Plum Almond Muffins

These simple Plum Almond Muffins are perfect for summer! Featuring juicy bites of fresh plum and a nutty almond-infused batter, they're crowned with a buttery and crunchy almond streusel.

(This recipe was originally published in September 2018, but was updated with new photos and content in 2022).

Although I enjoy berries very much, stone fruits are my favorite summer fruits. I feel like plums don't always get the respect they deserve. They're often overshadowed by fuzzy peaches, juicy nectarines, and even petite apricots, but plums rank pretty high on my personal list.

These particular muffins are studded with sweet ruby-red morsels of plum, and are peppered with sliced almonds both within the batter and on top. The almond flavor is just as prominent as that of the plums, making this a really well balanced breakfast treat.

These plum muffins have a bit of crunch from the sliced almonds, a bit of juiciness from the plum pieces, and a nice finish of buttery streusel topping. If you love the ease of baking homemade muffins but want to step outside of your usual muffin box, try this delicious recipe for plum almond muffins!

Ingredient notes

• Sliced Almonds: When you toast the sliced almonds for the batter, some of the skins may loosen. If they fall off the almonds, pick through and discard any pieces of almond skin before stirring them into your muffin batter.
• Plums: Plums come in many different varieties, and range in colors from their skin to their flesh, from gold to ruby-red. Any fresh plums would work for these, although a darker variety would have a nicer color contrast inside the muffins.

How to make it

First, make the almond streusel topping. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, pulse cold cubed butter, flour, and brown sugar in 1-second intervals until the butter is cut into pea-size pieces. Alternatively, combine the butter, flour, and brown sugar in a bowl and rub between your fingers to break up the butter into pea-size pieces (PHOTOS 1-2).

Stir in sliced almonds, then refrigerate until ready to use to keep the butter cold.

Next, make the plum almond muffin batter. In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter and eggs until smooth. Add milk, almond extract, and vanilla extract and whisk to combine.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Then, stir in toasted sliced almonds.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and use a rubber spatula to carefully fold together until almost combined.

With the rubber spatula, gently fold chopped plums into the batter (PHOTOS 3-4).

Divide the batter equally among the cups of a standard muffin pan or jumbo muffin pan lined with paper liners or greased.

Mound each cup with an equal amount of the almond streusel.

Bake until the tops are golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before removing plum almond muffins from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe (in a printable recipe card) including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions.

Expert tips

Muffins are incredibly simple to make, even for a hesitant baker. The key is to avoid over-mixing the batter, and voila: perfect muffins every time!

Because the fruit can be so juicy, I think these muffins are generally best the day they are made, although you can store them in an airtight container for a few days.

You can easily make standard size or jumbo muffins with this recipe. The photos in this post are of standard muffins, but I have also made this recipe into jumbo muffins and they are absolutely delicious. I do think that the jumbo muffins hold their structure a bit better with the juicy plums, but either size will work well.

Other recipes you may like

• Bouchon Bakery Blueberry Muffins
• Bouchon Bakery Banana Muffins
• Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins
• Sarabeth's Pumpkin Muffins
• Gingerbread Muffins
• Bouchon Bakery Corn Muffins

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