recipe: strawberry muffins

A perfect storm brought strawberry muffins into my house last night. First, they're practically giving strawberries away at the grocery store this time of year, so I'm stocked up. Second, I had an opened carton of sour cream that needed to be used. Third, the weather was rainy and cool yesterday, so I could turn on the oven without heating up the house.

They turned out to be just lovely. They're quite tasty, and they're pink, thanks to pureed strawberries and food coloring.

Strawberry Muffins

• 1 stick of butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• red food coloring
• 1/2 cup strawberries, pureed in food processor 
• 1 cup strawberries, chopped
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

With a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla, 10 drops of red food coloring, and pureed strawberries.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir in the chopped strawberries.

Line muffin tins. Fill the cups 3/4 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until a toothpick has only a few crumbs on it.

This should make 12 muffins, but I had a little bit of batter left over, so I was able to get four bonus muffins out of this batch.