Strawberry fare muffins

makes 10

Jan Bilton

Food writer and cookbook author.

Muffins continue to be New Zealand's top mid-morning treat. And they're easy to prepare. The dry ingredients are mixed in one bowl, the liquid in another, then the two are combined until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Choose your favourite red wine – it provides colour, flavour and a little acid that combines with the baking soda to make the muffins rise even further. Baking takes about 15 minutes. So in 30 minutes you can whip up and bake a simple super treat. Blueberries could replace the strawberries. They should be used whole.

Muffins

4 cups	Self raising flour (Main)
½ tsp	Baking soda
½ tsp	Salt
½ tsp	Ground cinnamon
¾ cup	Sugar
1 ½ cups	Strawberries, diced (Main)
1 ½ cups	Milk
2	Eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup	Canola oil
½ cup	Red wine

Topping

12 small	Strawberries, halved lengthwise
5 tsp	Sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line 10-12 muffin holes with paper cases. Use Texas muffin pans or similar.
Sift the flour, baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar. Gently mix in the strawberries.
In another bowl, whisk in the milk, eggs, oil and wine. Gently fold into the dry ingredients, until just moistened.
Spoon into the paper cases. Top each with 2 strawberry halves. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean and the tops are golden. Serve warm with cream cheese, yoghurt or whipped cream