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.
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.
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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:
- 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 extract is 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 and baking soda are needed here to improve the rise instead of just baking powder alone, without baking soda. Read up on baking soda vs baking powder if you are unsure about the difference between them
- salt is 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 sugar though brown sugar would also work here and would add to the molasses flavour
- all-purpose flour or 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
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 from Fine 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.
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:
- 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.
- 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!
- 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!
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.
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.
Helpful tools to make muffins
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:
- 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 on Amazon) or one bigger 12-cup muffin pan (like these Wilton pans on Amazon). 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.
- Paper liners, parchment liners, silicone liners: we can debate over which is better for muffins, but personally, I like disposable paper liners (like these on Amazon that 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.
- Large cookie scoops: Some call them "dishers" and they are the most reliable scoops I've found on Amazon. 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.
- 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 a cake tester or thermometer to check if the muffins are done baking.
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.
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.
📖 Recipe
Red currant muffins
Ingredients
Sugar paste
- 42 grams (3 tablespoon) unsalted butter
- 50 grams (¼ cup) granulated sugar
- 40 grams (⅓ cup) bleached all-purpose flour
Red currant muffins
- 250 grams (2 cups) bleached all-purpose flour
- 250 grams (1¼ cups) granulated sugar
- 10 mL (2 teaspoon) baking powder
- 2.5 mL (½ teaspoon) Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 115 grams (½ cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into rough chunks
- 125 mL (½ cup) whole milk (3.25 % fat)
- 2 large egg(s)
- 5 mL (1 teaspoon) pure vanilla extract
- 250 grams (1½ cups) red currants, tossed in 1 tablespoon of flour to evenly coat the berries
- 30 grams (¼ cup) 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. 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.
L says
Beautiful recipe. If only my currants shrubs will cooperate and produce copious amount of berries! My white currants shrub is definitely doing better than the red....
I also couldn't agree with you more regarding the Food Channel! I liked the old Iron Chef Japan for it's quirkiness and innovative use of ingredients. But enough of Chopped, Sweet Genius, Cake Boss or whatever. Bring back true cooking shows - Laura Calder, Michael Smith, Ming Tsai (remember East Meet West?), now only a handful showing on weekdays.
Janice Lawandi says
I loved Ming Tsai! I discovered sambal olek because of him. I even made my own with his recipe!
I have never had white currants before. I must try them 😉
Julies @ Redcurrant Cupcakes says
I couldnt agree more with you. Ming Tsai and yes I remember East meet West. Maybe your blueberry bushes need a little more fertilzer to help them along. Blueberries like a higher acid soil. For this reason, you should be using a high acid fertilizer, especially in an area where you have had to amend the soil in order to lower the pH enough to grow your blueberries. When looking for a high acid blueberry bush fertilizer, look for fertilizers that contain ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, or sulfur-coated urea. These tend to have a lower pH (higher acid). I hope this helps
Linnet Tay says
Thanks for posting this! I'm looking forward to try this out even although red currants are not readily available where I live and extremely expensive.
Janice Lawandi says
I'm sad for you that currants are so expensive in your area, but you can always substitute your favorite berries and it will still work 🙂
thosethingscalledwords says
I made these a few weeks ago (with a little less sugar and half wholemeal four) and they were really lovely. Thank you for posting this! My mum (who NEVER bakes) liked them so much that she wanted the recipe. I'm going to try making them again tonight with strawberries. - Emily
Janice Lawandi says
I'm so happy to hear that you enjoyed this muffin recipe! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
Terri Casey says
I bought red currants when they were in season and stuck them in the freezer hoping someday I'd find a use for them. Half have gone into this gorgeous recipe and the other half will make a sauce at Christmas! Amazing! Thanks for posting!
Sandy Foster says
Can I freeze these?
Janice says
Hi Sandy,
I honestly haven't tried freezing these muffins, so I can't say for sure. But I would think so, and perhaps gently defrosted in the fridge and warmed in the oven would work. If you do try and freeze them, please let me know how it goes!
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Julie @ Recurrent Cupcakes says
I love cupcakes and red currants so the addition of these two foods is like pure heaven. I have also made these cupcakes many times but i used muscovado sugar
Katherine says
Thanks very much for this recipe! I made these muffins last year when our currants were in season, and made them again this week with this past summer's currants pulled from the freezer. The muffins are absolutely delicious and they also freeze beautifully.
Lynne in MI says
These are great muffins. I use my pink currants and they are so pretty. Also works great with frozen currants, just bake a little longer.
RJ says
Nice recipe. I added a little cinnamon to the dry ingredients for a twist
Sarah says
These came put wonderfully. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Emily says
These turned out wonderfully! I used fresh currants from my garden and sprinkled them with icing sugar once they came out of the oven. They looked great and tasted even better! Thanks for the recipe!
Margot Brinn says
They were delicious; I give it 5 stars; I substituted honey -- and not much--I like my sweets not very sweet.
Anne says
Just a note from the UK
Redcurrants and gooseberries are most definitely not the same on this side of the pond.
Gooseberries are more often green (occasionally purple) and are the size of a grape but much tarter and require lots of sugar when cooking as the seeds add extra tannin dryness/tartness.
Just looking forward to using up our redcurrants with these muffins though.
Thanks
A
Carly says
I'm a farmer and homesteader in Canada and wanted to say the same thing, its not just in the UK. Gooseberries are a different fruit in the same family!
Jackie Mitchell says
We moved about a year and a half ago and discovered a young red currant bush in the back yard—I had no idea what to do with the berries! So this year I was ready with a few recipes and this one is our favorite by far. The sweet-tangy taste really does it for me, and my husband loves how tender and moist the cake is. Thank you so much! I feel like because of our new favorite muffins recipe I’ll always be eagerly awaiting currant season in our garden!
Lily says
These were absolutely delicious! I couldn't fault them at all. The perfect amount of sweetness to balance out the acidity of the currants. Both of my sons devoured them (and they're picky eaters). Thank you so much for the recipe, it's a winner!
Corinna says
Delicious! I didn't have sliced almonds, so I grated some roasted whole almonds and mixed them in along with some Almond flavouring.
WineeJ says
I was in an experimental mood, so I reduced the sugar to 1 cup, added 1 tablespoon of rosewater, and substituted 1/4 cup flour with almond meal. Absolutely delicious!! The flavour of rose with the tartness of the red currants did something magical I think!
Cate says
These are delicious! I would like to mention that we only added half the sugar and also didn’t use the sugar paste topping and they still tasted more like cupcakes than muffins!
Janice says
I'm so glad you like them! I do like a sweet cake-y muffin, especially with red currants which are quite sour, so you are right that there is room to cut the sugar here 😉
Carolyn says
These have become my favorite muffin! I live in Alaska and Red Currants and Blueberries are abundant in the fall, so I always have some in my freezer. These are amazing with either. Bonus that I don't need an electric mixer to make these so I don't wake my family up in the morning if I get up early to make them! Thank you for sharing!
tata4now says
Nice, cakey-type muffin. I was short on the currants, so added in 1/2c blueberries and mixed the almonds in with the fruit. I also did subbed in Splenda/sugar blend (2/3c) for the white sugar and just dusted the tops with coarse sugar. I think using a bit of almond flour would be nice (next time!). Thx for the yummy recipe!