Last week it was finally strawberry season here in Illinois! My husband was out of town for the week on a fishing trip with his dad, so the girls and I decided to head to our local strawberry farm to pick some fresh berries.
At the farm they give each child their own small basket and then they give each adult a larger basket. It’s not a fancy place, but it was just the perfect place for this mama and two little ladies.
The girls were very busy picking their berries. Savannah stayed very focused and picked a ton. Matilda, however, eventually decided it was best just to eat all the berries she was picking that way her basket would be empty and she could wear it as a hat.
We ended up with a huge basket of berries. Both the girls started just filling up mama’s basket and we filled it to the brim!
Once we had all our berries picked, it was time to head home and figure out what to do with all these gorgeous little red berries.
So we had picked all of these berries and I knew we needed to make something with them because, especially with my husband being away, there was no way we were going to eat this whole basket. I thought about strawberry scones and strawberry cake, but settled on strawberry muffins. I added some cinnamon to make these a little different than your average muffin and oh.my.goodness – they are delicious.
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 sticks butter, melted
1 1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Prep your strawberries by taking the tops off and cutting them in half. Some of our berries were pretty tiny so I just left those whole.
Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, except for the sugar. In a separate bowl, combine all wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and combine. Toss your strawberries with the sugar.
Add strawberry/sugar mixture to the muffin mixture and fold in gently to combine.
Spray two muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray (you could also use muffin liners, if you prefer). Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup and fill each muffin tin just about to the top.
Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean.
Allow muffins to cool and then remove from pan. If you do not plan to eat your muffins that day, I suggest freezing them. Strawberries tend to make baked goods kind of soggy if they sit too long.
Place them in a freezer bag and lay them flat in your freezer for the initial freeze. You can pull the muffins out one at a time when you are ready to eat them, microwave for about 45 seconds and they literally taste like you just pulled them out of the oven. This is also a great technique if you have guests coming for a visit and you want to bake prior to their arrival or for a quick breakfast before work or school.
Lindsay Wilkes is the owner and designer behind The Cottage Mama. She creates timeless, vintage inspired sewing patterns for children’s clothes. She is also a fabric designer for Riley Black Designers / Penny Rose Fabrics, author of the book ‘Sew Classic Clothes for Girls’ and can be seen teaching nationwide and online in her video series ‘Lessons with Lindsay’ sponsored by Baby Lock Sewing and Embroidery machines.
Precious moments.
Looks so fun! I love how your kids match the strawberry field! There’s nothing like berry picking in the summer!
Jo-Anna
The muffins look delicious! I went strawberry picking with my 2 year old daughter last week. It was an adventure. 🙂 My daughter ate strawberries too, but she took just one or two bites and put the rest back in the basket. I didn’t know that it would be ok just to throw them in the field (the workers told me that *after* I paid! LOL) so I came home with almost 20 half-eaten strawberries! I made mine into jam and strawberry lemon marmalade. Yum!
Thank you for the recipe and the prescious pictures of moments you’re going to remember. I remember those myself when my children were all smaller. Each summer I’d take them to a strawberry farm near our home and we’d do the same. Sadly, all the strawberry farms near us have now closed. 🙁 The one that was only about 1/4 mile away is now a field filled with ugly orange storage units. I feel sad each time I drive by and remember the fun in picking strawberries each summer.
I would LOVE to know where you went as I sit crossing my fingers you are somewhat close to me.