Strawberry Lemon Sourdough Muffins

Our Christmas Eve Dinner tradition is to have soup in bread bowls. I decided to be adventurous and make my own sourdough bread bowls this year and so I began a sourdough starter that I have been feeding since. I have been on the hunt for a recipe so that I could use some of my starter. I came across a recipe for Blueberry Sourdough Muffins and decided to make it à la Amber.

I opened up my freezer -- no blueberries. I looked on my counter and I spied some lemons. Hmmm... what could be done with those? I opened the freezer again in search of fruit. Ah ha! Strawberries! My little mind began to work on creating a lemony strawberry sweet sourdoughy moist breakfast delight.

I'm the kind of cook who has to have all the ingredients out and lined up on the counter within reach so I'm not searching only to discover that I don't have something I need.

 The players: All purpose flour, butter, vanilla extract, lemons, strawberries (frozen), sourdough starter, sugar, egg, salt.

What recipe can possibly be a bad idea that includes lemon, butter, and sugar? None that I know! I cracked my egg into the bowl and added some vanilla to get started.

 

I stirred up my starter, melted my butter, and thawed my strawberries. I would recommend fresh strawberries, but frozen worked fine. Mine were from last season, so they were a little watery and I had to drain them but it worked out just fine. You could substitute any kind of berry and these would be just as delicious, maybe even more so!

I added the sourdough starter and melted butter to my egg and vanilla and whisked things around a little. Then I added my strawberries, zested two lemons, and juiced one and stirred things around a little bit.

It was time to work on the dry ingredients. I combined my flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda. And then added that to my wet ingredients.

I stirred everything around and it bubbled up like this.

See the bubbles?

I sprayed my muffin pans with some Pam spray, but you can use whatever you want. Just grease those babies up, much like a teenage girl might cover herself in tanning oil at the beach. I'd love to be at a warm beach right now. Ok, less thinking about a warm beach and back to cooking...

I filled my muffin cups almost to the top, over 2/3 full. Mine didn't rise a lot, but didn't need to because of all the air bubbles in them. Pop them in the oven at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool on a cooling rack and enjoy!

Not entirely sure why its so brown, but just go with it.

Strawberry Lemon Sourdough Muffins
Ingredients:
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup sugar
1/2 cup strawberries chopped (frozen or fresh)
Zest of 2 lemons (about 1 tsp)
Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tbsp)
Method:
Preheat oven to 425F.
Combine dry ingredients in small bowl. Combine wet ingredients in medium bowl. Stir in strawberries.  Add dry ingredients to wet ones. Stir until combined, but don’t overmix.
Bake for 20 min or until tooth pick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.

Healthier Substitions:
Instead of butter, use ¼ cup of oil or ¼ cup of applesauce
Sugar can be reduced by half, or substitute equivalent of artificial sweetener
In place of the egg, use 1 tbsp ground flax seed and 3 tbsp water