Cherry Muffins with Coconut Streusel
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These cherry muffins with coconut streusel are one of my very favorite muffins. With a sturdy vanilla-flavored crumb, bright juicy bursts of cherry, and a sweet coconut topping, they’re a perfect brunch treat or breakfast on the go.
I first made these cherry muffins with coconut streusel 6 years ago for a brunch-themed baby shower. For some reason it took me this long to get around to making them again, but they’ve been lurking in the back of my mind ALL this time.
Basically they were as memorable as a muffin can get and were just as good as I remembered this time around.
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If you’re fortunate enough to have access to fresh sour cherries (I mean, for the 2 weeks per year that they’re in season!), this would be a great recipe to take advantage of them. And if not, then canned, jarred, or frozen are great too.
Jarred morello cherries are available from Trader Joe’s for instance. I used jarred Montmorency cherries with great results. That said, I see no reason you couldn’t use sweet cherries instead if you like.
In case you’re wondering:
What are Sour Cherries?
Sour cherries, of which Morello and Montmorency cherries are two varieties, are a tart and thin-skinned variety of cherry that are best used for baking rather than snacking on raw.
They are not nearly as sweet as bing or rainier cherries, but there is absolutely nothing better for a cherry pie that really has that classic cherry pie flavor. Here’s a bit more info if you’re interested!
How to Make Cherry Muffins with Coconut Streusel
- Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin with butter or cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, eggs and yogurt
- Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir until just combined. The batter will be very thick, almost more of a dough.
5. Drain the cherries, if using canned or jarred. If frozen, they should be thawed and drained.
6. Evenly distribute about 1/3 of the batter into the muffin cups, and then distribute 1/2 the cherries between the cups.
7. Cover the cherries with more batter and top with the remaining cherries. Finally, top with the remaining batter.
8. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar and flour. Cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly and stir in the coconut.
9. Top the muffins with streusel. It will seem like a lot of streusel, but trust me it’s perfect!
10. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
11. Let muffins cool on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes and unmold.
Serve warm or at room temperature!
Enjoy!! xx
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More Cherry Recipes!
Chewy Cherry Almond Sugar Cookies
And More Muffin Recipes!
Mandarin Orange Muffins with Greek Yogurt
And if you’re looking for even more easy brunch inspiration, follow me on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Or subscribe in the sidebar on the right to get every new recipe in your inbox 🙂
Cherry Muffins with Coconut Streusel
Ingredients
Cherry Muffins
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter melted
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 16 oz jarred, canned, or frozen (thawed) sour cherries (about 2 cups of drained cherries)
Coconut Streusel
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup butter cold
- 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
Instructions
Cherry Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 375 F. Butter a standard 12 cup muffin tin, or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, eggs and yogurt.
- Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. The batter will be very thick.
- Distribute 1/3 of the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups. Distribute half the cherries between the muffin cups and cover with another 1/3 of the batter. Distribute the rest of the cherries over the batter, and cover with the remaining batter.
Coconut Streusel
- In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar and flour. Cut in the butter until coarse crumbles form. Stir in the coconut. Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the muffins.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until the muffins spring back when pressed or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes and unmold.
Wow! Thanks for the recipe. So incredibly good and will definitely go into my favorite muffins rotation.
Yay!!! Thank you so much Julie, this makes me so happy 🙂
I’ve made these twice-once with sour cherries right off our tree, and tonite with blueberries. What an amazing recipe, thanks for sharing!!!!!
You can’t beat fresh sour cherries! But blueberries sound so good too 🙂
Isn’t 4 teaspoons of baking powder a lot? Is this correct? And where do you add the salt that’s listed?
I’ve made this recipe as written for years and they’ve always turned out perfectly, but I think you could probably reduce the baking powder to 3 teaspoons without a problem if you like. If you have concerns about tasting the baking powder, be sure to use aluminum-free. I’ve never had that problem with this recipe though!
There is salt listed in the recipe, but no where does it say to add it. I put it with the dry ingredients. Hope that was correct.
Yes, you did that correctly! Correction made, thanks for pointing it out 🙂
I made these yesterday using a well drained 15 oz. can of sweet cherries mixed with a bit of flour and 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. I also added a teaspoon of coconut flavoring to the batter and substituted sour cream for the yogurt. (It’s what I had on hand.) I added the flour and pecans because after I’d drained them, I had only about a cup of soft, wet cherries. The flour helped to keep them from bleeding into the batter, and the pecans added a bit of filler and made them even yummier. The recipe made 7 delicious jumbo muffins. Very pretty with the streusel topping and a few pieces of pecans pressed into the tops. Well worth the time and effort that went into making them. Thank you for sharing.
Those sound incredible!! So glad you were able to make them work with what you had! Thank you so much for sharing your modifications 🙂
Hello! Made these tonight after picking tart cherries from our tree. This year we got to them before the birds did! Muffins are delicious! Will make these again! Thank you!
I’m so happy to hear that! And so jealous of that tree!!