Strawberry Balsamic Muffins

I love Elise over at Simply Recipes. She has a masterful sense of food. I trust her. That’s the only reason why I considered putting balsamic vinegar and black pepper in these muffins. What a combo! It makes me want to plant another row of strawberries in the garden.

Months later Frederick convinced me to try some cookies with black pepper and rosemary. I think it all began with these muffins.

Since enjoying these muffins, I have come to discover that strawberries and balsamic vinegar combination is not news. I guess I was too busy gardening to notice!

The recipe that follows is a bit of an adaptation of Elise’s recipe to better fit our diet specs. You may want to check out Simply Recipes to see where this luscious muffin came from.

Strawberry Balsamic Muffins Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 pound strawberries (about 1 1/2 cups of chopped berries)
• 1 tablespoon of softened (liquid) honey
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup sucanat (whole cane sugar, or sugar of your choice)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup freshly ground spelt flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Strawberry Balsamic Muffins Steps

1. For a less chewy muffin, whirl the oats in the blender for about 30 seconds. Mix the oats and yogurt together in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
2. Wash and slice the strawberries. Bruise them just a bit to release juices and add the honey and vinegar. Stir gently and set aside.
3. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pepper, and cinnamon.
4. Place muffin papers into a 12 muffin cup pan, or grease each muffin cup.
5. Add the eggs, butter, sucanat and vanilla to the oat mixture. Stir well.
6. Stir the dry ingredients into the oat mixture. Do not over-mix. The dough will be thick.
7. Pour the strawberry mix on top of the batter and gently stir it in.
8. Work fast. The baking powder and baking soda are already mixing with the vinegar and going to town…rising! Get that batter into the muffin cups.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. The tops should be lightly browned and a toothpick stuck into one of the muffins should come out clean.
10. Remove the muffins from oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes before serving. It’s tough to wait once you smell these muffins in the making but lack of restraint could get you burned. The fruit sugar is really hot.

These muffins are a treat any time. The first time we had them we hung over the deck and watched the sun go down.