Strawberry Muffins

There's no story behind these muffins, just some practical consideration. I had some strawberries left over from my last trip to the market, which could go waste. This would have been a shame, especially as they weren't exactly inexpensive. Since no one wanted to eat them, I decided to disguise them in something else. A something else which would not take too much of time or effort on my part!









Allrecipes had these simple Strawberry Muffins which appealed to me, given that I had everything required at hand and it wouldn't take more than about 20 minutes to put together. The loads of positive reviews following this recipe swung it for me. You might want to take a look at the reviews because there are suggestions for lots of variations including spicing up or veganizing this recipe.



I don't really like fruit in muffins because fruit goes mushy or squishy (call it what you will) when baked, making muffins a bit soggy in places where the fruit is. I don't really like bananas in breads either, though I can be a monkey when it comes to eating bananas as they are. But I found these muffins surprisingly good, no sogginess and not too sweet. They make a perfect after school snack.









The strawberries I used here were not very sweet (now you know why there was no one to eat them!) so I just added 1 tsp of sugar after chopping them up and kept them aside for about 10 minutes before adding them to the flours. They will ooze juice if kept longer. If your strawberries are sweet, you don't have to do this. You might also want to reduce the sugar a bit, if your strawberries are very sweet and you aren't catering for a very sweet tooth!







I slightly adapted the recipe and what follows is my version.  If you want a slightly lighter texture, you may substitute the whole wheat flour with all purpose flour, as in the original recipe.





Ingredients:





1 cup all purpose flour



3/4 cup whole wheat flour



1/2 cup granulated sugar*



2 tsp baking powder



1/2 tsp salt



1 cup chopped (not too fine) strawberries



1/2 cup milk



1/4 cup oil



1 egg (or flax seed substitute**)



1 tsp vanilla extract



* My granulated sugar had slightly bigger crystals than average. Since we don't cream the sugar and fat in muffins, the sugar remains as it is. I have found that when I use such sugar in my cakes, the top of the cake always has a slight crispness. This results in a lovely contrast in taste and texture, especially if the cake is soft.



**2 tbsp of a mixture of 1 tbsp powdered flax seeds + 1 tbsp warm water







Method:





Put the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl and whisk lightly to mix well. Add the strawberries to the flour mixture and mix to ensure they are well coated with flour.



In another bowl, lightly beat the egg/ flax seed substitute, vanilla extract, milk and oil together. Add this to the strawberry-flour mixture and gently mix together, in a folding motion, about 4 or 5 times.



Do not over stir, or the texture of your muffins will suffer. The batter will be lumpy and slightly floury. This is just fine. Grease your muffin tins/ cups and divide the batter equally between them, so that each one is about 2/3rds full.



Bake at 109C for about 25 minutes till the muffins are done and lightly golden brown on top. Cool for 10 minutes, unmould them and cool completely on a rack.

 This recipe makes 8 muffins.