There are 10lbs of fresh, pitted cherries in my freezer right now – they probably won’t still be there when that cherry margarita craving hits in November, but I do plan to stretch cherry season out as long as I can this year!
We’ve managed to work cherries into dinner, dessert, and most importantly: margaritas. What’s missing from that list?
Breakfast.
And pizza. One thing at at time, though.
I took my very favorite stripped-down basic muffin recipe – it’s moist, reliable, and bakes up a beautifully domed top every single time – and converted it to a dark, chocolatey muffin loaded with fresh cherries chunks and chocolate chunks.
And it was sweet, rich, and decadent. Exactly like dessert-for-breakfast should be.
Cherry Chocolate Chunk Muffins
A moist dark chocolate muffin studded with chocolate chunks (or chips) and fresh cherries.
Ingredients
- Baking spray or paper liners
- 2 2/3 cups + 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used dutch process but Hershey Special Dark cocoa works great)
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cubed and softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt
- 1 cup chopped pitted cherries (about 1/2 lb)
- 1 cup chocolate chunks/chips (about 6 oz by weight)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray or line with paper liners.
- Mix 2 2/3 cups flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt in medium bowl; set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition followed by the vanilla extract.
- Beat in half of dry ingredients, followed by a third of the yogurt.
- Add remaining dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with the yogurt, until incorporated.
- Toss cherries and chopped chocolate with the remaining 1 Tbsp flour and add to the mixer, mixing for just a few more seconds to distribute evenly (the batter will be very, very thick).
- Divide the batter evenly among cups, using a large cookie scoop (my scoop is ~2.25 inches across).
- Bake for 8 minutes and then decrease oven temperature to 375 and bake for ~8-10 more minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached (you might get melted chocolate but that's fine).
- Let cool 5 minutes in the pan before removing and cooling completely.
- Will keep ~3 days in a covered cake plate, can be frozen in zip-top freezer bags.
Notes
Yields: ~18 muffins
Estimated time: 45 minutes
Brilliant idea to freeze the cherries. I need to grab a few extra bags and get on that while the season is still at peak! 🙂 These muffins sound incredibly perfect. I just wish I had a few waiting for me on the counter.
I am with Rachel – freezing cherries sounds great! I love your chocolate version of the muffins. Makes for a beautiful breakfast!
Dessert for breakfast is quite possibly the best thing ever 🙂 Love your blog!
If this is the awesomeness you give us for breakfast, I can’t wait to see how you put cherries in pizza! But seriously, these are amazing.
gahh your photos are always SO PRETTTY! <3
Looks absolutely awesome! I reckon I could eat a whole trayful of them in one sitting.
I seriously need to try these!
These look so good! Cherries and chocolate are my favorite combination! What a fantastic idea to freeze the cherries. Love it!
Wow, these look so chocolatey! I love chocolate and cherries together, it always seems quite luxurious somehow! Yum.
Oh, I’ll definitely be making these! I’m hoping sour cream will work in place of the yogurt…?
I am loving your photos so much, thank you for the constant inspiration!
I was also wondering if sour cream or regular (not Greek) yogurt would work as well. Has anyone tried that?
These are delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Simon