Confession time: Strawberries aren’t my favorite.
I know, I know. Like strawberries, I’m also in the minority for disliking flip-flops, The Big Bang Theory, and white pants. I just can’t get behind any of the above. I’m sorry I fail at life.
It’s not that I dislike them, I just prefer other berries to the classic strawberry. Raspberries, for instance, happen to be my favorite fruit other than melons. When I used to work at a frozen yogurt shop, I was responsible for opening up the shop and was the only one in the store in the early mornings. One of the toppings on the fresh bar was raspberries, and I would easily polish off a clamshell full of them every morning. Dear former boss: sorry about that whole profit and loss thing with the raspberries. I ate them all.
And blueberries! You can’t tell me you dislike blueberries. Those little dynamos are rockin’ in muffins, pancakes, even cookies. Smoothies — don’t even get me started. My favorite Jamba is Bright Eyed & Blueberry. ‘Nuff said.
But strawberries… unless they’re of the perfect ripeness — that really ruby red, super tender, mega-juicy ripeness — I’m not interested. And seldom do I find a strawberry that fits that description perfectly. So I happily stick to my raspberries and blueberries.
However, I happened to have a carton of strawberries lying around that I needed to use pretty quickly, and I figured I would use this opportunity to train myself to like strawberries. Just like getting on a bike, it takes a couple times before you actually ride. I figured if I stuffed some super crumbly muffins with bright bursts of strawberry, I could grow to like this berry.
And my science experiment worked! These muffins are the bees knees, yo! It may be mostly due to the intense crumb action happening (okay, everything I like is usually attributed to intense crumb action), but I really enjoyed the bright pops of red and the sweetness the berries lent these plush, tender muffins. And I KNOW you will, too.
But when it comes to Big Bang Theory… sorry, jury isn’t only out, it’s MIA & not coming back.
*from KitchenTreaty
- FOR THE MUFFINS:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and roughly chopped
- FOR THE CRUMB TOPPING:
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- Pinch salt
- 4 Tbsp cold butter, cut into chunks
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 12-cavity muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.
- Prepare the topping: in a medium bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Cut in the chunks of butter with a pastry blender or two forks/knives until the topping resembles coarse pea-sized crumbs. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon and whisk together to combine. Stir in the buttermilk, egg, oil and vanilla until a soft batter has formed. Stir in the chopped strawberries by hand.
- Evenly distribute the batter among the muffin tins, filling about 3/4th way full. Top with a heaping Tablespoonful of crumb topping.
- Bake for approx. 18-20 minutes or until tops spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Allow the muffins to cool completely. Store leftovers airtight, at room temperature.
While they’re great room temperature (seriously — they were a snack throughout the day!), but I especially love them when they’re warmed up and slathered with a huge hunk of butter! SO delicious. If strawberries aren’t available (or aren’t your thing!) feel free to substitute raspberries, blackberries or blueberries!
Have a delicious day!
xo, Hayley
Lisa {Sweet 2 Eat Baking} says
Whilst I luuurrvvee strawberries, my favourite has to be raspberries. And in the shops here they’re always ripe, like you have to use them within a day or two or throw out. Pretty sucky. I hate flip flops too, but I could definitely go for these uber crumbly muffins right now. They look so much better than the ham baguette I’m about to devour.
Sophia @ NY Foodgasm says
OMG these look sooooo moist and dreamy! I LOVE cumb cake, especially when the cake is moist, YUMMMM!
Kayle (The Cooking Actress) says
Girl-strawberries are the ONLY berry I like! I know.
These muffins are awesome-I looove the idea of warming ’em up and slathering them with butttaaahhh!
Jess @ On Sugar Mountain says
No man, white pants are a disaster waiting to happen. I eat too many cheeseburgers for white pants to be a thing. But strawberries are my JAM (teehee, strawberries…jam…) and these muffins look marvelous, Hayley. 😀
Lindsay Ann @ Lindsay Ann Bakes says
because a muffin is just not a muffin without a good crumb topping! And those juicy berries?! YUM