I'm not a huge fan of muffins (probably because I don't like the texture of cake). Nevertheless, for a morning baking date, muffins are the way to go. I love banana bread and quickbreads, but they take twice as long to bake. On Sunday morning, my friend Kelley came over to bake muffins. I'd given her three options based on the frozen fruits in my freezer: blueberry, cranberry or strawberry. She chose blueberry. I started wondering if people even make strawberry muffins. You can do a hundred other wonderful things with strawberries, like strawberry rhubarb pie or strawberry shortcake, so why make muffins? A quick search for strawberry muffin recipes yielded quite a few results. Indeed, people do make strawberry muffins. However, the first strawberry muffin recipe that comes up in a Google search has one order of magnitude fewer reviews that the first blueberry muffin recipe, suggesting that people really love blueberry muffins. After I finished the last blueberry muffin, I decided I simply had to try strawberry muffins. With Valentine's day coming up, I decided chocolate had to be added. Recipe adapted from SoNo Baking Company Cookbook.
Objective
Adapt a blueberry muffin recipe to make strawberry chocolate chip muffins.
Materials
1 cup plus flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup (4 tbsp.) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt (substitute plain yogurt, sour cream, crème fraîche)
about 1 cup frozen (unthawed) strawberries, chopped and tossed in 1/2-1 tbsp. flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 375º. Prepare 9 muffin cups (grease the pan or use liners).
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Beat butter, sugar, and salt on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add egg. Beat in vanilla.
4. With the mixer speed on low, slowly add the dry ingredients and continue mixing until flour is just incorporated. Add the greek yogurt and continue beating on low speed until incorporated. Beat in the strawberries until just incorporated. Gently fold in the chocolate with a rubber spatula. Note: the batter will be very thick.
5. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full (about 1/4 cup of batter per muffin cup). Sprinkle with additional sugar if desired (baker's sugar works well).
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the muffin pan after 10 minutes. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or the muffin springs back when gently touched.
7. Cool the muffins completely in the pan on a wire rack.
Results
Yum! The strawberries are tart which is balanced by the sweetness of the chocolate. Perfectly light in texture and moist. Lightly golden brown.
Discussion and Future Directions
Both the blueberry and the strawberry muffins turned out well. I might be more inclined to make muffins again. They don't get the caramelized dark crust of a quickbread, but that keeps the whole product soft. For banana, I'll stick with bread. Since I didn't have much luck making blueberry quickbread, I think I will continue making these blueberry muffins. The berries did not all sink to the bottom, which is what happened with the really light batter of the blueberry quickbread. This batter is thick, but don't worry, the end product will turn out light and delicious!
This recipe could be easily adapted to other berries. If you leave out the chocolate, I suggest adding citrus zest (try 1 tsp) to add depth to the flavor. For raspberries or blueberries, use lemon zest; for blackberries, use lime zest; for cranberries or strawberries, use orange zest or 2 tablespoons of orange marmalade. If you try these muffins with a different flavor combination, please let me know how they turn out!
Supplementary Materials
