Strawberry Cream Muffins

Strawberries just scream summer.

Muffins usually don’t excite me much. I guess I’ve had too many dry and tasteless ones that I just think “meh”.  Well, I had a container of sour cream in the fridge that had to be used, so I cracked open a few cookbooks. I asked Alex what he thought of having muffins, and we was all for it, so I figured at least one of us would enjoy them. As you probably expected, I ended up eating the majority of them. I’m not exaggerating, these gave me a whole new perspective on muffins, thank goodness! Super moist and just sweet enough. The sour cream had to be the key ingredient here.

Although I used frozen strawberries, fresh should work, too. Take advantage of them while you can! Shortly after making the muffins, I ran to Berkeley Bowl and picked us up some fresh beauties. Check ‘em out.

Strawberry Cream Muffins, adapted from Taste of Home Baking Book

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries, chopped
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add berries and toss gently. In another bowl, combing the eggs, sour cream, oil, vanilla and almond extracts; mix well. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture just until moistened.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Makes about 17 muffins