Strawberry Lemonade Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp lemon zest
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 cups finely chopped fresh strawberries

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in lemon zest, then blend in the eggs one at a time.

Stir in about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix well, then add in vanilla extract and half of the lemon juice. Add another third of the flour, followed by the remaining juice and the remaining flour mix. Stir until just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Mix in finely chopped strawberries quickly, just to distribute them evenly into the batter.

Spoon batter out into prepared muffin cups. The muffin cups should be very full.

Bake for 17-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, or with only a few moist crumbs attached. Start at 17 mins and keep adding time in 3 min. increments until cooked through. Turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 12 muffins.

Notes & Tips:
You'll need about 3 or 4 large lemons to get enough juice for the quantity needed. Please use fresh lemons and strawberries. It gives the muffins a fizzy pop. Also, the 1 1/2 cup chopped strawberries looks like alot but the amount is just about perfect. Fresh and delicious. The muffins don't rise very much so feel free to fill the cups to the top.