scissors, leaving the rest whole.
- Beat the butter, almond paste (broken into pieces) and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer until creamy and well combined. There may be some bits of almond paste intact, that I completely fine. Add the eggs, heavy cream, vanilla and almond extracts and pureed cherries and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl, until combined. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix on low just until there are no streaks of dry ingredients visible, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the chopped and whole cherries and fold them in by hand with a spatula, distributing evenly.
- Divide the batter between the muffin cups – I like to use a large cookie/ice cream scoop. Sprinkle the tops lightly with an even layer of the turbinado sugar. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the muffins briefly in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Though best served the day of baking, the muffins will keep for two days in an airtight container.
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