Pass the Plate

Every time I have someone try these muffins, I get the comment “Wow, you can really taste the strawberries in these!” followed by the question “Do you use real strawberries?” Yes, I do. 🙂

I might be biased because I love strawberries, but these are definitely one of my very favorite muffins. And as a cake topped with stawberry frosting, it makes a really nice and different dessert.

Ingredients

• Flour 1 ½ cups 375 ml
• Baking powder 1 tsp 5 ml
• Salt ¼ tsp 1 ml
• Milk ¼ cup 65 ml
• Vanilla extract 1½ tsp 8 ml
• Lemon extract 1½ tsp 8 ml
  or Lemon juice 2 tbsp 30 ml
  or Zest of 1 lemon
• Strawberries, puréed ²⁄₃ cup 165 ml
  (made from about 1¹⁄₃ cup / 325 ml of strawberries)

  If you know you’ll be topping off your muffins or cake with strawberry frosting, only use half the amount of purée listed above. The flavor of the batter will work better with the flavor of the frosting this way.

• Butter, at room temperature ½ cup 115 g
• White granulated sugar 1 cup 250 ml
• Egg, beaten 1
• Egg whites 2

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F / 180°C.
2. Grease your muffin molds.
3. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, vanilla, lemon and strawberry purée.
5. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar gradually.
6. Add the eggs to the sugar mix.
7. Add half the flour mix and milk mix intermittently until everything is just combined. Don’t over-mix it though, a lumpy batter is good.
8. Bake for 22-25 minutes (40 minutes for a cake) or until an inserted toothpick comes out with no more than a few crumbs on it.

Makes about 12 muffins. If you’ll be adding frosting on these, make sure they cool down completely first. Try these with strawberry or cream cheese frosting.