Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins

As promised, I have returned to the kitchen!

Based on our schedules, we stuck with some of the basics for dinner this week - pork chops, tacos, nothing too crazy. But still delicious! So when the weekend came around I was determined to get back to baking!

For no real reason at all, I decided that I wanted to make muffins. So I headed over to my favorite time-waster, Pinterest, and came across a recipe for Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins that both myself and my SO were happy to settle on!

By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around I was completely uninterested in baking, but I persevered! And to be honest, the biggest reason for my hesitation... this recipe makes for A LOT of dishes.

There is the muffin part (broken down into dry ingredients and wet ingredients), the cheesecake part, and the crumble part. We're already talking 4 bowls! And then you have all of the measuring cups and spoons... it felt as though the list went on and on.

But I must admit... in the end, it was all worth it.

As for my thoughts on how they turned out...

The Good - moist, delicious strawberries, excellent flavor

The Bad - hardly any cheesecake flavor to them at all!

I was a bit surprised by this, considering the cheesecake batter tasted very strongly of cream cheese. I'm not sure if i didn't put in enough, or what the case may be... but it just wasn't what I expected. It doesn't detract from the deliciousness of the muffins, it just didn't meet the expectation I had built up in my head when I read Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins.

If you're interested in also giving these a try, here is the recipe:

Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins
Muffin:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups chopped strawberries

Filling:
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Topping:
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp butter

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat together the milk, oil, egg, vanilla and sugar.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
5. In another bowl, cream together the ingredients for the filling.
6. In a separate bowl, combine the topping ingredients of flour, sugar and cinnamon. Add the butter and cut with a fork until you get a grainy texture.
7. Prepare muffin tins by either lining with cupcake liners or greasing.
8. Add one spoonful of the muffin batter to each, followed by a small spoonful of strawberries, followed by a spoonful of the cheesecake mixture and a sprinkle of the topping.
9. Add another spoonful of the muffin batter, top with strawberries and sprinkle with topping.
10. Once you've finished with all muffins, put them in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

And then simply enjoy!!

They are very tasty when you eat them straight out of the oven (a tip from me to you)!

For the original recipe, check out this link.

Let me know what you think!

Until next time...

D.