Sweet Decadenze

‘Tis rather strange, but I grew up not liking strawberries at all.  I reckon I must had tasted a very sour strawberry when I was really young and developed a distaste for this berry as a result.

Fortunately for me, I grew out of this phase in my early 20s, albeit a little late in life (but better late than never).  That being said, I have to say that we don’t get very nice strawberries here in Singapore.  I haven’t tasted enough of strawberries from all over the world, but to me, the best strawberries I’ve tasted so far were those I tasted in Holland bought from a stall just outside of the Keukenhof Festival.  You can literally taste the smell of early spring in the strawberries themselves - fresh, plump and sweet.

Regretably, I never tasted anything like that since.  The expensive strawberries from Japan (close to $20 per punnet) bought at Isetan come in a close second though, but the price tag just blows me away.  Hence I am not inclined to try out recipes I come across so long as they require strawberries.  This recipe (below) I obtained from Receipzaar is a rare exception.

Strawberry Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 cups chopped strawberries
2 eggs
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tsp sugar, optional

1. Preheat oven to 190°C.
2. Line 12 muffin tins with cupcake or muffin liners.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and 1 cup of sugar in a large bowl.
4. Toss in the strawberries.  Set aside.
5. Beat together the eggs, butter, milk, and vanilla in a medium bowl until well-mixed.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.  Stir until just combined.
7. Fill up each muffin liner with batter till about 3/4 full.
8. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of sugar on top of each muffin.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes or when a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
10. Remove individual muffins to cool completely on a wire rack.

Yield : 12 regular muffins

What you get is a sweet (dependent on the strawberries) and moist muffin, and they taste the best when fresh out of the oven.  If the batch of strawberries you bought are a little on the sour side, you can try compensating by adding a little more sugar, say 1 1/4 cup, but nothing more than that or it will topple the balance of the ingredients.