Dark Chocolate & Cherry Brown Butter Streusel Muffins

I’m not a huge muffin gal but every once in a while I get an itch for both making muffins and eating them. They’re low effort, high reward. So easy to make but my goodness they’re delicious. I like to think of these as my grown up muffins. The batter is buttery and light but it’s packed full of indulgent dark chocolate and juicy rich cherries. I’ve browned the butter in the streusel to add in some nutty caramel flavour and it makes for a really great muffin.

Ingredients - makes 12 muffins (adapted from JulieMarieEats)
200g unsalted butter, melted
100g caster sugar
100g soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
100g sour cream
180g milk
320g plain flour (plus 1tbsp for cherries)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
200g fresh cherries, halved & de-stoned (150g once de-stoned)
100g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped

Brown Butter Streusel:
100g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
20g caster sugar
20g soft light brown sugar
50g unsalted butter

Method
Line two 12 hole muffin tins with 12 muffin cases, one in every-other hole. This will allow the muffins to bake evenly. If you only have one muffin tin, that’s fine! You can do them in two batches or just do all 12 together if you’re not too fussed.

For the muffin batter, place both the sugars into a mixing bowl. Pour in the melted butter and whisk together to combine. Add in the eggs and mix. Next, add in the sour cream and milk before whisking again. Sieve the plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the bowl and fold together with a spatula until the batter is nearly completely combined. In a separate bowl, toss the halved cherries with a tbsp of flour and add into the muffin batter along with the chopped chocolate. Fold the batter together until everything is evenly distributed. It’s ok if the batter is slightly lumpy, you don’t want to overmix it. Cover and rest the batter at room temperature for 1 hour.

While the batter rests, you can make the streusel. Mix all of the ingredients, apart from the butter, together in a bowl. Place the butter into a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook the butter, swirling the pan occasionally, until it is browned, foamy and smells nutty. Remove from the heat and leave to one side for a few minutes to cool slightly. Pour the butter into the dry ingredients and mix until you have a sandy texture.

Once your muffin batter has rested, heat your oven to 220ºC. Split the muffin batter evenly between the 12 muffin cases, trying not to mix/deflate the batter too much. Sprinkle the streusel over the top of each muffin. Bake for 7 minutes before turning the oven down to 175ºC and baking for a further 12-15 minutes. I like to rotate my trays in the last 5-10 minutes to ensure even baking. They should be puffed, golden and a skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the muffins from the tin and leaving to cool completely on a cooling rack.

These are best eaten the day they’re made but they last very well for up to 3 days in a sealed container at room temperature.