Thursday, May 21, 2009

Strawberry Muffins

muffinstrawberry

Normally, I don't like to bake with berries because I would rather eat them. There's nothing better than fresh and juicy blueberries, raspberries and strawberries! When I saw that strawberries were on sale, I picked up a few boxes and ate an entire one myself, saved the other one for my family (ok, this sounds bad, but they're not big fruit eaters.. I'm not a hog..) and used part of another box to make strawberry muffins! At first, I was going to make the strawberry cupcakes from Sprinkles, but Steph of Steph Chows, who has been on a muffin kick lately inspired me to make strawberry muffins. Plus, I had one container of strawberry yogurt that needed to be used so it was perfect. I was going to make her recipe because I've never made muffins that were truly low in fat or healthy even though I generally like to cut butter and sugar where I can. Then I realized I didn't have apple sauce so I adapted a recipe from Cook's Illustrated. I made Steph's topping, but subbed the slivered almonds for flour because I didn't have any. I really liked how light the topping was. With less butter, it doesn't have its usual buttery and crunchiness, but when it comes to streusal/crumbs, too much butter makes me feel like I'm eating chunks of butter so I really liked her recipe!

Topping
Adapted from Steph Chows

1 tbsp slivered almonds (I used 1 tbsp flour)
2 tbsp firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoons whole wheat flour
3/4 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 cup uncooked regular oats

Rub butter into flour, sugar. Add oats and mix together.

Strawberry Muffins
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated, original can be found on Basically Baked

(I made a half recipe so these are the ingredients divided by 2 and got 11 muffins)
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp oil
100g container of yogurt (I used strawberry for extra strawberry flavour) + enough milk to make 1/2 cup liquid
1 cup sliced strawberries

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Grease muffin pan
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl.
4. Whisk sugar and eggs together until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined.
5. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and flour mixture until just moistened (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.)Fold in sliced strawberries
6. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin pan (I used an Oxo large cookie scoop = 3 tbsp)
7. Sprinkle topping on top of muffins
8. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17-19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

23 comments:

  1. Great minds must think alike. I ended up making some "healthier" raspberry muffins this weekend. I have yet to post the recipe though.

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  2. My grocery store has every kind of berry on sale this week (if I ever get there!) so this is inspiring! These look delicious and as always, I like your adaptations. You're so good at that!

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  3. Hey Steph, of course I'll visit Toronto when I´m in Ontario, so far I'm planning on visiting Montreal June 11-15, also I'd like to visit the St. Jacobs market and an organic farmer in Milton area
    , other options are go hiking on the escarpment, a day at Canada’s wonderland or in Niagara is fun… do a wine tour! … visit friends and family and a party on the 19th or 20th a big BBQ!!

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  4. Looking good there Steph :) I feel the same way about berries. They have such a short season it's like what... use them in a cake? But with strawberry muffins, I don't blame ya.

    Oh and watch out for the workout that should come this week. Try it and you'll be sore... in a good way :)

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  5. I've never done strawberry muffins before, they sound awesome though. I'll have to try some!

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  6. I'm so glad you liked the topping! And you'll just have to try the muffin part of the recipe another time :) Strawberries are on sale here too and I've been going through them by myself like crazy :)

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  7. These looks so wonderful Steph! They look great for anytime of day!

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  8. I love strawberry muffins & CI. That sounds like a great recipe.

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  9. Those look so pretty! I love fresh berries too. In fact, I've got some strawberries sitting in the fridge now so maybe I'll give these a shot. By the way, I made the Sprinkles strawberry cupcakes recently (haven't blogged them yet) and they were pretty good!

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  10. So . . . you didn't say, are you totally sold on berry muffins or what?! A little more something-something to your berry-spiked snack?

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  11. Mmm I'm so hungry right now, I could probably eat like 5 of those!!

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  12. I love the chunks of strawberry. I can see that when you bake with fruit, you really bake with fruit. None of this - one berry per muffin business.

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  13. Wow - great picture! Your muffins look fantastic and are so perfect for summer!

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  14. Mmm, these muffins look fantastic!! I can't wait to try them out. I love berry muffins--especially when they're "healthier"! Perfect!

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  15. It seems like everyone is in a muffin kick. I'm going to pick fresh strawberries in a few weeks. I'll add this to my possible strawberry recipe list.

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  16. Love these healthy little muffins. I think strawberries are perfect in muffins.

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  17. Sounds good and I have slivered almond and lots of strawberries!

    Happy holiday weekend!
    ~ingrid

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  18. I totally agree with you about preferring to eat berries than bake with them. Same goes for any precious only available for a limited time fruits like cherries, peaches, plums, etc. In response to the comment you left on my blog, yea I'm starting another 2 year program to be a health inspector. And I'm glad you can relate to my cold car story!

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  19. Mmmmm. I think I'll have to make another batch of muffins. Strawberry looks pretty darn good!

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  20. How fresh! I like that you can see the strawberries- Yum!

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