Strawberry Lemon Muffins

This is the first year we have fresh strawberries in the garden and they keep growing faster than we can eat! So I have been on the hunt for some delicious recipes and came across these gems. It uses one pint of fresh strawberries and a fresh lemon, however I used all my lemons for the strawberry lemonade cupcakes so I just used lemon juice out of the bottle which worked just as good!  These muffins stay nice and moist from the fresh strawberries and the glaze adds an extra touch of sweetness.

Strawberry Lemon Muffins

Makes about 20 muffins

Muffin:
2 1/2 cups four

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk**
2/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (1 pint) fresh strawberries, chopped

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp milk
dash salt

In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Zest your lemon and add to the dry ingredients, stirring to combine. Add chopped strawberries to flour mixture and toss to coat.

Juice lemon. In another medium mixing bowl combine the beaten egg, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and lemon. Whisk until well incorporated. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Stir until just combined.

Line your muffin tins with paper liners then spray the insides with cooking spray. Spoon batter into the muffin tins till almost full as they don't rise up a lot.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool muffins in pan for about 10 minutes then transfer to wife rack to cool completely.

While they are still warm, whisk together all glaze ingredients and then spoon over the top of the muffins.

These muffins are great warm from the oven, but taste even better the second day. They are a great make ahead recipes.

**Baking Tip: If you don't have buttermilk just combined 3/4 cup regular milk with 2 tsp vinegar or lemon juice and let stand a few minutes to sour. Works great as a substitute!!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

I love baking with pumpkin, it makes the house smell so good and it feels like Fall. This was my first recipe baking with my fresh pumpkin and I'm not sure I can go back! These muffins where so moist and delicious! I brought them to work today and a couple co-workers that don't even like pumpkin loved them! It's a super easy recipe that can be baked in regular size muffin tin or mini. I wanted to use my mini muffin tin for the first time so I made mini's, aren't they the cutest little things!!

Mini's!!

Pumpkin Ginger Spice Muffins:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• 1/3 cup melted butter
  
• 2 eggs, beaten
  
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts or pecans (optional)
• 2 Tbsp well chopped candied ginger (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda. Mix the pumpkin, melted butter, eggs, water, and spices together, then combine with the dry ingredients, until just incorporated. Do not over-mix. Fold in the candied ginger and chopped nuts. Spoon mixture into a prepared muffin tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin. If it comes out clean, it's done. Cool on a rack. Makes 12 regular size muffins, I got 35 mini muffins.

I opted not add nuts or candied ginger and they were really good. I think I might even add some of the pumpkin cream cheese for a filling... ooh I think that would just be heaven!!