Busy Cooking: Strawberry Chunk Muffins

The way I judge a food blog is by the muffins and cupcakes they have.  I am always on the hunt for muffins because they are quick, easy, and portable for breakfast.  With five kids, I don't have time to sit and eat.  I have always seen links to the blog, Confections of a Foodie Bride, so I finally looked at it and these muffins jumped out at me.  She called them Strawberry Cream Cheese muffins, but some people are turned off by cream cheese (my brother) so I didn't want to scare them off.  I made them two different ways, one with a small amount of cream cheese (it was all I had) and one according to her exact recipe, both turned out equally delicious!

I have recipes for two other strawberry muffins/cupcakes on the blog, here and here, but I have to say, I think these are my favorite ones.

Strawberry Chunk Muffins:


Oven: 350

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
** 8 oz softened cream cheese ( OR substitute 4 oz cream cheese)
** 1/4 cup softened butter  (AND substitute 1/2 cup softened butter)
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk (I made my own, 1/2 tsp white vinegar in 1/2 cup milk)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup strawberries, cut into 1/4" chunks

** Use the red alternate substitutions for both butter and cream cheese if you want to use less cream cheese.  I actually liked these ones a tad bit better.

1) Cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar in mixer with paddle attachment.  Scrape down sides.
2) Add in eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Mix, scrape down sides, mix until just combined.
3) In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Slowly add dry ingredients to wet, mix until just combined, will be thick batter.
4) Fold in strawberries.
5) Either grease muffin pans, or put liners in pan.  Fill each cup 1/2 to 3/4 full of batter.  Bake for 15-17 minutes for mini muffins, 20 minutes for large muffins.

I made 24 mini muffins and 9 large with this batter.

Fresh out of the oven, they were like hot buttered biscuits with strawberry jam, so DELICIOUS!