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What is a muffin for newbies, the rest can skip the first para.
Muffins are served as breakfast. There are two types of muffins English and American. English muffins are made with yeast where as American are made with chemical leavener like baking soda. American muffins are domed shaped and English muffins are flat.
American Muffins are further divided into bread like (less sugar) muffins or cake like (high sugar)muffins. Variations can be made to the basic muffin recipe and baked into special muffins.
The difference between a cupcake and a muffin is a cupcake has more sugar and a frosting layer on top, where as muffins don’t.
I started liking muffins after coming to America. They serve a lot of varieties for breakfast. I love muffins for it’s soft cake like inside texture and the crispy dome. So here’s my attempt at a Strawberry Muffin with fresh strawberries.
I thought the strawberry would be cooked nicely and that won’t be moist inside the muffins, but I was wrong. When it’s cooked I could see the moistened area around every strawberry chunk, not sure if this is how it would be or I am doing it wrong, someone please answer me, if we use fresh fruits for baking is there any special steps that needs to be done?
Ingredients : | |
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All purpose Flour | 2 cups + more for dusting |
Baking powder | 1 1/2 tsp |
Salt | 1/2 tsp |
Sugar | 1 cup |
Butter | 1/2 cup |
Egg | 2 nos ( optional ) |
Pure Vanilla Extract | 2 tsp |
Milk | 1/2 cup |
Fresh Strawberries or dry strawberries | 2 cups |
Baking Needs : | |
Muffin Tray | 24 small or 12 regular |
Cupcake Wraps | based on muffin tin (Optional) |
Butter or cooking oil spray | to spray in the muffin cups |
Tooth Pick | 1 no |
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Step 1
Mix all purpose flour, baking powder and salt together. Cut the strawberries into bite size piece, toss them in a sieve with 1 1/2 tsp of all purpose flour to lightly coat them.
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Step 2
Mix the butter and sugar together and beat it with electric hand held mixer until they become fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and beat until combined. Mix the vanilla syrup.
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Step 3
Add the flour now and beat them until they are mixed. Add milk and beat till all are mixed well. Don’t over beat as muffin would become rough. Using the rubber spatula fold (mix gently) the strawberries in the mix and keep it ready.
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Step 4
Preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit. Prepare the muffin pan by spraying some oil or coat with a layer of butter. We can also use cupcake wraps and coat them with oil or butter. Divide the batter among the cups evenly using an ice-cream scoop or two spoons.
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Step 5
Cook it for about 20-25 min if it’s a mini muffin tray or 25-30 min if it’s a regular muffin tray. Rotate the muffin tray in the middle for even cooking. Before removing the tray from the oven check to make sure its cooked by inserting a tooth pick and check if it comes out clean.
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Step 6
Transfer it to the wired rack to cool them. Tilt the muffins on their side to cool them for at least 10 mins. Can be served warm.
- Beat until the dry ingredients and wet ingredients combine to get the soft muffin else muffin would become rough.
(*) This can be refrigerated in a airtight container for about a week. If refrigerated, heat for 10-15 sec in microwave before serving.
at 10:39 AM
Hey sashi, you have not mentioned the quantity of sugar under the ingredients..can you pls update that …
at 3:42 PM
Mini, Thanks for letting me know. Just updated :)
at 2:20 PM
I was JUST about to make these and looked ALL over the recipe for the sugar but couldn’t find it on the ingredients.. just in the instructions… I’m going to be brave and just add 1/2 cup sugar but I would appreciate it greatly if you can add the sugar to your recipe.. since I’m not really sure how much to add…
Thanks so much,
Leesa
at 3:41 PM
Leesa, seems like I missed out mentioning the quantity of sugar. Thanks for letting me know, I just updated.
at 5:22 PM
Sashi, I’ll try these tonight. Having made some moist fruit muffins before, I learned to dice them into tiny pieces to minimize the excess moisture, although I like super moist muffins! The other option might be to increase the flour to 1.5c and decrease the berries also to 1.5 cups. I have plenty of berries on hand right now, so maybe I’ll just make two batches tonight and see what happens!
Love your blog and am sharing it on Facebook in a moment!
at 1:04 PM
Thanks Mamatat. Have noted the tips. Will follow it when I do for the next time. :)
at 1:10 PM
They look gorgeous n cute!!! I just love strawberries, never tried muffins though!
at 10:50 AM
The muffins look so plumped up and nice! I made some over the weekend too! Thanks for the info btwn cupcakes and muffins..
at 8:11 AM
Hey muffins look aawesome and do drop in my blog I have something for u .
at 4:42 PM
wow i am seeing so many muffins today and now i am temped to make some..your looks perfect and yummm..
at 3:11 PM
Your Muffins tempt me a lot. wanna grab one now:)
at 3:08 PM
your muffins have come out perfect!! I love muffins too!!!
yours look spongy and nice!!!
like someone else have answered, it’s normal that fresh juicy berry fruits leave some moisture, they’re supposed to be eaten in a couple of days too… unlike for apples which are firmer in texture and has less moisture and so cooks faster… yours is perfect !!!
at 3:05 PM
wow so yummy and colorufl muffins…
at 6:01 AM
Dear Sashi,
This is completely new to me…love to try this weekend …so tempting!
at 12:26 PM
Hi Sashi, Wonderful pictures and thanks for bringing out the difference between cupcakes and muffins. We just have them without thinking about it. Regarding the ? about how to add fresh fruit. I have a suggestion. Fresh fruits will let out water so you make have to cook a portion (more than 1/2) of the fruit to remove its water (into a jam like consistancy) and then add in the fresh fruit into it and fold into the dough. This helps to remove the water in the muffin. I hope that helps.
at 3:06 PM
Thanks a lot for the tips Sri, I would surely follow those when baking next time with fresh fruits.
at 4:08 PM
WOW Sashi… muffins look colorful and mouthwatering… perfectly baked :)
at 12:13 PM
Colorful and lovely muffins!! Great pictures too..
at 10:44 AM
Haiiiii!! Sashi,,thanks for ur lovely comments n ur suggestion for search option dear,,sure will add that option today itself,, Sashi,,muffin looks great and came out perfect dear using fruits to the muffins taste good n tasty while we biting it..good information abt muffins dear…
at 3:04 PM
Thanks for adding those search immediately Sathya. They help me sometime searching ur blog with the keywords. :)
at 7:11 AM
Waah! What lovely muffins! I’m so attracted that I’m hungwy! Pwease lemme have some. :3
at 12:03 AM
Muffins look superb sashi, perfectly done….and nice info abt muffins, didnt know there are 2 types in that too…
at 12:01 AM
Muffins look great Shashi…
at 9:45 PM
No dear you’ve got them right. Whenever you use some fresh fruits like strawberry and blueberry in your muffin the fruit will leave its moisture to the area near to it..that’s normal and it should be like that :-)
They look awesome
at 10:36 AM
Thanks Nami for ur clarification. I will keep that in mind for next baking !!
at 9:29 PM
Shashi, these muffins looks so cute with hint of red color from strawberry. I love muffins but small and bite size. :)