Strawberry Orange Muffins

It seems like when I bake with strawberries I have mixed results - probably because I'm often times not following a recipe. Strawberries add a lot of moisture to whatever you're baking so you have to be careful - I've tried making a strawberry banana bread without much luck, though just last week I made a lemon strawberry tea cake that came out delicious! A while back I found a recipe for these muffins which used the pureed strawberries as the liquid in the recipe which was a smart way to use them and keep the recipe healthy at the same time!

Strawberry Orange Muffins
1 1/4 cups strawberries, hulled
3 TB butter, melted
3 tsp orange rind, grated
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole wheat white flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
cinnamon sugar to sprinkle on top

1. Combine strawberries, butter, orange rind and eggs in a blender until well mixed.

The best tool for the orange rind is one of those hand held graters, grating right over the blender (you can eyeball it on the 3 tsp - I wouldn't worry about it being too citrusy).

2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and whisk together.
3. Add the liquid strawberry mixture all at once to the dry ingredients and stir just until moist - don't over mix or the dough will become dense!

4. Spoon the batter into 12 lightly greased muffin cups and sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar.

5. Bake at 380 degrees for 20 minutes. Use a toothpick to insert into the center of one of the middle muffins and if it comes out without wet muffing mixture on it they are done!

Make sure to take the muffins out of the pan immediately so that they don't continue to cook in the pan. Enjoy! I just ate the last of these muffins this past week because it made so many I had to freeze at least half a dozen! They froze okay - but they were better when they were fresh from the oven. I think the moisture in them made the tops sticky when frozen and then defrosted.