Strawberry Muffins

Yesterday my dad brought home from Costco possibly the most beautifully plump, richly red strawberries I've ever seen! We actually have a strawberry patch in our backyard, and it does grow pretty red, delicious strawberries (and most importantly of all, organic), but ours never get nearly as big as these, and these possibly also are even more red than the ones we get from our backyard! I really was itching to make something like strawberry shortcakes or this recipe from Diana's Desserts that's been on my 'To Bake' list for a while now, but there's only 5 days until my dad's birthday now, and I definitely don't want two cakes in the house at once! So instead I decided to make breakfast with them, and decided on muffins.

These muffins were good. Though I have to admit that they weren't as sweet as I like (monster sweet tooth, yeah? ;) ) But the bites that had lots of strawberry in them were quite delicious! I might have even put more strawberries in. I was actually worried that they would be dry because the batter was quite stiff. I even had to put an extra splash of milk in because I was having trouble incorporating the flour. But they were perfectly light and fluffy. Though the parts of the muffin that had strawberry in them were just slightly moist and soggy, but I expected that. It also might have had to do with the fact that the strawberry bits were still wet from when I washed them when I put them in the mix. If you make this recipe, you might want to pat your strawberry pieces dry first before adding.

Beautfiul red strawberries!

Oops...couldn't resist! x)

Strawberry Muffins (Adapted from allrecipes)
The recipe says it makes 8, but I made 3/4 of the recipe and still got 8. So with this full recipe expect to get 10-12.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup canola oil (I used vegetable)
• 1/2 cup milk (As I said, I used an extra splash. If you're muffin batter is stiff as well, put another little splash of milk in)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/2 cup sugar (I added a little brown sugar. If you like your muffins sweeter, I'd probably put in a lightly packed 1/4 cup brown sugar)
• 1 3/4 cups flour (I put in slightly less flour. I advise to subtract 1/4 a cup and just put in 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  
• 1 cup chopped strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl, combine oil, milk, egg, and vanilla. Beat lightly. In a large bowl mix together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and cinnamon. Toss in chopped strawberries and toss to coat with flour. Pour in milk mixture and stir just until combined.
3. Fill muffin cups. Bake for 25 minutes (I don't know why it says to bake so long. Mine were ready at about 19 minutes), or until the tops bounce back at the touch (or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean). Cool 10 minutes and remove from pans.