Plum Muffins with Almond Streusel
Delicious muffins made with fresh plums and an almond streusel topping. Full of flavor and a great option for busy mornings or afternoons with coffee or tea. Recipe makes 1 dozen and is vegetarian (contains dairy and egg).
If you love muffins with fruit, you’ll love this recipe! It features fresh plums in a brown sugar and cinnamon muffin batter topped off with an almond streusel. The muffins have a fluffy texture and a sweet-tart bite thanks to the plums.
Ingredients for Streusel Topping:
- all purpose flour
- brown sugar
- cinnamon
- salt
- unsalted butter (or half butter and half shortening)
- slivered or sliced almonds
How to Make Almond Streusel:
Add dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk them together.
Rub in the butter until mixture form pea-sized clumps. Doing this by hand is easy and efficient, but using two forks works well, too. Do not cream the mixture (you’ll want some chunks of butter in the topping).
Making the streusel topping ahead of mixing the muffins ensures they’ll be baked right away. You can store it in the fridge while making the muffins, or leave it on the counter in a cool spot for the short time.
Can Streusel Topping Be Made Ahead?
Yes! Streusel topping can be made ahead of time, and frozen for up to 3 months. Use to top muffins or other desserts from frozen, breaking up any large clumps as you top.
Ingredients for Muffins:
- all purpose flour
- cane sugar
- brown sugar
- baking powder
- cinnamon
- fine salt
- unsalted butter – take the butter out about 30 to 45 minutes before you want to bake the muffins
- 1 egg – I usually take the egg out with the butter
- milk – I use whole milk but low-fat milk will work, too
- vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/4 cups chopped plums = about 2 medium plums. I used black plums but any plums will be great.
- You’ll want to leave the skins on as they’ll provide color, flavor, and help keep the chopped pieces together once baked.
- Use ripe but mostly firm plums for best results (chopped pieces should retain most of their shape when mixed)
Process:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a muffin tray with paper liners (or thoroughly grease the tins).
Whisk together all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (slightly larger than grits). Using a pastry or dough cutter is the easiest, but two forks also works. We don’t want to melt the butter, but fully incorporate it into the flour mixture. This process takes about a minute so there won’t be any chunks of butter.
Stir in the wet ingredients until a thick muffin batter forms. Beating the egg before adding it to the batter ensures we don’t overmix everything.
Add in the chopped plums and fold in gently with a rubber spatula. Optional: toss plums with 1 extra Tablespoon of flour to keep them from sinking. This is a thick batter and the pieces should not really sink but I always do this when I bake muffins with fruit.
Spoon the batter into the muffin pan.
Top each muffin with streusel topping. Try to concentrate the topping more in the middle, since the muffins will rise and it will spread out. Some of the topping will ‘melt’ into the top of the muffin, helping create a crust on the top.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges and tops spring back when pressed.
Let cool a couple minutes in the muffin tin, then remove to a cooling rack.
Substitutions:
Out of Plums? Use peaches or apricots instead, or pears or soft apples would be great, too!
Make these dairy free: use oat milk or soy milk + vegan butter
Make these egg free: A) add 1/2 tsp xanthan gum in with the dry ingredients then puree 1/2 of an extra plum (to equal 1/4 cup) and stir it in with the wet ingredients or B) use commercial egg replacers or a flax egg
Plain muffins: while the streusel topping is delicious, the muffins are great on their own, too! Baking them as-is, or sprinkling with a little coarse sugar, makes this recipe slightly lower calorie.
Baking Tips:
Fold in the plums enough so they are well distributed throughout the batter but not so much that the batter turns purple (a few streaks of pink are good!)
Spoon the batter into the pan and do not shake to level (which would defeat the baking powder)
Bake right away (have the oven preheated so the muffins go right in).
Storing Muffins with Fresh Fruit:
These muffins can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Placing a clean paper towel in the bottom of the container can help keep them from becoming too soft or soggy. Muffins should be completely cooled before storage.
Muffins should not be refrigerated, as they would dry out too quickly. But they can be frozen!
To freeze plum muffins: let them cool completely, then wrap each muffin individually in parchment or wax paper. Place in a freezer bag or airtight container and store up to 3 months. Reheat in the microwave, or uncover and let thaw at room temperature.
Plum Muffins with Almond Streusel
Ingredients
Plum Muffins
- 1½ cups All-Purpose flour = 180 g
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar = 50 g
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed = 53 g
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder = 12 g
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon = 1.3 g
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt = 1.25 g
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature = 1 stick (4 ounces) or 115 g
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1/2 cup milk = 119 ml
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract = 2.5 ml
- 1¼ cups chopped plums = 2 to 3 medium plums
Almond Streusel Topping
- 2/3 cup All-purpose flour = 82 g
- 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed = 73 g
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon = 1.3 g
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt = 1.25 g
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into large pieces = 58 g
- 2 to 4 Tablespoons sliced almonds = 9 to 16 g
Instructions
Make the streusel topping:
- Add dry streusel ingredients (flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and almonds) to a medium bowl. Add in the pieces of butter and rub in by hand or with two forks, until mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs.
- Set streusel aside in the fridge while making the muffins.
Make the plum muffins:
- Preheat oven to 375° F and line a 12 cup muffin tray with paper liners or baking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
- Using a pastry cutter or 2 forks, cut in the 1/2 cup butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. This takes about 1 minutes to thoroughly add in the butter.
- Stir in the beaten egg, milk, and vanilla until incorporated and a thick batter forms.
- Using a rubber spatula, fold in the chopped plums until just mixed.
- Spoon batter into muffin trays, filling each 2/3 full. Top each with a generous portion of the streusel topping, concentrating on the center of the muffin top.
- Bake muffins for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown and tops spring back when pressed.
Storage:
- Store muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up 3 days. Or freeze, wrapped in parchment and/or wax paper, for up to 1 month.
Notes
- Substitute peaches or apricots for the plums.
- Almonds in the streusel are to taste. Walnuts, pecans, and pistachios are also great.
- Leftover streusel topping can be frozen for up to 3 months for another batch of muffins or another use (pie, coffee cake, etc). Simply place in a freezer bag and remove any air. Use from frozen, gently breaking mixture up while topping the dessert.
- To enjoy muffins after freezing: Let thaw at least 2 hours (or overnight) or reheat in the microwave in intervals of 15-20 seconds, until desired temperature.