I absolutely love living in SoCal. We are very fortunate to have sunny weather for probably 11 months of the year, enjoy fantastic places to eat everywhere and anywhere we want (gourmet food trucking anyone?), and the awesome farmer market finds available year round. There are a million other reasons why I love living in SoCal, but those are my top three. Right now, strawberry season is in full swing, and I have been enjoying strawberries by the pints. You would think I might have turned bright red from all the strawberries that I have been enjoying, but there is nothing as tasty as a summer ripen strawberry.
I finally got a chance to bake up these sweet muffins from Shawnda's blog. She has been teasing me for weeks with her strawberry posts and I have been itching to make every single strawberry recipe. Sadly, most often I'm enjoying strawberries all by their lonesome, or maybe sometimes mixed in with blueberries. Nothing too elaborate when you're a busy newbie mommy, but I finally had some quiet time this week and I had a little bit of mommy cooking time to bake up these sweet treats.
Can you believe that Elena is almost a month old? Time is flying by and she is growing away so fast. We have been enjoying these strawberry muffins for the past couple of days for a quick breakfast snack or after my nursing sessions. They are cake-like with little bits of sweet strawberries and a fantastic way to use up strawberries!
Adapted from Confections of A Foodie Bride
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
3 cups + 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 Tablespoon unsalted butter, cubed and softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt
Generous 1 1/2 cup chopped strawberries (~8 oz by weight, after hulling)
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling tops (optional)
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare your muffin pans with desired cupcake liners or spray with non-stick spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the 3 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of the stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom as needed.
Add the eggs in one by one and mix in the vanilla and almond extract.
Mix in half of the dry ingredients, followed by a third of the yogurt. Add remaining dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with the yogurt, until incorporated.
Toss strawberries with the remaining 1 tablespoon flour and add to the mixer, mix until incorporated. Batter will be thick.
Using an ice cream scooper, or 1/2 cup divide into prepared muffin pans. Sprinkle muffin tops with turbinado sugar if desired.
Bake for 8 minutes at 400 degrees, then decrease oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake for 12 more minutes until golden brown. Or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let muffins cool in the pan before removing and transfer to cooling rack.
Will keep for at least 3 days in a closed container.
Yield: 20 to 22 muffins
And here's a sweet picture of Elena and Eric. She is definitely daddy's little sweetheart!!
