Before we delve deep into fall flavors, pluots are one of my favorite start-of-the-fall fruits. They are a hybrid between a plum and an apricot, where it has the pretty purple-dark pink hues and juicyness of a plum and the slight tang from apricots.
Pluots come in various varieties, and you have the green pluots as well, that are quite tart than its purple counterpart.
Pluot Streusel Muffins
My Pluot Streusel Muffins were made out of necessity. My kids started high school in August. They leave the house before 7am and apart from making their lunches every day, making breakfast early in the morning is really a chore.
To ease the burden of making multiple meals in the early morning, muffins were a clear cut answer to a grab-and-go kind of a breakfast option.
There will be some weekends when I have some extra time on Sundays to make elaborate breakfast burritos, and freeze them. Other weekends, muffins are the perfect answer.
Ease of making muffins
Muffins are small enough to pick up and back in a ziplock bag and munch on the way to school.
What I love about them is that they are flexible and you can make it healthier by substituting butter with avocado oil for instance, or sour cream with Greek yogurt. I love adding fruit to mine, and the streusel on the top is a must for that extra crunchy layer, which makes for a great sensory experience.
Muffins are easy to make, and these do not even require a stand mixer. They are also easy to overbake such that they are not moist or soft inside.
Ingredients for the Pluot Streusel Muffins
The ingredients for the Pluot Streusel Muffins are:
Streusel
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- All purpose flour
- Slivered almonds
- Table salt
Muffins
- All purpose flour
- Almond flour
- Leavening agents like: baking powder and baking soda
- Table salt
- Spices like cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Buttermilk
- Pluot pieces
Pluot Icing
- Powdered sugar
- Pluot juice
How to make the Pluot Streusel Muffins?
The Pluot Streusel Muffins start with mixing the dry ingredients together. I add almond flour along with the all purpose flour for that added nutty texture to the muffins, which makes them absolutely delicious.
Spices like ground cardamom, cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg, bring out that fallish warm cozy feeling in these muffins.
The wet mixture starts off with mixing the melted butter, along with granulated and brown sugar, where brown sugar gives a lovely caramely flavor to the muffins. Leavening agents like baking soda and baking powder react with the buttermilk to create that soft and moist interior texture.
Do not overmix the batter else the muffins will turn out tough. Pluot pieces are added to the batter. The batter is scooped using an ice cream scoop into muffin liners in a muffin pan.
I typically add liners in alternate cavities, so that the muffins get the right amount of heat to bake evenly. I top the batter with a streusel consisting of basic ingredients like softened butter, all purpose flour, sugar, and slivered almonds.
I love the almonds in the streusel, it adds a lovely crunch and flavor, tying the flavors of the almond flour in the batter as well.
TIP for a GOOD muffin top!
The muffins are baked at a high temperature of 425 degrees, just for a few minutes, for a rapid rise to get a dome shape. The temperature is then reduced to 375 degrees so that the muffin bakes evenly from the inside.
Be sure to turn the muffin pan halfway through such that the muffins bake evenly. I bake them until the muffin tops and the streusel are a nice golden brown in color. Remove them from the oven and cool completely. Bake off the remaining muffins.
These muffins need a bit of that pretty Barbie pink icing. The pink icing is naturally from pluot juice. I make the pluot juice by blending pieces of a pluot minus the seed ofcourse, in a high speed blender.
Then strain the pulp to extract the juice, and use it to mix with powdered icing. The icing should be of a heavy cream or buttermilk consistency, that can be drizzled easily but yet it sticks and stays on the muffin top. The little drips around the side of the muffin looks attractive and addictive.
Enjoy these muffins on the go or with a cup of coffee or tea in the morning. They last for about 5 to 6 days in an airtight container, and do not need to be refrigerated.
What is the best way to store these muffins?
The muffins last for about 5 to 6 days in an airtight container, and do not need to be refrigerated.
Is the streusel necessary?
The streusel is not necessary but it truly takes a muffin from a good muffin to a fantastic one!
What kind of liners do you use for muffins?
For the bakery style look, I get these liners from Amazon.
Other fall fruit recipes on my blog are:
- Fig, Star Anise and Pistachio Loaf Cake
- Plum and Fennel Pistachio Frangipane Galette
- Masala Chai Apple Fritters
- Chai Masala Apple Streusel Cake
If you make these muffins, please tag #thejamlab on Instagram and/or leave a comment on this blog post!
XO
Amisha
- First published for S.F.Chronicle on 9/26/2025*
Pluot Streusel Muffins
Ingredients
Streusel
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- Pinch of table salt
Muffins
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- A pinch of nutmeg
- 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 heaped cup pluot pieces, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
Pluot Icing
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2–3 tablespoons pluot juice
Get Recipe Ingredients
Method
Streusel
- Add all the ingredients into a medium bowl and mix with your hands until it forms crumble pieces, about 3 to 4 minutes. When you hold the mixture in your hand and close your fist, the mixture should hold it’s shape. Set the bowl aside.
Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, add the all purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg and whisk to combine.
- In a large bowl, add the butter, granulated sugar and light brown sugar and using a rubber spatula, mix until well combined and the sugar has melded with the butter.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
- Add the buttermilk and mix until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and using a rubber spatula, mix until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Add the pluot pieces and mix until just combined.
- In a 12-muffin pan, spray the entire pan with cooking spray.
- Add muffin liners in alternate cavities.
- Using an ice cream scooper or ½ cup scooper, scoop the batter generously into the muffin liners until a little shy of the top of the liner.
- Top with about 2 tablespoons of the streusel.
- Bake the muffins for 5 to 7 minutes, and reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and bake for another 18 to 20 minutes for a total of 25 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown in color. Be sure to turn the muffin pan around for even browning on all the muffins.
- Remove and cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Remove the muffins from the pan, and set them aside to cool.
- Repeat the process of lining the muffin pan with muffin liners, pouring the batter into the liners, topping with the streusel and baking again, until all the batter is used up.
- Cool completely.
Pluot Icing
- In a small bowl, mix the powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of the pluot juice until well combined. The mixture should be flowing with a consistency like buttermilk. If the mixture is too thick, add another tablespoon of the juice and mix again.
Assembly
- Drizzle about 2 teaspoons of the icing over each muffin. Store them in an airtight container for upto 5-6 days.
Note: To make the pluot juice, cut a pluot into tiny pieces and blend it in a high speed blender. Strain through a fine mesh strainer using a spoon to push the pulp down, to retrieve the pluot juice.
Notes
What is the best way to store these muffins?
- The muffins last for about 5 to 6 days in an airtight container, and do not need to be refrigerated.
Is the streusel necessary?
- The streusel is not necessary but it truly takes a muffin from a good muffin to a fantastic one!
What kind of liners do you use for muffins?
- For the bakery style look, I get these liners from Amazon
