A soft and fluffy muffin loaded with fresh, juicy cherries and mini chocolate chips.
Cherries are in season right now and I always like to enjoy fruits when they are at their best. I bought a huge bag of these gorgeous, sweet, and juicy cherries on sale from my local grocery store. But, since I couldn’t eat them all, I decided to do some baking with them.
I was originally thinking of a double chocolate muffin, but I was concerned that the bold flavor of the cocoa powder would dominate the cherry flavor and I wanted the fresh cherries to be the star of the show. So, I decided to go with a light and delicate sour cream muffin. The soft, fluffy texture and rich flavor from the sour cream, mixed with some vanilla extract, complimented the delicious cherries nicely. I do love chocolate and cherries together, so I added some mini chocolate chips which paired the flavors nicely without having the chocolate flavor dominating. You can use regular size chips too, but I prefer the minis since they disperse more evenly throughout the batter and you get some chocolate in every bite.
This recipe is so rich and buttery tasting, you won’t believe that it only uses 4 tablespoons of butter and 1/2 cup of sugar. It’s all thanks to the low fat sour cream I use. This means you can love what you’re eating without feeling guilty, and trust me, you’re going to love these muffins. They are my new favorite. I ate 4 the first day, and between my husband and I, all 12 muffins were finished in 3 days. I love how light, moist, and airy these muffins are and my husband loved the combination of cherries and chocolate chips. I had to make another batch as soon as the last one was eaten (don’t judge me until you try these for yourself).
This recipe is also super easy to make. There’s no mixer required, just 2 bowls, a whisk and a spatula, so clean up is a breeze. The muffins are baked at an initial high temperature of 425 degrees to create that nice high dome on top. Nothing beats a perfectly golden crispy muffin top, right?
So, next time you’re at the grocery store, grab a bag of cherries and whip up a batch of these delicious muffins. You’re going to thank me when you take your first bite. 🙂
Recipe adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction
PrintCherry Chocolate Chip Muffins
A soft and fluffy muffin loaded with fresh, juicy cherries and mini chocolate chips.
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 25 min
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12
- Category: breakfast, snack
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 4 tbsp melted unsalted butter
- 1 & 1/4 cups low-fat sour cream
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup fresh cherries, diced small (you can also use frozen)
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F and spray a 12 cup muffin tray with a non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar and honey. Whisk in the melted butter, blend well. Then mix in the sour cream and vanilla.
- Toss the cherries and chocolate chips in the dry ingredients. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. Gently fold together until JUST combined.
- Divide the batter into the 12 muffin cups and bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then turn the oven heat down to 350°F and bake for another 20 minutes or until golden around the edges. Enjoy warm.
Notes
Muffins are best enjoyed the day of, but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Keywords: cherry chocolate chip muffin recipe, cherry muffin recipe, low-fat fruit muffin recipe
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The only thing I changed in this recipe was that I used dried Cherries and added a little bit of milk because the batter was way too thickProbably because I didn’t have quite enough sour cream so the extra milk helped.Also I thought maybe there should be more moisture because of the dried cherries so they would plump up and be juicy and that’s exactly how it turned out. Thank you so much for your recipe your pictures are excellent.
★★★★★
You’re very welcome, Deborah. Thank you for your feedback and 5-star review – much appreciated!
I love these muffins so much! They melt in your mouth are super easy to bite into. Thank you for sharing this lovely recipe!
★★★★★
don’t have sour cream anything I can substitute it with …. love your recipes😘😘
★★★★★
Hi Arundhati,
You can substitute it 1:1 with yogurt. Enjoy and have a great day!
Low fat yogurt or whole milk will do ??
Low fat yogurt is better. The milk will make the batter too thin.
I’m not sure what went wrong.? My muffins
Taste flat. I used the all purpose flour, baking powder
And salt along with the unsalted butter.
My muffins are heavy, dense and flavorless.
I want to try again, so please help me.
Hi Missy,
I’m sorry to hear that the muffins didn’t turn out the way you wanted them to. It’s hard for me to figure out what went wrong since I wasn’t there. My guess would be perhaps your vanilla and/or baking powder wasn’t fresh therefore it didn’t give it the flavor and lift it was suppose to??? Please feel free to email me back with any further questions you may have. I hope you get better results the next time around:)
Do you think this could be done as a bread? And maybe with frozen cherries as it’s winter now and cherries aren’t in season 🙁
Hi Ellen, you can certainly use frozen cherries, gently fold in the frozen cherries at the end and bake for a few more minutes. As for making this into a sweet bread, I’m not sure as I have never done so. Enjoy and happy holidays 🙂
Delicious! Your pictures are amazing 😀
Thank you and nice to meet you:)
You’re welcome! Nice to meet you too 🙂
I’m in love with the pockets of cherry in the muffin batter. Mouthwatering!
Lovely cherry muffins. I have cherries and I have chocolate chips. I will definitely try them:) thanks for sharing Lily.
you are welcome and nice to meet you:)
I’m so glad you used fresh cherries in these! My Mum loves cherries so when they are in season again you can bet I will be whipping up a batch of these for her! Thanks Lily 🙂
Cherries are exceptionally good this year, so enjoy them while they are at their best, thanks for stopping by:)
This looks absolutely delicious! Yumm
Thanks and nice meeting you:)
These look terrific! What a great combination! 🙂
Thank you and nice meeting you:)
same here! I am so thankful to FF and Angie for giving me the opportunity to meet so many new folks! 🙂
Lily, your Muffins are beautiful 🙂
Thank you for the compliment:)
Wow Lily, these look simply stunning! And what beautiful photos!! You know, they remind me of one of my favorite desserts, black forest cake, it’s usually made with cherry jam and chocolate too! Thanks for brining this to the Fiesta, I am sure it was a hit! Hope you enjoyed it too! hugs, Sylvia
Thanks Sylvia, always nice chatting with you X
i love chocolate and cherry. yum!
Thank you and nice to meet you:)
These look brilliant Lily! Cherris and chocolate, lovely! And love your photos 🙂
Thanks, enjoy the rest of your weekend:)
What a wonderful combo idea! I love those cherries and with the mini chocolate bits…. you can’t go wrong! I also use that 425 degree higher oven tip in the beginning to yield a higher muffin. It works! Great recipe! 🙂
Thanks, I learned that trick from the great Sally@Sally’s Baking Addiction. She’s awesome, one of my favorite blogs.
These look so yummy, I love chocolate and cherry together, its one of my favourite combinations. Have a great weekend x
you too Michelle x
They look delicious and so pretty!
Thanks and nice chatting:)