Strawberry Lemonade Muffins

I've made Lemon Blueberry and I've made Lemon Chocolate chip, but I wondered what Strawberry and lemon together would be like, and of course, the first thing I thought of was Strawberry Lemonade. I don't usually like lemonade because it's too sweet and not tart enough, but what a better place to be sweet than in a dessert. I looked up a few recipes and decided it'd just be easier to modify/create my own.

And if the pictures don't convince you how good these are, then get this. Eldon, who doesn't like ANYTHING I bake, actually likes these.

Besides what most people already have for muffins, you will need 1 lemons and some strawberries (I used about 15 strawberries, but they are different sizes).



Strawberry Lemonade Muffins

Preheat your oven to 375 and line a muffin tin BEFORE you do anything else. This recipe makes 12 muffins.

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl.


2 eggs
1 cup sugar
(mix those up until it's all nice and light and fluffy but still liquidy)
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp of vanilla
Mix all those wet ingredients together in a larger bowl.

Zest one lemon and add it to the wet ingredients.
Zest is the name of the peel of a fruit. You need a zester to do this, because the holes on a cheese grater are too big. There is so much flavor in the peel of a fruit. That is the reason why I added lemon zest instead of lemon juice. I didn't need extra liquid in the recipe, just the flavor.
I don't know how much lemon zest I added to this recipe, but a small lemon zested almost bare.



Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly and stirring constantly. The lemon zest and the acids in the lemon will make the batter a little thick, but the moisture from the strawberries will balance it out.

Cut up about 12 - 15 strawberries, depending on their size. Again, I did not measure this, and just tossed them in. If you feel like you're going to run out of strawberries when you're spooning the batter into muffin cups, just cut up a few more.



Having the muffin tin pre-lined is a great idea because you do not want your batter to sit too long because of the acids in the lemon zest. Fill the muffin cups to the top. Usually I sprinkle the tops of the muffins with sugar to create a crackled surface, but since I am putting glaze on these, I did not do that this time.



Bake the muffins for about 20 - 23 minutes. Remove from the muffin tin and allow them to cool all the way. If you don't, the glaze will melt right off the muffins.



LEMON GLAZE

1 cup of powdered sugar
Juice from one lemon
Some lemon zest

Mix all of that together. Again, I didn't measure any of this, but you want the glaze to be pretty thick so it stays on the muffins. If it's not, add more powdered sugar.



If you're curious about how much flavor is in zest, mix the powdered sugar and the lemon juice together, taste it, add the zest and then try it again.

Once the muffins are cool, cover the tops with the glaze and add a slice of strawberry for looks and a bite of sweetness. I stabbed them with a toothpick because the strawberries were sliding down the side.





Enjoy!