Strawberries and Cream Muffins
Why I Love This Recipe
I just have to say that these could quite possibly be the most perfect muffin I've ever tasted. Light, moist, and with a surprise inside
Ingredients You'll Need
Filling: (yep...we're going to start with the filling)
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 tablespoons of egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Muffin:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar (plus extra for sprinkling on the tops)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped into very small pieces
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400'F
Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners
Filling:
In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, 1 1/2 tablespoon of egg, sugar and vanilla extract. Mix with a spoon until its pretty smooth. Don't worry about the little lumps. Set aside (do not chill)
Muffin:
Over low heat, melt the butter. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and the milk. Stir to combine. Let the mixture cool a bit Then whisk the eggs in.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and blend until just combined. Over blending will create dense / flat muffins. Lumps and flour streaks are acceptable and expected.
Fill each muffin cup, barely 1/2 full with muffin batter. Sprinkle a little bit of the chopped strawberries in each cup. Top the strawberries with a dollop of the cream cheese filling.
Add more muffin mix (about 1 - 2 tablespoons) to each cup.
Take a few more strawberries and sprinkle them over the tops of each muffin....gently pushing them in a bit.
Sprinkle a generous amount of sugar on top to create that nice crunch
Bake for about 15-18 minutes...until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out almost clean (that cream cheese and the strawberries might get stuck to the toothpick...doesn't mean it's not done)
Let cool for a few minutes before carefully removing the muffins