Strawberry Breakfast Muffins That Set the Perfect Mood for Your Valentine’s Day

Sweet, light, and packed with fruity flavor, these strawberry muffins are the perfect addition to your breakfast or brunch menu. This easy strawberry muffin recipe uses fresh strawberries and a hint of vanilla flavor to create a delicious and versatile muffin that the whole family will love. And they only take 30 minutes to bake!

Why this is the best Strawberry muffin recipe

1. It is easy to make - You do not need fancy ingredients, equipment, or baking experience for this strawberry muffins recipe.
2. It does not take much time - They are ready in just half an hour: Eight minutes of prep time and 22 minutes of bake time.
3. They are super moist - Unlike some muffin recipes, this one uses a combination of oil and butter to make the muffins super light and fluffy! It also includes a signature vinegar and baking soda hack, making them incredibly spongy and moist.
4. It is versatile - There are endless ways to customize and kick up the flavor of these muffins. See the Variations and Substitutions section at the end for inspiration!
5. They are easy to store - These muffins are also perfect for batch cooking, as you can make them in advance and store them in the refrigerator or freezer. Be sure to check out my tips for storing muffins.

Ingredients

Ingredients

• ▢200 g (1 cups) Granulated sugar
• ▢113 g (½ cups) Unsalted butter room temperature
• ▢113 g (½ cups) Oil
• ▢2 Egg
• ▢2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
• ▢250 g (2 cups) All purpose flour
• ▢1 teaspoon Baking powder
• ▢½ teaspoon Salt
• ▢180 g (¾ cups) Whole milk room temperature
• ▢1 teaspoon Baking soda
• ▢1 teaspoon White vinegar
• ▢250 g (2 cups) Strawberry Preferably fresh, cut into smaller pieces. You can use frozen strawberries but do not thaw.

How to make this recipe

1. How to make strawberry muffins

1. Preheat your oven to 175C / 347F (no fan). Then, lightly grease a muffin tin with butter or nonstick cooking spray, or prepare it with paper liners.
2. With an electric hand mixer, cream the room-temperature butter and sugar in a large bowl for a few minutes until it reaches a light and fluffy texture. Very slowly, mix in each egg one at a time. Then, add the vanilla extract.
3. Slowly pour in the oil while continuing to whip the mixture. Then, slowly pour in the room-temperature milk and continue to whip the batter.
4. Sift in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt). Then, switch to a rubber spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the batter just until combined. Do not overmix.
5. In a small bowl, combine the vinegar with baking soda. It will be very bubbly. Immediately fold the mixture into the muffin batter just until combined.
6. Put approximately 24 strawberry pieces aside and, with a rubber spatula, carefully fold the rest into the batter. Be careful not to mash them while folding.

💡 Top Tip: Use only the equipment noted in the recipe to prevent the batter from being overmixed. Stick to a rubber spatula to fold the dry ingredients and the strawberries into the batter.

2. How to bake

1. Pour the muffin batter into the muffin tin cavities until each is approximately ¾ full. Then, press two strawberry pieces onto the top of each.
2. Place the muffin tin in the oven and bake for approximately 20-22 minutes. You can also use the "toothpick test" and insert a toothpick in the center of the muffin. If it comes out clean, the muffins are done.
3. Serve fresh from the oven, or store at room temperature in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

💡 Top Tip: For a mess-free and even distribution of the batter into the muffin cups, use a small ice cream scoop or piping bag to pour in the batter.

Flavor variations and substitutions

These light and healthy strawberry muffins are the perfect treat on their own. However, you can customize your muffins and enhance the flavor even more with one of these many flavor variations and substitutes:

If you love chocolate-covered strawberries, add cocoa powder and chocolate chips to the batter as I do in my brownie muffins to make chocolate strawberry muffins! 

Combine or replace the strawberries with other sweet berries such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, or cherries.

Fold in mashed bananas to tropical-flavored strawberry banana muffins.

Turn them into strawberry lemon muffins by adding grating lemon zest to the batter. You can also try orange zest for strawberry orange muffins.

Add chopped rhubarb to make fruity, tart strawberry rhubarb muffins.

Add crushed nuts such as pecans or walnuts to give your muffins a crunchy texture, plus protein!

Fill the muffins with strawberry puree as I do in my strawberry-filled cupcakes. You can also try other creamy fillings, such as my homemade lemon curd, or cream cheese filling for strawberry cream cheese muffins!

Add toppings for a sweet finishing touch. Top them with powdered sugar, turbinado sugar, or streusel crumb topping.

Replace half the white sugar with brown sugar for a sweet, molasses-like flavor.

Replace the vanilla extract with almond extract for a nutty flavor profile. Or, use a bit of both!

Make egg-free muffins with one of these many egg substitutions.

Switch out the all-purpose flour for one of the alternatives in my flour guide for gluten-free muffins.

Expert tips

1. Always bake in preheated oven.
2. To give your strawberry muffins the best flavor, use fresh strawberries. If you want to make strawberry muffins with frozen strawberries, do not thaw them first. However, you may need to increase the baking time by 2-3 minutes to compensate for the extra moisture.
3. The butter, eggs, and milk (your wet ingredients) must be at room temperature to prevent the batter from baking. To help bring the eggs to room temperature quicker, you can set them in a bowl of warm water for five minutes.
4. It is important to add the wet ingredients to the batter very slowly. The batter could break and curdle if you pour them in too quickly.
5. Whisk the dry ingredients in a small bowl to evenly distribute them before adding them to the batter.

More Muffin and Breakfast Recipes

Fragrant and full of flavor, these melt-in-your-mouth brioche cinnamon rolls are the best thing in the morning! Made with buttery brioche dough rolled up with a sweet cinnamon sugar filling and topped with a creamy homemade cream cheese frosting, you'll want to have them for breakfast as well as dessert!

Go to the recipe: Brioche Cinnamon Roll

Red Velvet Muffins

These heavenly red velvet muffins topped with a light and creamy cream cheese frosting are incredibly moist, super fluffy, and simply scrumptious! With all the same rich flavor of a red velvet cake and a dash of magic with my secret baking tricks, this recipe is the ultimate handheld version of the beloved classic! 

Go to the recipe: Red Velvet Muffins

Cinnamon Apple Cake

This easy, no-butter cinnamon apple cake is just what you need to bring your dessert table to life this fall! It has a moist cinnamon cake layer topped with fresh apples and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar for the perfect finishing touch. Serve it with a bowl of vanilla ice cream or a hot cup of coffee or tea as a sweet breakfast dessert!

Go to the recipe: Cinnamon Apple Cake