Sour Cream and Cherry Muffins
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On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…sour cream and cherry muffins!

Specifically, vegan sour cream muffins with dried cherries and an oatmeal crumble topping. Not a bad way to celebrate the end of a long week, nor to welcome the Christmas season officially. These muffins are delicious, and easy, but they’re also a wonderful idea for edible giving and festive brunch entertaining. Best of all, they’re 100% vegan, and they’re full of healthy little twists on traditional muffin recipes, including the fact that I made them with spelt flour and cashew cream in place of dairy.

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Sour Cream and Cherry Muffins

Author – Gena Hamshaw
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 22 minutes
Total Time: 32 minutes
Yields: 12 muffins

Ingredients

For the streusel topping:

  • 6 tablespoons unbleached, all-purpose flour (45g)
  • 1/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar (65g)
  • 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • Pinch salt
  • 2 tablespoons melted vegan butter

For the muffins:

Instructions

Preheat the oven

  • Preheat the oven to 350F and line or lightly oil a muffin pan.

Prepare the streusel topping

  • In a medium large mixing bowl, prepare the streusel topping. Stir together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the melted butter. Use two forks to gently mix the butter into the flour mixture, forming pea sized crumbs and some smaller crumbs. Your aim is for there to be no remaining dry flour and for the mixture to be mostly pea-sized crumbs, mixed with some smaller and a few larger crumbs. Pop the crumble topping into the fridge while you prepare the cake batter.

Prepare the muffin batter

  • Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
  • Add the sour cream or yogurt, vegan buttermilk, avocado oil, and cane sugar to a medium sized bowl. Whisk the wet ingredients together until they're mixed.
  • Make a well in the flour mixture. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Use a spatula or spoon to mix these ingredients well, until no dry streaks of flour remain. A few small lumps are OK. Gently fold in the chopped cherries.

Bake

  • Fill the prepared muffin pan with the batter; each muffin well should be about 2/3-3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle the topping evenly over muffins.
  • Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the muffins are domed and set and the streusel is turning golden brown. Allow the muffins to cool for 15 minutes, then transfer them from the muffin tin to a cooling rack. Allow them to cool for at least another 20 minutes before enjoying.

These muffins are so, so moist and delicious! I love how the cherries add tartness while also adding sweetness—it’s a nice alternative to the more commonplace dried cranberries. I can’t recommend these enough as a holiday treat—or a treat for any time of the year! Whether for a sweeter breakfast or as a mild dessert, these muffins are a joy.

Does any holiday cooking lie ahead for you this weekend? I’d love to hear about it. In the meantime, happy Friday.

xo

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Categories: Recipes, Breakfast, Muffins & Scones
Dietary Preferences: Soy Free, Tree Nut Free, Vegan

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    24 Comments
  1. I made these this weekend – 2 thumbs up! I brought some into work for my non-vegan friends and they were a big hit.

    On a side note, I just made a batch of banana soft serve for the first time and my life is forever changed.

    Love your website! 🙂

  2. These were delicious and my house smelled amazing as they were baking! i was trying to use up stuff in the pantry, so substituted canned cherries, and unsweetened soy yogurt for the sour cream… they turned out great!! i was really excited to try out spelt – it was easier on my stomach than typical flour. Love that crumb topping, too.

  3. hahaha ‘digests as a vegetable’?
    Anyway, these look gorgeous. Love anything with dried cherries, so thanks for the recipe!

  4. The magical properties of tofu strike again! I always find my muffins to be a little on the dry side two or three days post baking, but I’m sure with these, that won’t be an issue.
    Incidentally, Gena, I thought you might be interested that current evidence suggests that the ancient wheat strain such as einkorn, spelt and kamut are, in fact, unsuitable for those with a clinically confirmed wheat allergy- recommendations are to avoid in order to prevent IgE mediated anaphylaxis-

    ‘Are kamut and spelt safe alternatives to wheat?
    No. Kamut is a cereal grain which is related to wheat. Spelt is an ancient wheat that has recently been marketed as safe for wheat-allergic individuals. This claim is untrue, however. Wheat-allergic patients can react to spelt as they do to common wheat.’ (Source: The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network).

    (This isn’t any sort of criticism directed towards you- I say this as a fellow Med student knowing that the amount of information currently out there is boggling and last thing any of us would do is tell others something that might cause them trouble!)

  5. I just made these and scoffed 2 out of the oven. SO nice!!! Agree with Gena, the cherries definitely give them something that you wouldn’t get with cranberries.

  6. These look amazing! By the way, I’m interested in making a few flavors of kale chips this weekend. I’ve made the tomato tahini (amazing!) and will probably try the spicy curry ones this weekend. Do you have any others on the site you recommend? Thanks so much!!

  7. Delicious! Gena this look sooo good. I am not a huge fan of cherries but I do like them in baked goods. So these muffins would be perfect! I hope to do some baking this weekend 🙂

  8. These sounds delicious! Definitely giving them a try 🙂

    On the subject of baking, I made my baked chocolate ‘cheese’cake for my work mates this week. They definitely didn’t seem to care that it was completely animal product free, and came back for more! Hurrah for baketivism 😉

  9. Ah these sound delicious! And I currently have an entire packet of dried cherries just waiting to be used up. I fully intend to pick up some spelt flour today and make these ASAP. Thanks for the recipe Gena, every baked good of yours that I’ve tried has always turned out wonderfully.

  10. I was going to bake brownies for a party this weekend, but I think I’m going to be up late painting instead. These muffins look fabulous though! I love anything to do with cherries, or muffins.

  11. Any suggestions for a “sour” cream if one cannot eat soy? These look delicious and I would love to make them.

  12. Ahhh! This recipe is awesome for Australians because cherries are in season here and cherries are totally the Xmas thing here. Having a bowl of cherries at your family barbie while enjoying the sunshine is so Australian. I am so making these! I even have a big bag of cherries in the fridge – perfect!

    • I just made this and I LOVE them!!! I made mine into a cake and baked for an extra 15 minutes at the same temperature. I used 1.75 cups whole wheat flour and .25 cups plain flour. I also used fresh cherries and used probably about 1.75 cups instead of just 1 because I wanted my cake to be overflowing with fresh cherries! I highly recommend saving this recipe for summer because the fresh cherries are awesome in it. I would even add more cherries next time, maybe 2 cups. And I would add walnuts next time too, so that there’s more going on in it. I was cringing as I was making this, because agave nectar is so expensive here in Australia and the recipe calls for a lot – but it is so worth it! Yummy, thank you for the recipe!

  13. These sound great. I’ve been totally obsessed with dried cherries lately… eating them in my oatmeal every morning and enjoying a handful in the afternoon when my blood sugar takes a dive while studying. I will definitely have to try out this recipe. Thanks!

  14. I just did some holiday baking..hours before an international flight. I HAD to break in my new mini donut pan 🙂

    These muffins look great. My mom and grandma always taught me to “use up” that little bit of sour cream left in the container in baked goods if you have it on hand b/c it makes things moister without imparting tons of flavor (or any) generally.

    Your homemade tofu sour cream idea is fabulous. Good tip!

  15. Anything with dried cherries is bound to be good. They are one of my favorite foods!

  16. I don’t have any cooking this weekend, unfortunately, just preparing for final exams…boo! Well, I guess working at a vegan restaurant tomorrow sort of counts even if I don’t actually make any of the stuff, I still like to nibble it!