[Fluffy Strawberry Muffins] Soft breakfast muffins with real fresh strawberries

One of the many ways I consume strawberries we pick every year is to chop a lot of them and add into strawberry cupcakes. 

But, this year I decided to omit, of course on purpose, not to disappoint the kids who love the strawberry butter cream, but to turn sweet treats into breakfast muffins. Our fridge was flooded with our own strawberries we picked at the Ovens farm since we went strawberry picking two weeks in a row. And sadly, last weekend was the last weekend of this year's strawberry season :(  Strawberries were so red, so delicious and so pretty. We ate a lot on our way home, but there still were lots of strawberries to take care of. As I said in the other day's oatmeal muffin posting, the easiest breakfast item on a busy morning is muffin. The base of the strawberry cupcake was really soft and fruity so that I just reduced the amount of sugar and used only all-purpose flour instead of cake flour. 

The strawberry muffins turned out so fluffy and sweet enough in spite of a little twist, which was not bad at all :) For a big muffin fan like me, it's not easy to pick only one muffin over all different types of muffins. But, I find myself leaning to the muffins that use the fresh ingredients such as strawberries, blueberries and carrot. So, this strawberry muffins were just my taste :)

Here goes the recipe for the fluffy strawberry muffins.

(adopted from Martha Stewart Living)

I made two dozens, but you can halve the recipe to make 12.

Ingredients

3 + 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 + 1/4 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 large egg white

1 cup whole milk

1 + 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 cups finely chopped strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

2. Line muffin tins with paper liners. 

3. Sift or whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. 

4. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. 

5. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.

6. Reduce speed to low. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk and ending with dry, 

i.e. 1/3 dry ingredients → 1/2 cup milk→ 1/3 dry ingredients → 1/2 cup milk→1/3 dry ingredients.

7. Add chopped strawberries and mix with spatula.

8. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each full. Ice cream scoop is very useful in baking muffins! :)

9. Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 25 - 30 minutes. 

Let cool in tins on wire racks. Forgot to take a photo of this part :(

It's as soft as a cupcake. And you will taste strawberry sensation on your palate. :)

One is not enough for my breakfast. I usually take two with me :)

(I'll post strawberry butter cream some time)

Enjoy!

Fresh Strawberry Muffins