Hearty oat muffins, studded with whole tart cherries and a hint of almond extract, these make the perfect and oh-so-delightful snack. These little beauties have climbed quickly to the top of my muffin list. Maybe because I’m kind of in love with tart cherries. I love the sour red beauties in Summer Fruit Pie, and Cherry Cheesecake Ice Cream, but about once a month or so, I pull a treasured bag from my freezer and make these lovelies…

I begin by pitting about 2 cups of tart cherries fresh or frozen work great. I try to take my time so that I don’t miss any pits, but I can’t say I’ve been 100% successful 100% of the time. :o) I wash them and set them aside to dry while I make the muffins.
Measure out 1-1/4 cup of milk and to it, add 1 1/2 c. rolled oats. Stir it in and let it soak for about 10 minutes.
Dry ingredients go in a bowl and mix ’em:
1-1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
Mix 2 eggs and
1/4 c. melted coconut oil into the milk/oat mixture.
Gently combine dry and wet ingredients and add in 1/2 tsp. almond extract.
As with all muffins and pancakes, don’t over-mix. Be gentle and just incorporate the ingredients. No need to beat the heck out of your lovely batter and make it tough.
Toss 1 T. of flour into the cherries (so they don’t sink down into the batter) and oh-so-gently fold the cherries into the batter.
Grease muffin tins well with coconut oil or butter or use paper baking cups and spoon the batter into each pan until about 2/3 full.
Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for around 20 minutes until golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes or so and then remove to a cooling rack.

You bite into these little guys and get a big, ol’ bite of sour cherry tucked inside a moist and flavorful richly textured muffin. I love when something is even better for me than it tastes. This qualifies.
Makes 15 muffins.

- 2 c. tart cherries
- 1¼ c. milk
- 1½ c. rolled oats
- 1-1/2 c. flour plus 1 T. for the cherries
- ½ c. sugar
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 3 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 eggs
- ¼ c. coconut oil
- ½ tsp. almond extract
- Cinnamon sugar
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Pit the cherries and set out to dry.
- Mix oats and milk and let soak for 10 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon.
- Add eggs. coconut oil, and almond extract into the milk/oat mixture and blend.
- Fold all ingredients together -- do not over-mix.
- Mix 1 T. flour with the cherries to coat.
- Gently fold cherries into the batter.
- Grease muffin tins and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
- Fill ⅔ full with batter and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
I haven’t tried the recipe yet, but I will. thanks for the reply 🙂
If you haven’t tried it yet, I would highly recommend getting some tart cherries from the freezer section and making the muffins with those! Soooo good! :o)
I have some dried tart cherries I would like to try to use in this recipe. But would I have to add some water to the cherries to kind of plump them up?
Hello, Elizabeth! I’m so sorry that I just got to answering your question. It was stuck with some spam comments and I just found yours. I think you could get away with dried cherries soaked or dry and still get some good cherry flavor! I hope you tried it without my answer and enjoyed them! If so, please let me know. Thanks so much for stopping by! :o)