Best of All Strawberry Muffins

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These Best of All Strawberry Muffins use a full pound of fresh strawberries as a puree and cut up in the muffins. Use the ripest strawberries for the fullest flavor.

Prep Time20

Cook Time22

Total Time42

Course: Muffins

Cuisine: American

Keyword: baking, Best of All Strawberry Muffins, crumb topped muffin, easy muffins

Servings: servings

Calories: 220kcal

Author: Helen S. Fletcher

Ingredients

Crumb Topping

½ cup butter, very cold (114 grams, 1 stick)
⅓ cup granulated sugar (65 grams)
⅓ cup packed brown sugar (65 grams)
1 ½ cups cake flour (185 grams)
¼ teaspoon salt

Easy Strawberry Muffins

1 quart fresh strawberries
2 ½ cups cake flour (310 grams)
¾ cup sugar (150 grams)
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
¾ cup butter, melted (170 grams or1 ½ sticks)
⅔ cup strawberry puree
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
red food coloring, optional
Swedish pearl sugar as needed
Sanding Sugar as needed
Crumb Topping
Powdered sugar as needed.

Instructions

Crumb Topping

Place the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Process to mix.
Cut the cold butter into pieces and add to the processor. Pulse the processor to form crumbs.
When the crumbs have been formed, remove to a bowl and store in the refrigerator while making the muffins.

Best of All Strawberry Muffins

This recipe makes about 12 Texas Muffin, 24 standard sized muffins or 40 mini muffins.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray the muffin cups with non-stick baking release or line with muffin papers.
Cut 1 ½ cups of the strawberries into pieces about ¼". Set aside.
Purée the remainder of the fresh strawberries in a processor or blender. There should be about ⅔ cup. If it is short, add water. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the melted butter, strawberry puree, almond extract, vanilla extract, and food coloring, mixing well.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix gently with a rubber spatula. Do not overmix. A few lumps are fine.
Stir in the cut strawberries.
If topping with the crumbs, fill the Texas Muffin cups about ½ full of the batter.
Top with a scant ⅓ cup crumb mixture, pressing down lightly.
Fill the regular size muffin cups about ½ full. Top with a heaping soup spoon of crumbs, pressing them down lightly. The mini pans should be filled about half full. Top with crumbs to about the top of the pan.
Bake the mini pans 12 to 14 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
The regular muffins should bake about 15 to 16 minutes.
The Texas muffins bake 19 to 22 minutes.
Cool completely and dust the crumb topped muffins with powdered sugar.
The muffins will keep well for several days in an airtight tin. They can also be frozen without the powdered sugar for several months. Thaw at room temperature and dust heavily with powdered sugar.

Notes

There is always an abundance of photos to guide you in the post above.

As always, I recommend using a scale for accuracy and consistency. Flour, in particular, is difficult to measure by volume. For my recipes, I use 140 grams per cup of unsifted all-purpose, bread or whole wheat flour and 125 grams of cake flour. Others may use different weights so use whatever they suggest.

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The crumb topping is the same one used on the New York Style Crumbcake and it is my idea of the perfect coffeecake. They are super easy to make in the mixer as long as the mixture is not over beaten leading to a paste instead of crumbs. For this post, I made them in the processor with excellent results.

Swedish pearl sugar is made by compressing sugar crystals to form larger, round, particles that won't dissolve in baked goods. It's a wonderful topping for all kinds of pastries and baked items. These pure white, crunchy sugar crystals don’t melt in the oven. But It shouldn’t be confused with Belgian Pearl Sugar which has quite large white crystals and is used in Liege waffles. Both of these can be easily found online.

Sanding sugar is made by drying out sugar syrup, then screening the granules that are left behind. Sanding sugar can be found uncolored which adds sparkle and crunch to baked goods or it is can be found in a wide array of colors.

For much more information on sugar see my post Sugar- The Sweetest Part of Baking.

Why Use Cake Flour

Cake flour has the lowest protein count of all the white baking flours providing a softer texture to the finished item. It is the protein in flour that gives it its strength. Bread flour has a much larger protein count and is most often used with yeast. All- purpose is in the middle.

I specify cake flour when I want to ensure a soft outcome to cake layers, biscuits, scones, or muffins. Lacking cake flour, all-purpose flour can be substituted.

Make sure the butter is very cold or even partially frozen when making the crumbs in a food processor. If using the mixer, the butter should be softened to cream well. In either case, do not over mix or process or the mixture will become a paste. If that should happen, add a bit more flour and mix or process briefly.

Once you add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones, switch to a rubber spatula and mix the two together with a folding action. Do not mix vigorously. Fold in the fresh strawberry pieces.

If using one of the sugars on top of the muffins, the yield will be less because the pans are filled with more batter.

I like to spray the pans with a non-stick baking spray instead of using paper lines. They come out prettier and more intact.

Nutrition