Strawberries and Cream Muffins

I found this strawberry muffin recipe while searching for chocolate waffles, and thankfully I had all the ingredients in my pantry including a beautiful basket of strawberries to make them.  The chocolate waffles will have to wait, but not for too long.  We've had so much rain, it's good-we needed it and the hills are finally green after a dry February.  I always see strawberries in the market as a sign of the warmer weather to come and check to see if they look sweet enough to take home.  One of the great things about baking muffins with strawberries early in their season is that you can sweeten them up with a little sugar and kick off your strawberry season before the perfectly ripened ones arrive on the scene.  As I mentioned my search for chocolate waffles brought this lovely recipe to me and I'm happy to share it with some slight adjustments as I always seem to do when I cook or bake.

I like to try out new recipes on my family or friends which I find from good sources everywhere.  In addition to a large collection of cookbooks I follow many blogs that specialize in baking where I find many of my favorite recipes.  Often I put together a recipe from a variety of sources, taking the parts I like and tweaking the rest to make it work the way I have in mind.  I follow many food blogs that inspire my weekly menus, I read the recipe in the morning, make my grocery list and head to the market.  This recipe is one I found on one of my favorite baking blogs that hasn't been updated for a long time which I completely understand but it does make me a little sad and most likely missing some good recipes!

Ingredients and Directions for Strawberries and Cream Muffins
Adapted from Squirrel Bakes-Adventures of a Young Baker

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
Line or grease standard 12 cup muffin pan

For the Muffin Batter
1 cup whole milk
1/4 canola oil
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 cups strawberries, cut into small pieces

For the Cream Cheese Filling
4 ounces cream cheese
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 egg (about 2 Tbsp. beaten)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Streusel Topping
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons firm unsalted butter

First prepare the cream cheese filling by combining the cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla in a small bowl and mix until smooth, set aside.  Next prepare the streusel topping by by combining the flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl, cut in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs, set aside.  In a medium bowl make the muffin batter by whisking together the milk, oil, egg and sugar.  Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and stir into the milk mixture.  Be careful not to over mix, the batter will be slightly lumpy.

Layer the muffin batter, strawberries, cream cheese filling and streusel topping into the muffin cups.  Start by
spooning a rounded tablespoon of the muffin batter into each cup, then add a sprinkle of the strawberry pieces, a tablespoon of the cream cheese filling, another rounded tablespoon of the muffin batter followed by another sprinkle of the strawberry pieces and on top a final sprinkle of the streusel topping.

Bake for 24-25 minutes, let cool in pan for about 5 minutes and serve slightly warm.