Monday, April 25, 2016

Strawberry Vanilla Muffins {Muffin Monday}

Strawberry Vanilla Muffins {Muffin Monday}

A tender muffin enriched with vanilla yogurt and local strawberries, sweetened with a touch of vanilla sugar on top.

A tender muffin enriched with vanilla yogurt and local strawberries, sweetened with a touch of vanilla sugar on top.



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"Military spouses plant annuals for themselves and perennials for those who come after them."
 Author Unknown



A tender muffin enriched with vanilla yogurt and local strawberries, sweetened with a touch of vanilla sugar on top.

From Intrepid Gardener to Constant Gardener to Humble Gardener

I am learning that, just because I think a location is ideal for a strawberry patch, it doesn't mean Mother Nature agrees with me.

When we moved to Ohio, bought a house(!), planted blueberry bushes and peach trees and raspberry canes and a strawberry patch in our small back yard, the only fruit I'd had experience growing was strawberries. We planted a strawberry patch on the side of the rented townhouse in Virginia. We planted a strawberry patch in the front of the duplex on base in northern Japan. I figured I knew from strawberries. I was wrong.

My strawberry patch, on the North side of the house, isn't happy. I've amended the soil each year with compost, shredded leaves, coffee grounds, and aged manure. I don't think it's poor soil. I think it's location. Interestingly, this year what appear to be raspberry canes--they look identical to the ones across the yard in the Official Raspberry Patch--have appeared amidst the few struggling strawberries.



A tender muffin enriched with vanilla yogurt and local strawberries, sweetened with a touch of vanilla sugar on top.


I am unsure what steps to take this Spring. I could bury the remaining plants under heaps of soil amendments and start over. I could opt to give up on strawberries, like I did with the blueberries when one blueberry bush died. [It takes 2 blueberry bushes to tango, so no fruit.] I could encourage more raspberries to migrate from the back of the back yard up closer to the house. I'm not sure.

What I am sure of is that I will buy local strawberries at the farmer's markets this season. I will buy them because I won't grow enough of my own to put up for the rest of the year, because I want to support local businesses, and because I vastly prefer the taste of a strawberry grown for flavor (not ability to travel) and picked when ripe.


A tender muffin enriched with vanilla yogurt and local strawberries, sweetened with a touch of vanilla sugar on top.


If you've never tried a locally grown strawberry, only those things at the grocery store--seek out some this year. You're in for a real treat. The season is quick though, get them and gorge while you can. No one said you have to eat fresh strawberries 12 months out of the year, and you might as well only bother with ones that taste good. I do the same thing with tomatoes.


A tender muffin enriched with vanilla yogurt and local strawberries, sweetened with a touch of vanilla sugar on top.


For more recipes using strawberries, please see my Strawberry Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.



A tender muffin enriched with vanilla yogurt and local strawberries, sweetened with a touch of vanilla sugar on top.



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A tender muffin enriched with vanilla yogurt and local strawberries, sweetened with a touch of vanilla sugar on top.


Strawberry Vanilla Muffins (makes 12)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (240 ml) vanilla yogurt
  • 1 large egg
  • ⅓ cup (80 ml) vegetable oil
  • ½ cup white granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups (8.5 ounces by weight) unbleached all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup chopped strawberries (can be thawed from frozen or mashed if fresh)
  • 1+½ Tablespoons vanilla sugar

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 12 well muffin pan with oil spray or line with paper liners. Your choice. I was taking these muffins to others so I used papers to make it easy.
  2. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, egg, oil, sugar, salt and baking soda until well blended.
  3. Dump flour and baking powder on top. Stir a bit until it starts to come together.
  4. Add strawberries to the bowl and stir until just combined.
  5. Scoop (Amazon affiliate link to my favorite muffin scoop) into prepared pan.
  6. Top with a sprinkle of vanilla sugar.
  7. Bake 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from oven.
  8. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack and cool completely.
  9. Serve warm or at room temperature.




#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

Here's what we've got baking up this month:

14 comments:

  1. You are so right about the seasonal strawberries, in fact, almost any fruit, Kirsten. Right now my nearby supermarket has peaches that are hard as baseballs with not a whiff of peachy aroma. What is the point of that?! Perhaps your strawberries would like a more southerly side of the house? Or west where they would get a good afternoon of sunlight? So hard to know with fruit.

    Meanwhile, your muffins are absolutely splendid! Bet they disappeared in no time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stacy,
      I've got a plan--trying a switcheroo with plants. I'll see how it goes next year ;)
      Meanwhile, thanks! I was smart enough to include these muffins with meals I delivered to a couple of families who needed a lil break from 'doing it all' so they got made, photographed, sampled--and out of the house!

      Thanks for hosting!

      Delete
  2. I am so happy you are part of this Muffin Monday group Kirsten. I feel like we are kindred spirits from trying to eat locally and seasonally to failing with the strawberries LOL. Your muffins sound awesome.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wendy,
      I'd say 'at least I'm having success with the raspberries' but we've got a dead tree that needs to come down right by the raspberry patch. I'm thinking I need to chat with the tree guy and see what I can do to ameliorate the loss.
      I'm sure glad we've got farmer's markets to fall back on--right?
      Thanks!

      Delete
  3. I hope you continue to try to grow strawberries! I remember sitting in my Nana and Jim-pa's garden digging up strawberries.....more went into my mouth than into the bucket but Nana and I talked about so many things during those strawberry digs - like how she used to pick cotton and how she became a fruit picker during the depression - lot's of important things. I know you and your kids could have the same kinds of talks! :) Anyway, the muffins look great and I've scheduled you for social media later today!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kelli,
      What a wonderful memory. My kids and I have interesting talks while hauling mulch or cooking dinner, but I know I'm more impatient than a grandma would be.
      Thank you for sharing the memory with me, and thanks for sharing this post around! I appreciate it.

      Delete
  4. I feel this way about mangoes. I absolutely refuse to buy them in the supermarket because they just never taste as good as one picked right from the tree.
    Those muffins are beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kelly,
      Exactly! Except now I'm not living in Hawaii any more, with access to the mango tree over by my daughter's preschool or the papaya tree next door or the banana tree in the back yard. Sigh. So I've got to change up my priorities for those tropical fruits here in Ohio!
      Thanks!

      Delete
  5. While I can't give you strawberry growing advice, I am so lucky that strawberry stands spring up around here for about 3 months every year from California farmers, and the strawberries are as big as kiwis. The ones in grocery stores don't even compare. Your muffins sound so good!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Karen,
      I'm so glad that California strawberries in California are sold at strawberry stands. Here we have corn stands, which just floored me the first summer, but now I plan around it!
      Thanks!

      Delete
  6. I'm with you on tomatoes, but I have to eat my berries year round, even when they don't taste nearly as good as the locally grown and seasonal batch. I also planted strawberries...two summers ago, and I'm hopeful we'll get a few this year. I'm also hopeful I'll get a chance to go strawberry picking so I can stock up and freeze some. Cross your fingers for me.

    P.S. Pass me a muffin please.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meghan,
      My fingers are crossed. Eventually you'll go strawberry picking--and soon enough Ave will "help" you by picking all the underripe berries. Kids are especially good at that. ;)
      I'm working on peach muffins now, with my Georgia peaches picked up on the trip. Will those do?
      Thanks!

      Delete
  7. I have been adoring all the strawberries I pick up each week at the farmers market. I definitely need to make these muffins. So pretty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lauren,
      I'm looking forward to the farmer's market berries--it's the season!
      Thanks!

      Delete