Easy red currant muffins recipe (2024)

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

These red currant muffins are lovely light, cakey muffins full of tart little red currants, fresh from the market. This is the perfect recipe to throw together with any of the summer berries you can find. Bake it in a cake pan to cut and serve later, or in a muffin tin for summery breakfasts and snacks.

Easy red currant muffins recipe (1)

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Red currants are definitely more common in European countries than they are in North America. The season is short and currants hit the market stands in July. Currants are tart and can vary in colour: there are white currants, red currants, and even black currants (known as cassis in French).

You can add currants to jams (like this strawberry and red currant jam), muffins (like in the red currant muffin recipe below), and even cakes (like in this simple blackcurrant cake). If you'd like to see more ideas, read about baking with fresh currants.

Jump to:
  • What you need to make muffins with red currants
  • Are currants the same fruit as dried currants?
  • Making muffins with red currants
  • Crispy sugary muffin topping
  • Helpful tools to make muffins
  • Storage
  • How to defrost muffins
  • Other muffins fruit to try
  • 📖 Recipe

What you need to make muffins with red currants

The red currants season is short and will inevitably require a special trip to your local market to get your hands on some. But otherwise, you will need mostly pantry and fridge staples:

Easy red currant muffins recipe (2)
  • To make the muffins
    • butter, preferably unsalted though salted butter will also work. You will omit the salt in the muffin batter if you choose to bake with salted butter.
    • granulated sugar—brown sugar could work but choose light brown sugar to avoid overpowering the honey
    • large eggs, don't use smaller eggs because your batter may be too dry and the muffins won't be tender
    • milk is included with the wet ingredients to make sure these muffins are moist
    • vanilla extractis added to enhance the flavour in the batter—feel free to use store-bought or homemade vanilla extract!
    • all-purpose flour(or half all-purpose and half whole wheat flour) is needed to bind all the ingredients together and give the muffins more structure
    • baking powder andbaking sodaare needed here to improve the rise instead of justbaking powderalone, withoutbaking soda. Read up onbaking soda vs baking powderif you are unsure about the difference between them
    • saltis really important to bring out the sweet vanilla flavour which can get lost. Don't skip it. I like to use Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but table salt will work, though the muffins will be saltier and you may want to halve the salt in that case.
    • fresh red currants–stripped and separated from the stems and branches
  • To make the sugar topping
    • butter, preferably unsalted butter because you will add salt to the streusel, but if you have salted, it will work. Just adjust the salt in the recipe accordingly, otherwise, your topping may be too salty
    • granulated sugarthough brown sugar would also work here and would add to the molasses flavour
    • all-purpose flouror whole wheat flour will work in the streusel. It gives the streusel a little body so that the paste of butter and sugar doesn't melt all over the muffin tops
    • sliced almonds
Easy red currant muffins recipe (3)

Are currants the same fruit as dried currants?

Red currants (or white/black currants) are not the same as dried currants and if you dried a bunch of red currants, you would not have dried currants like what you buy in stores. Dried currants come from small grapes known as Corinthian grapes (raisins de Corinthe in French). And these tiny grapes are dried to form what is called dried currants, just like regular grapes are dried into raisins.

This recipe was adapted fromFine Cooking magazine, but I changed the mixing method significantly and I also added a crispy sugar topping. These are lovely light, cakey muffins full of tart little red currants, fresh from the market. This is the perfect recipe to throw together with any of the summer berries you can find. Bake it in a cake pan to cut and serve later, or in a muffin tin for summery breakfasts and snacks.

Easy red currant muffins recipe (4)

Making muffins with red currants

The mixing method I used for this muffin recipe is the reversed creaming method. All the dry ingredients and the sugar are whisked together, then the softened butter is worked into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles sand. At that point, you add the wet ingredients (which are already mixed together before adding them to the dry mixture).

I prefer this method over the muffin method or the two-bowl method for two reasons:

  1. I like to bake my muffins with butter, but incorporating the melted butter with the cold wet ingredients makes it clump and then it doesn't incorporate evenly into the muffin batter in the end.
  2. You could first incorporate wet and dry ingredients, then stir in the melted butter into the muffin batter, but for this, I find that adds too many steps and it can be hard to incorporate a liquid fat properly in an already mixed batter, which leads to more mixing, which isn't ideal!
  3. I don't want to use any small electric appliance for muffins, so the creaming method is out: muffins should be easy!

This is the easiest way I've found to bake muffins with butter and to incorporate the butter easily. This method works great! Try it!

Easy red currant muffins recipe (5)

Crispy sugary muffin topping

I've made these red currants plain, garnished with just sliced almonds before baking, and I've baked them with a streusel topping (made of butter, sugar, flour, and ground almonds). Another interesting topping is a crispy sugar topping made from roughly equal parts, by weight, of butter, sugar, and flour. This sugar paste is broken up into pieces and scattered over the muffin tops before baking.

In the oven, the sugar paste melts quickly, forming a crispy sweet coating on the muffin top that is super tasty, adding a good amount of crunch.

Easy red currant muffins recipe (6)

Since currants come in a variety of colours with varying levels of sweetness and tartness, you can bake these muffins with any fresh currants, interchangeably. But because fresh currants only grow in certain parts of the world, if you can't find currants at all, wild blueberries (or other blueberries) are a good substitute for currants, though a little sweeter and less tart than red currants. You could also try raspberries, but you should freeze the raspberries before folding them in because they are very delicate.

