Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

One of the many weather bonuses of living in SoCal is the year-round strawberry season at the Farmer's Market. Last weekend, I bought some on a whim with no real plan for what I wanted to do with them. We needed some breakfasts for later in the week, so I decided to make strawberry muffins. Wanting to jazz them up a little, I added some mini chocolate chips and baking spices. It might be a little early to be thinking Valentine's Day, but these would be pretty perfect for the holiday with their pretty chunks of red.

I based the muffins off of the Nutella chocolate chip ones from last summer with the most notable change being buttermilk for yogurt since that's what I had on hand. Though they didn't quite rise as much (perhaps my California oven is a bit different than my Washington oven), they still came out looking fabulous. They tasted equally delicious, as we may have each eaten two for breakfast the next morning. They weren't that big, I promise!

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

yields 12 muffins

• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons Penzey's baking spice (mixture of cinnamon, anise, mace, and cardamom)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 cup strawberries, chopped
• sparkling sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 425º. Line muffin tin with paper cups.
2. Whisk together the eggs, butter, buttermilk, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until smooth.
3. Sift together 2 cups of flour with the baking powder, soda, salt, baking spice, and sugar in a medium sized bowl.
4. Slowly add the wet mixture to the dry mixture using a wooden spoon using about 15 strokes. You don't want to over mix the batter, but want all of the flour incorporated.
5. In a small bowl, toss the strawberry chunks with 2 tablespoons of flour to prevent red streaks in your muffins.
6. Fold in the mini chocolate chips and floured strawberries.
7. Divide equally between the muffins tins, filling almost but not quite to the top (you may have a little bit of batter leftover).
8. Sprinkle tops with coarse sugar if desired.
9. Bake for 5 minutes then reduce the heat to 375º without opening the oven and bake for another 15 minutes.
10. Allow to cool completely in the muffin tin before removing.