ALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: Strawberry Lemonade Mini-Muffins!

Continuing the 6-year old’s journey through Baked Goods vis The Great British Bake-Off, I bring to you another Bastian Original.

They asked if we could spend the afternoon watching "a whole Eurovision, not like some songs but a whole one start to finish" and making "strawberry lemonade" mini muffins.

I MEAN I AM NOT GOING TO SAY NO, AM I?

But I had to think it through--exactly what is the difference, if any, between strawberry lemon muffins and strawberry lemonade muffins? And I think I managed to thread the needle. The lemonade part comes in the zesty sugar topping and soaking the strawberries in sugar and strawberry extract (especially with winter strawberries being pretty tasteless, this step helps so much). Every bite of strawberry has a ton of flavor, but they're kind of sequestered off from the cake like tiny strawberry bombs in a sea of lemon. It actually DOES end up tasting very slightly fizzy? In a good way? I ENDED UP VERY PLEASED WITH THESE.

They also whip up in such a short time, this is literally about as easy as baking gets. If you're using a mini-muffin tin this recipe makes 24 muffins. If you're using a regular one, I wouldn't bet on more than 12, and probably more like 10 if you like BIG MUFFINS AND YOU CANNOT LIE.

Enjoy! GOOD AFTERNOON, EUROPE!

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar + 2 tablespoons

Zest from 2 whole lemons

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons melted butter

1 egg

2 tablespoons whole milk

1/2 cup diced strawberries (diced very small, I'm talking 1/3 inch cubes. I used about 15 small strawberries, if you have big ones you won't need so many, but you'll need 1/2 cup at the end whatever size your berries are)

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 teaspoon strawberry extract (I realize both extracts might not be in your regular rotation--you could easily use limoncello and strawberry liqueur or even strawberry Nesquik syrup, or omit entirely. But the strawberry helps a LOT with wan, lifeless off-season berries. You won't need it with fresh fruit in the summer.)

MUFFIN FLOOR SHOW DOUZE POINTS

Pre-heat oven to 400 and either grease a mini-muffin (or normal muffin) tin or line with cupcake wrappers as is your preference. If you have a silicon tin, you don't need any of that, but remember to put it on a flat baking tray and not directly on the rack.

Remove caps and dice all strawberries. Combine in a small bowl with extract and 1 tablespoon sugar, stir to coat and set aside.

Zest lemon, combine in a large bowl with extract and 1 tablespoon sugar, mix well and crush zest against the side of the bowl with the flat edge of your spoon to release the oils. Reserve about 1-1.5 tablespoons of ZESTY SUGAR for topping. Set this bowl aside, it will be the final mixing bowl to contain all ingredients.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a regular mixing bowl (SO MANY BOWLS). Add melted butter to the mixing bowl with remaining sugar and zest and whisk well. Whisk in the egg, then the milk. Add dry ingredients and stir until just combined, some lumps are fine. Stir in lemon juice.

Fill each muffin tin about 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle a bit of reserved zest/extract/sugar mixture onto the top of each muffin. Zest more if you need it, depending on how big your lemons are.

Bake until golden brown and a fork through the middle comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Let cool before removing the muffins, they are EXTREMELY moist and will fall apart if you don't give them time to set.

These are PHENOMENAL with coffee. BASTIAN IS KILLING IT WITH THESE RECIPE IDEAS!