January 13, 2010

Strawberry Muffins

Have anyone of you been to Quattro Stagiono Deli at Liang Court, Basement one, River Valley Road? If you do, please do feedback to me how you find the food there. Well, there was this food review from the Oct 2008 issue of Food & Travel Magazine featuring this Italian Deli of one-year old (it should be two years old by now).
Specially raved for are their sandwiches, with their "amazing crunch". Being a sandwich lover, why did I ever miss this visiting this place?
Two recipes of their best sellers were featured - Baked Pasta in basil pesto sauce and Muffins Alla Fragola (strawberry muffins). I had been bookmarking the strawberry muffin recipe and finally gave it a try a couple of months back. These muffins were moist with a perfect blend of strawberry and chocolate flavours in one bite. The recipe called for using a mixture of buttermilk and yoghurt and I suppose there must be a reason for doing this. However, I did not want to buy extra ingredients and had used all yoghurt. With chunks of strawberries in every mouthful, this is indeed a luscious treat for a simple muffin. The only downside was the strawberries were rather wet. Should I pat it dry before mixing into the batter?

Muffins Alla Fragola (Strawberry Muffins)
Ingredients:
75g butter
230g all-purpose flour
100g sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
125ml plain yoghurt
125ml buttermilk
1 cup raspberries
300g strawberries, quartered
topping ingredients:
40g chocolate chips
50g brown sugar, preferably unrefined
Method:
  1. Preheat oven to 200°C and grease a set of muffin tins or prepare muffin paper liners.
  2. Melt butter and set aside to cool.
  3. In a small bowl, combine chocolate chips and brown sugar and set aside.
  4. In a medium mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt).
  5. In another medium bowl, whisk together wet ingredients (egg, yoghurt, buttermilk, and melted butter).
  6. Male a well in the centre of dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients. Fold with a spatula until misture is lumpy, do not over-mix.
  7. Then fold in the berries.
  8. Spoon batter into prepared tins and sprinkle chocolate chips and brown sugar mixture on top. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.
  9. Turn out on a cooling rack to rest, and wait for 10 to 15 minutes before removing from the tin.
Recipe Source: Food & Travel - Oct 2008 Issue (Pg 25)

7 comments:

tracieMoo said...

wow. it looks really moist and I'm sure the yogurt would make the muffins taste great too! I see why you have bookmarked it. It looks really lovely.

Pei-Lin said...

The muffins do look extremely moist!! Choco & strawberry are such sweet combo!! Perfect for Valentine's, too!

Pei-Lin

Aimei said...

Hi tracieMoo and Pei Lin, this is indeed a very moist muffin! Do try it! :)

thecoffeesnob said...

That sounds like a delicious combination! I've never baked with strawberries- do they turn mushy when baked?

Unknown said...

wow all of your cakes look really moist and yummy! i cant really bake - some of my cakes go really dry :(.

well done!

Aimei said...

Hi thecoffeesnob, the muffin don't turn mushy but its those parts around the strawberries that tend to be a lttle mushy. So i think its good not to add in too many strawberries. :)

Thanks Ann, I think you do bake and can cook very well! You are very adventurous in the kitchen!

Ju (The Little Teochew) said...

The texture looks amazing!