Strawberry Yoghurt Muffins

Do you like strawberries in baked goods?  I have to say that I am not a huge fan.  I like fresh strawberries on top of cakes and tarts, but strawberries baked into cakes and biscuits do not generally appeal to me - they undergo a textural and flavour change that doesn't sit well with me.

However, my mind was changed somewhat by a recipe for strawberry and yoghurt muffins that appeared on p18 of February 2011 Super Food Ideas magazine.  These muffins contain wholemeal flour and minimum sugar and oil, together with strawberries, cranberries and no fat yoghurt.  This means that if you like to have a treat in your lunchbox, these are on the "healthy" side. While the wholemeal flour makes these muffins a little denser than muffins made with white flour, I enjoyed the texture that it brought to the muffins.  Best of all, they taste good.

To make these muffins, you will need:

250g fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped
2 cups wholemeal self raising flour

1/2 cup self raising flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 lightly beaten egg
1/4 cup olive or other vegetable oil (I used canola)

1 3/4 cups fat-free strawberry yoghurt

1 tablespoon demerara sugar

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius.  Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper muffin cases. 

Combine the flours, cinnamon, brown sugar and cranberries together in a bowl.  Stir in the egg, oil, yoghurt and strawberries.  (I used 1 cup yoghurt + 1/2 cup light sour cream + 1/4 cup skim milk.)  Spoon the batter into the muffin cases, and sprinkle the tops of the muffins with demerara sugar.  (I just used granulated white sugar.)

Bake the muffins in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through.  Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before unmoulding onto a wire rack to cool completely.  (The resting part is important, as the fruit content makes the muffins a little fragile when they first come out of the oven.)