There a fantastic local strawberry farm called Cooloola Berries in our area. I have been buying their strawberries for two years now and reckon they are the most juicy and sweet strawberries. When I saw their stall at the markets, I couldn’t resist and bought 2kgs of delicious strawberries. Half of these were scoffed down straight from the punnet. Then my kids went on school camp. I had another kilo sitting in the fridge, I was thinking of freezing them then decided to make Strawberry Chocolate Muffins as a welcome back treat for the kids. These were going to be just strawberry muffins but I thought as an extra treat I’d add chocolate to them!

 

Strawberry Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of melted butter
• 3 tablespoons of coconut sugar
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of strawberry yogurt
• 1 and a 1/2 cups of chopped strawberries
• 1 and 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 3 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of bi-carb soda
• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips
• extra chopped strawberries to top muffins

 

Method 

• Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.
• Pop muffin cases in a 12 hole muffin tray.
• Whizz the 1 and 1/2 cups of chopped strawberries in a food processor till pureed.
• Beat the butter, egg, vanilla, sugar, yogurt and strawberry puree together.
• In another bowl, mix the flour, bi-carb and baking powder together. Add the chocolate chips to this bowl and mix through.
• Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir till just combined. The secret of light muffins is not to over-mix.
• Spoon the muffin mixture in the prepared tray. Top the muffins with chopped strawberries.
• Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.

Substitutions 

• Brown sugar or honey can be used instead of coconut sugar.
• No strawberry yogurt? Use plain or vanilla yogurt.
• Shredded coconut can be used instead of choc chips.
• Macadamia nut oil or sunflower oil can be used instead of butter.
• Use blueberries instead of chopped strawberries for the topping for a mixed berry muffin 🙂

My kids were super happy to come home to fresh baked muffins. Their teacher even got one the next day.

Quick Strawberry Sauce

With the rest of the berries I made a quick strawberry sauce. With two out of three kids at school camp I decided to treat my 5 year old to a pancake dinner.

I started making this sauce last winter to go on top on my porridge. It is simple and takes less then 10 minutes depending on how many berries you have.

All you need to do is add chopped strawberries to a saucepan. The smaller the strawberries the quicker they will take to cook. Put this on low heat. As the strawberries cook, they get soft. Stir and squish this the strawberries until they are how you like them. Sometimes I like the sauce with super mushy, other times I like the sauce chunky so I won’t squish the strawberries as much.

As there is no liquid added to the chopped strawberries you do need to keep an eye on this sauce for the first few minutes. Then the strawberries break down and release their yummy juices. A few stirs of the saucepan will see the strawberries not stick to the bottom of the pan.

Once the sauce is to your liking, add maple syrup and balsamic vinegar to taste. For example, on the night we had our pancake dinner I used about 2 punnets of strawberries. After cooking them down, I added one tablespoon of maple syrup and 1/2 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar.

Store any leftover strawberry sauce in the fridge. This will keep for a few days…if you don’t eat it before then!

What strawberry treats are you whipping up in your kitchen? Please feel free to comment below.