Strawberry Almond Muffins

H-Bomb has the distinction of being "the leader" on the final day of preschool, so he gets to bring the final snack! I asked him what he wanted; he said "how about muffins?!" I asked what kind; he requested strawberry. I rifled through my extensive recipe collection, and here we are. I got this off the Internet years ago, from some random strawberry recipe website that I didn't write down.

They sounded good, and somewhat healthy, so we tried them. Every single time it was H-Bomb's turn to be the leader and bring snack, we brought something relatively healthy. Snack time is around 10:am, and I just felt like it was too early for a bunch of sugar. I was in the minority! Every day he wasn't the leader, I would ask him what he had for snack, and he was say something along the lines of "cookies with frosting!" or "chocolate and marshmallows!" or "sugar covered sugar!" until I had just about had it. Poor Miss Julie!

Whenever it was H-Bomb's turn, he brought some flavor of homemade muffins, homemade granola and bananas, fruits and veggies in rainbow hues, that kind of thing. ONE time he did bring cupcakes, but they formed a rabbit-shaped cake for Magic Week. (I tried to follow the themes too, but it was difficult) Anyway, I am looking forward to a preschool "snack"-free summer!

I guess I'm out of almond extract, so I used hazelnut extract. I'm a little bummed--the recipe made more than 12 muffins, so I put the rest into my mini muffin pan. I didn't have any more mini muffin liners, and although I cooked them for half the time, they burned. :-( The big ones are good though! I also meant to sprinkle the muffin tops with raw sugar, but I forgot! Next time for sure...

Here's the recipe.


Strawberry Almond Muffins

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups strawberries, chopped
3/4 cup slivered almonds

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In the bowl of an electric mixer or food processor, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, and blend until fluffy. Mix in the milk and the almond extract. In a separate bowl, sift the flours, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the milk mixture and blend until just combined. Fold in the strawberries and almonds. Fill the muffin cups to the top and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes 12 muffins.