To find the unit rate of muffins per cup of almonds, you can divide the total number of muffins by the total number of cups of almonds.
Manny makes 36 muffins and uses 4 cups of almonds, so the calculation is:
\[ \text{Unit rate} = \frac{\text{Number of muffins}}{\text{Number of cups of almonds}} = \frac{36 \text{ muffins}}{4 \text{ cups}} = 9 \text{ muffins per cup} \]
Thus, the unit rate is 9 muffins per cup of almonds. The correct response is:
9 muffins