You can’t go wrong with this easy muffin recipe with Greek yogurt; you can load it with any fruit you like.
Greek yogurt makes them healthier with the added protein. Yogurt also makes them super moist, soft, and fluffy. If you don’t have Greek yogurt, sour cream will work equally well. Either way, the muffins turn out moist and tasty. And don’t worry if you don’t like yogurt, you can’t even taste it in the muffins.
Can I Make Berry Cream Cheese Muffins With Frozen Berries?
Fresh berries are ideal. Especially when it comes to raspberries. Even fresh raspberries are hard to work with, It is best to use small, firm raspberries. If they are too soft, they will break apart and tint the batter.
But, when fresh berries are unavailable, out of season, or way too expensive, you can substitute frozen mixed berries, don’t need to thaw first. Here’s a tip on baking with frozen berries:
Roll Frozen berries lightly in a small amount of flour and add them to the batter.
You have to work quickly with frozen berries. Prepare everything: streusel topping, cream cheese filling, whisk muffin butter, line the pan and preheat the oven, then take the berries from the freezer, toss with the flour and gently fold them into the batter. Then immediately assemble the muffins and place them in the oven.
When folding frozen berries into the batter use a rubber spatula and stir just enough to incorporate them into the batter and stop stirring when you start seeing streaks of color.
Over-mixing with frozen berries will cause your muffins to be pink, blue, or slightly greenish.
How To Make Berry Cream Cheese Muffins
First, make the crumb topping. Stir together flour, sugar, and salt. Add melted butter and whisk with a fork until coarse crumbs form. Set aside.
To make the cream cheese filling, mix softened cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla just to combine.
To make the muffins in a large bowl stir together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg and granulated sugar until combined. Whisk in yogurt, oil, and vanilla extract (mixture should be pale and yellow). Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and whisk everything together well.
Using a rubber spatula, fold in about half of the blueberries, stir well, and finally add half of the raspberries. but stir gently or you will tint the batter in pink. Reserve remaining berries to top the muffins.
To assemble the muffins, add about 1 ½ Tablespoons of muffin mixture in each cup. Spread the batter to make a dent in the center and drop 1 not quite full Tablespoon of cream cheese mixture in the center of each muffin. Add a few berries on top, filling each cup about 2/3 to ¾ full.
Generously top each muffin with streusel crumbs. Add a few blueberries and raspberry chunks on top, and gently press the crumbs to stick to the muffin batter.
Place in preheated oven and REDUCE THE TEMPERATURE TO 350 F. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and the center has set.
Cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan, then transfer the muffins onto a rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile, prepare the glaze. Stir powdered sugar with milk or cream. Start with 1 teaspoon of the liquid and gradually add more until desired consistency is reached. Drizzle over muffins and serve.
Store on a counter up to a day, then pack in an air-tight container and place in the fridge.
