Sensational Strawberry Muffins

I found this recipe last summer from BUTTERYUM when we had a plethora of strawberries still to eat and not enough time before they were going to go bad.

This recipe is unbelievably good. Now, I actually go out of my way to buy extra strawberries just so I can make these muffins.

The muffins are moist, flavorful and don’t last more than two days after I make them. Our family devours them.

We went to a CSA (community supported agriculture) Appreciation Day at Tanaka Farms this past weekend. They offered all CSA subscribers a free tour of the farm and an opportunity to taste of many of their fresh vegetables. At the end of the tour we picked and ate fresh, ripe, sun warmed strawberries. We brought home two pounds of strawberries.

Since the boys filled themselves with enough strawberries for a week at the farm and our CSA box this week also included strawberries, I decided to make these muffins with some of our beautiful strawberries.

I have fine tuned this recipe over the past year. This time I wanted to see if I could substitute Agave Nectar for sugar and get the same results. It worked great so I thought I would share.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
**1 cup sugar (use 2-3 tbsp to macerate strawberries)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour– (I use 1 cup white flour and 1 cup wheat flour)
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups diced and strawberries (I usually add an extra strawberry or two after I hit the 1 1/2 cup mark, macerate as directed above)

**If you want to substitute Agave Nectar for the sugar use 2/3 cup Agave Nectar and only 1/4 cup of milk, it worked great.

How to Make: (yield 12 muffins)

• Dice strawberries into a small bowl. Then add 2-3 tbsp of sugar and mix well. Let sit for 20 to 30 minutes. The longer you let them sit (not more than 30 minutes) the more flavorful they are.

• Once the strawberries are ready preheat your oven to 375 F.
• With a hand-held blender, beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until well combined

good thing I unplugged the mixer, he was eager to help.

• In a separate bowl blend flour, salt, and baking powder
• The trick to this recipe is how you mix in the dry ingredients and the milk into the sugar mixture. Mix the dry first, then wet, then dry (don’t mix milk, dry, milk, it won’t turn out as well). If you carefully follow these instructions the muffins will turn out very moist. One could say this is a high maintenance recipe but it really is worth the extra effort.
• Mix with the hand-held blender 1/3 of dry ingredients until incorporated, then 1/2 of the milk, then 1/3 of the dry, then the last of the milk, then the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients (1/3 dry, 1/2 milk, 1/3 dry, 1/2 milk, 1/3 dry). Make sure to incorporate each group before adding the next. The BUTTERYUM recipe describes this well with step by step instructions if you are looking for more guidance.

• Now, gently fold in the strawberries and all their juices (include all juices…this is another secret to really moist muffins)
• The recipe says to only use the foil part of the baking cups, the paper baking cups really stick and don’t peel off easily. I used silicon baking cups and they worked great. I have used just the foil baking cups too and the muffins do peel off well.

• Fill the baking cups (silicon or foil) 3/4 full. I usually get a small mini loaf out of the batter too.
• Bake at 375 F for 25-30 minutes (check at 20 minutes if using silicon baking cups). Cool completely.

These muffins are best right out of the oven after they have cooled enough to hold them. They melt in your mouth and won’t last long.

This was the first ingredient I used out of my latest CSA box. There are so many incredible treats in my CSA box this week, I can hardly wait to dive in. L didn’t wait, he took a huge taste of the purple cauliflower right out of the box…I love that.

Looking for more inspirational CSA recipes? Check this out http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=157475

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