This week, my mom had her check-up and her doctor gave her a list of foods she must not eat for more than a month. Oh wow, such a long list of no-no’s. A list of delicious ingredients common to my dish, example, the very fabulous butter. Of all ingredients, why butter? Anyway, I have to consider her doctor’s advise when cooking or else her medication will be useless, and take note, the medicines does not come cheap.
So, I must avoid butter in my cooking and baking. No butter in my baking! Its a big challenge specially when baking sweets and desserts, as butter make the dish more flavorful and rich. I’ve been thinking of what recipe to cook and strawberry muffins came out of my mind. I have never baked strawberry muffins or any kind of muffins before, so last Friday, I went to the grocery before going home to buy some stuffs. Since I already tried baking with canned blueberries, I told to myself to give canned strawberries a chance since I’m not a canned strawberries lover. Maybe you are asking why canned strawberries, well its the very same reason with blueberries. Fresh strawberries are not in season this month in the Philippines and when you find one, it’s very expensive for a one time dessert. It’s strawberry muffin this week but I have to make some few changes to make the dish more healthier.
For this strawberry muffin, I’ll be using vegetable oil instead of butter and brown sugar instead of white. Why brown sugar? Aside from giving this deep brown color to the strawberry muffin, brown sugar is much healthier than white sugar as it undergone less chemical process compared with white sugar. Also, I used a cup of rolled oats for additional health benefit. You can also use fresh strawberries or any fresh fruits you desire. I also added cinnamon since I really love the wonderful aroma and flavor it gives to the muffin and to complement the flavor of cinnamon, I also added powdered nutmeg. An addition of half a teaspoon will surely give you a different eating experience.
I baked my strawberry muffin in a 2 oz silicon muffin pan at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes and I got this soft, fluffy and almost cupcake-like softness. I baked another batch, but this time 2-3 minutes longer and I got a firmer type of muffin. So just decide whether you like it soft or firm. I love the way the strawberry oozed out of the strawberry muffin as I took my first bite. This muffin has the right amount of sweetness in every bite and an amazing flavor of cinnamon-nutmeg combo.
Ingredients
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1 cup Rolled Oats
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 cup Evaporated Milk
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1 piece Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Canned Strawberry Filling
Strawberry Filling for toppings
Procedure
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Combine flour, rolled oats, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Using a wire whisk, give it a quick whisk just to incorporate everything and all ingredients are equally distributed in the mixture. This will serve as your dry mixture.
In a separate bowl, mix milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract. Whisk until everything is well mixed.
Add about half a cup at a time and mix using a wire whisk. Continue until all the dry ingredients are added into the wet ingredients.
Add half cup of the strawberry filling and mashed it using the wire whisk. Don’t worry, as the filling is very, very soft so you’ll have no problem mashing it. Mix until evenly combined in the batter.
Place in a 2 oz muffin pan about 3/4 full. Top with the remaining strawberry filling and bake for 15 minutes for soft cupcake like softness or for 17 to 18 minutes for firmer type. Cool in a wire wrack for 30 minutes before removing from the pan.
