Strawberry Muffins

Organic Strawberries for $1.99, today only at the Wheaton Whole Foods!  And they are gorgeous, so sweet!

Time to make these muffins again...

Succulent Strawberry Muffins

1/4 lb. softened unsalted butter

1 & 1/2 cups sugar, divided

2 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt, scant

1/2 cup whipping cream

1 tsp. good vanilla

18-20 medium to large strawberries, hulled and chopped

Cream butter and 1 & 1/4 cups sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla.  Blend well but do not overbeat.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.  Add alternately with cream to butter, starting and ending with flour mixture.  Fold in strawberries.

Fill 16 large muffin tins with papers.  Fill them almost full with batter, then sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sugar over top.  Bake in 375 degree oven for 25-30 min, or until lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on rack.

French Breakfast Muffins

This is one of those recipes you may or may not thank me for. It goes way back in my family, appearing at many a bridal or baby shower, because they can be made entirely ahead, frozen and then defrosted the morning of with no discernible difference.

They are also addictivly delicious, being rolled in butter and cinnamon sugar and tasting much like a delicious little donut. Don't ask me why they are called French, or Breakfast, I just know that they are my FAVORITE MUFFIN. That's right, I said it. My favorite, out of all the muffin recipes I've posted.

2/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup milk

-Approximately 1 cup cinnamon sugar, I like mine nice and dark with good cinnamon
-a stick (or probably two, don't hate me!) of melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 4 dozen mini muffin tins (These can absolutely be made with normal size tins, I just like them better small, the ratio of cinnamon goodness to cake is higher. It does take longer though to roll all the little ones...) In a mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and mix well. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, alternating with milk. Start and end with the dry ingredients, mixing on low just until combined.

Fill muffin tins 2/3's full (as if that's possible in a mini tin, good luck) and bake 15-20 min, or until toothpick comes out clean. These muffins won't really brown, so don't look for color on them.

When cool, remove from tins and roll first in melted butter, then cinnamon sugar. At this point they can be frozen or eaten or refrigerated. I even like them cold out of the fridge.

Autumn Day Muffins

I wish you were at my house right now, enjoying the scent of these muffins wafting by your nose. They are for my Bible Study ladies tomorrow, and will hopefully also feed Scott, his office and other special people this week (Sophie and Kathy, they have your name on them!)

I got this recipe from a roomate in college, more years ago then would be lady-like to mention, and have used it annually ever since. One recipe makes 24 muffins, and it's one of those awesome muffins that is BETTER made the day before. They'll keep two days in fact, wrapped well and kept cool. I serve them with a dollap of cinnamon sugar butter smeared over each half.

Autumn Day Muffins

3 1/3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 TBS. pumpkin pie spice

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

4 large eggs

1 lb. can plain pumpkin

1 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

2 cups ghirardelli chocolate chips

raw sugar, for sprinkling on top (optional)

Thoroughly mix the first six ingredients in a large bowl. Break eggs into a small bowl and whisk, add melted butter and pumpkin. Mix well. Pour wet ingredients over dry and fold in with a rubber spatula, mixing only until moistened. Gently stir in chocolate chips. Scoop batter evenly into greased muffin tins and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 30-40 min. Check doneness at 25 minutes, muffins will be puffed and springy to the touch in the center. Can be wrapped when cool and kept for 1-2 days. Best when made the day before.

Cinnamon Sugar Butter

Soften two sticks of unsalted butter to room temperature. Use a hand mixer to mix in enough cinnamon sugar and salt to taste. That's it.

The World-Is-Ending Blueberry Muffin

I'm not even kidding you, if I knew the world was ending I'd flip through our wedding photos one more time, make a few phone calls involving words of love to family and friends and eat as many of these muffins as I could.
Seriously, I've made my second batch in a week and they are heavenly, only involving two more steps then your average blueberry muffin recipe. With much credit and love to Cooks Illustrated.

Best Blueberry Muffins

Lemon Sugar Topping

1/3 cup sugar

1 and 1/2 teaspoons finely grated zest from one lemon

Muffins

3 cups fresh blueberries, picked over

1 & 1/8 cups sugar, plus 2 teaspoons

2 & 1/2 cups flour

2 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon table salt

2 extra large eggs

1/2 stick (4 TB) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

For the topping: stir together sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl until combined, set aside.

For the muffins: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Bring 1 & 1/2 cups blueberries and 2 tsp. of sugar to simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to about 1/3 cup, about 6 minutes. Cool to room temp, 10-15 min.

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in large bowl. Whisk remaining sugar and eggs together in a medium bowl, add butter and oil until combined. Add buttermilk and vanilla to egg mixture until combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining 1 & 1/2 cups of blueberries into the flour mixture just until moistened. Do not overmix.

Divide the batter evenly among about 14 muffin cups. Spoon one teaspoon of blueberry jam into the center of each and swirl slightly with a toothpick. Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins.

Bake until muffin tops are golden brown and just firm, 17-19 minutes. Cool in tins for 5 minutes, the finish cooling on a rack. They freeze well and can be reheated in the oven for a freshly baked texture.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (Scott's Favorite)

I've been staring at the four brown bananas on my counter for the last couple of days, not having enough energy to do anything productive with them until today.  This recipe, based off Kathleen Tate's, is fabulous.  Moist, dense and tasty, you've got to use Ghiradelli semi sweet chocolate chips to get the full effect.  A four star recipe in our house, they freeze beautifully and you can heat them up in the oven for a few minutes to fool your friends into thinking they're freshly baked.  No one will be the wiser.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. table salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tps. vanilla

2 large eggs

1 & 1/2 cups smashed bananas (about 4 medium, you can squish them up right inside the peel and then squeeze them out into the mixing bowl...no need to dirty another dish!)

1/2 cup sour cream

1 & 1/2 cups Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

About 2 TB. raw sugar for topping the muffins

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare about 18 muffin cups, or use the fun medium sized white baking cups from Schweppe's, you don't even need a muffin pan then.

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.  Cream the butter and sugars in a mixer until light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla and eggs and mix well.  Squeeze in the bananas and mix in the sour cream.  Fold in the flour mixture, then the chocolate chips.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups.  Sprinkle them with raw sugar if desired, it gives them a little crunch on top which can be nice.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

A Day in the Life of Some Strawberries

Thank you Anna, for sharing the bounty of your handpicked strawberries.  Here is the story of what happened to them.

I decided these little fellas were screaming to be made into strawberry muffins, and this gem of a simple recipe needs more publicity.  It is just too good for me to hog.  Now normally folks, I am not into eating raw muffin batter.  Do yourself a favor and don't even taste this one...you won't be able to stop taking little swipes from the spatula.

Succulent Strawberry Muffins

1/4 lb. softened unsalted butter

1 & 1/2 cups sugar, divided

2 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt, scant

1/2 cup whipping cream

1 tsp. good vanilla

18-20 medium to large strawberries, hulled and chopped

Cream butter and 1 & 1/4 cups sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla.  Blend well but do not overbeat.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.  Add alternately with cream to butter, starting and ending with flour mixture.  Fold in strawberries.

Fill 16 large muffin tins with papers.  Fill them almost full with batter, then sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sugar over top.  Bake in 375 degree oven for 25-30 min, or until lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on rack.