Easy red currant muffins recipe (7)

These red currant muffins are easy to make and I like to mix them by hand, which means you don't need a special electric mixer or a stand mixer. Still, there are a few tools that will make your muffin-baking sessions a little easier:

  1. Muffin pans: for regular muffins, you can't get away without a muffin pan. And if you can, please invest in two 6-cup muffin pans (like this Wilton pan onAmazon) or one bigger 12-cup muffin pan (like these Wilton pans onAmazon). This way you will be ready to make full batches of most recipes, which can yield anywhere from 8 to 12 muffins, depending on how much batter you scoop per cup.
  2. Paper liners, parchment liners, silicone liners: we can debate over which is better for muffins, but personally, I like disposable paper liners (like these onAmazonthat you would use for cupcakes too). For lower-fat muffins or muffins with less sugar, these can stick to paper liners. In this case, use parchment liners (Amazon) or silicone liners (Amazon).Savoury muffins, for example, work best baked in either of these.
  3. Large cookie scoops:Some call them "dishers" and they are the most reliable scoops I've found onAmazon. They can handle firm doughs without breaking because the release mechanism is separate from the handle! This gives you a better, firm grip on the handle, without the risk of breaking the leaver. The handles are different colours according to the size.
  4. Cake tester and/or instant-read thermometer: if you bake a lot, you can probably gently poke muffins with your fingertip and instinctively know when they are done baking. The rest of us have to use acake testerorthermometertocheck if the muffins are done baking.
Easy red currant muffins recipe (8)

Storage

You can store these muffins at room temperature, covered, for about 3 days. Otherwise, they will go stale.

For longer storage, I suggest freezing the muffins once they've cooled down completely to room temperature. They freeze really well! Freeze them in the muffin trays or on a sheet pan until frozen solid, then transfer them to a freezer bag to store for up to 2 months.

How to defrost muffins

If you want to defrost frozen muffins, you have a few options depending on how much time you have:

  • longest method—in the fridge overnight, unwrapped to avoid moisture buildup on the surface of the muffin tops
  • at room temperature, unwrapped to avoid moisture buildup on the surface of the muffin tops—this will take a few hours
  • fastest method—in the microwave oven: place the unwrapped muffin on a napkin or a microwave-safe plate. Microwave on HIGH for about 30 seconds for each muffin. The time and results will vary according to the power of your microwave.
Easy red currant muffins recipe (9)

Other muffins fruit to try

If you need more fruit muffin inspiration, try these honey blueberry muffins, rhubarb muffins, or these plum coffee cake muffins. And if it's not summer, my go-to recipe is for these date bran muffins, which is my all-time favourite muffin, even if it's not really cool.

  • Low sugar blueberry bran muffins
  • Strawberry rhubarb muffins with streusel
  • Hearty apple blackberry muffins
  • Plum muffins

📖 Recipe

Easy red currant muffins recipe (14)

Red Currant Muffins

AuthorAuthor : Janice Lawandi

Homemade red currant muffins made with fresh red currants. The berries are nice and tart, which makes a lovely flavor contrast to these sweet, buttery muffins. These muffins have a lovely light texture.

4.75 from 12 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Calories 323 kcal

Ingredients

Sugar paste

  • 42 grams unsalted butter
  • 50 grams granulated sugar
  • 40 grams bleached all-purpose flour

Red currant muffins

  • 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
  • 250 grams granulated sugar
  • 10 mL baking powder
  • 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
  • 115 grams unsalted butter room temperature, cut into rough chunks
  • 125 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat)
  • 2 large egg(s)
  • 5 mL pure vanilla extract
  • 250 grams red currants tossed in 1 tablespoon of flour to evenly coat the berries
  • 30 grams sliced almonds

Instructions

Sugar paste

  • In a small bowl, using a wooden spoon, combine the butter, sugar, and flour until it forms a thick paste. Set aside.

Red currant muffins

  • Preheat the oven to 375 °F (190 °C). Prepare two 6-cup muffin pans by lining each well with a paper liner. Set aside.

  • In a medium bowl, whisk together all the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

  • Add the butter to the bowl with the dry ingredients and work it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Set aside.

  • In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, and vanilla, then pour that mixture over the dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon just to combine.

  • Gently fold in the red currants.

  • Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups.

  • Top each muffin with sliced almonds and chunks of the sugar paste. Bake them for 25 to 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

  • Cool on a wire rack.

Notes

  • These are a lovely light, cake-y muffins full of tart little red currants, fresh from the market. This is the perfect recipe to throw together with any of the summer berries you can find. Bake it in a cake pan to cut and serve later, or in a muffin tin for summery breakfasts and snacks.

Nutrition

Calories: 323kcalCarbohydrates: 48gProtein: 5gFat: 13gSaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 56mgSodium: 99mgPotassium: 209mgFiber: 2gSugar: 27gVitamin A: 392IUVitamin C: 9mgCalcium: 72mgIron: 2mg

Give backIf you enjoy the free content on this website, buy me a pound of butter to say thanks!

Easy red currant muffins recipe (15)
Easy red currant muffins recipe (16)
Easy red currant muffins recipe (2024)

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Patricia Veum II

Last Updated:

Views: 6618

Rating: 4.3 / 5 (64 voted)

Reviews: 95% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Patricia Veum II

Birthday: 1994-12-16

Address: 2064 Little Summit, Goldieton, MS 97651-0862

Phone: +6873952696715

Job: Principal Officer

Hobby: Rafting, Cabaret, Candle making, Jigsaw puzzles, Inline skating, Magic, Graffiti

Introduction: My name is Patricia Veum II, I am a vast, combative, smiling, famous, inexpensive, zealous, sparkling person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.