Strawberry Muffins

When Melissa and John came to visit, we had dinner at a famous Nashville "meat and three"- The Loveless Cafe. Everything there is absolutely wonderful. The other day, I was at a half-price book store and they had a copy of the Loveless Cafe cookbook and I couldn't resist picking up a copy for myself.

I love reading and looking through cookbooks. I saw a recipe for Strawberry Muffins and I thought the recipe looked delicious and unique.

Billy's surgery was originally scheduled for September, but they called us last week and it's been moved to tomorrow! It was kind of last minute notice, but I think it's going to work out perfectly. Jeremy and I will still be in Nashville and we won't have to worry about getting a flight in from OKC.

I decided to make Strawberry Muffins to take to the hospital for snacking- while everyone just waits around. They turned out pretty good- a nice alternative to the traditional blueberry.

Strawberry Muffins

½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled
1 ¼ cups sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Zest of ½ an orange
2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons plus ½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup roughly chopped strawberries (fresh or frozen)
½ cup buttermilk

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Whisk the butter, 1 ¼ cups sugar, salt, eggs, vanilla, and orange zest together in a bowl. Sift the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and ½ teaspoon cinnamon over the butter mix. Add the berries to the flour mix and gently fold a few times. Add the buttermilk and gently mix together.

Scoop out the dough into paper-lined muffin pans. Will make six Texas size muffins or twelve standard size muffins.

Combine the remaining 2 tablespoons of cinnamon with the remaining ¼ cup of sugar and sprinkle on top of the muffins. Bake for 20-35 minutes, depending on size of muffin.