fresh strawberry cheesecake muffins;
You’ll get delicious chunks of fresh strawberries in every bite of these fresh strawberry cheesecake muffins. They’re warm, soft, and fluffy vanilla muffins with a crunchy crumble topping and an optional cream cheese filling. My partner swears by the cream cheese filling, though I personally don’t think the muffins need it—the fresh strawberry flavor does perfectly by itself!
It’s pretty straightforward to start with the muffin mix. A vanilla cake-like batter base that really just starts with mixing a bunch of staple pantry and fridge ingredients together. From there, we add strawberries.
We went strawberry picking last week, so my strawberries were super fresh and super sweet! You really can’t get better than fresh-picked strawberries. But of course, we can’t all go strawberry picking every week, so any strawberries will do!
The sweeter the better, and since we’re going to be baking these strawberries into our fresh strawberry cheesecake muffins, I’ll share a little secret. You can even use some strawberries, just a little past their prime! Overripe strawberries are usually full of sweetness. And since the heat and moisture will cause the strawberry chunks to soften slightly, you won’t notice the texture of overripeness as much as you would when eating a strawberry straight.
I’ll share a little secret: you can even slightly overripe strawberries. They’re usually full of sweetness and baking will soften the strawberries anyway so you won’t notice any texture issues.
Secret to success
Another key to strawberry deliciousness is to keep your strawberry chunks a consistent size. I went for probably somewhere between 1/4-1/3” chunks in my fresh strawberry cheesecake muffins. Of course,e it’s not an exact science, but I think this size worked great. The strawberries were suspended throughout the muffin well, so every bite had some strawberry goodness.
Now onto the cream cheese filling! As I mentioned before, I enjoyed the cream cheese filling. That said, it didn’t stand out as much as I thought it would when surrounded by the rest of the muffin. I think the fresh strawberry muffin shines by itself, so in the future, I might opt to just make the strawberry crumble part of these fresh strawberry cheesecake muffins sans cream cheese filling. But you can’t go wrong either way!
In the future I might opt sometimes to skip the cream cheese filling and just make strawberry crumble muffins.
Secret to success
And as for the crumble topping…I have to admit that when I first made the mixture as written on Recipe Masterpiece I was a little skeptical. It seemed very flour heavy and not a lot of butter heavy like I think of streusel topping. But let me tell you, it turned out perfectly.
The mixture is powdery because the sugar in it makes it crunchy. Once baked, it makes the perfect “bakery-style” topping for fresh strawberry cheesecake muffins. I did adjust the measurements somewhat because I had a ton of topping left over that didn’t make it onto the tops.
The crumble topping will look powdery but it will come out with the perfect bakery-style crunch!
Secret to success
secrets to success;
Want all the best tips and tricks to make this recipe a success? Check out the blog post above to find out more!
more recipes;
Looking for other great summer recipes? Check out these fan favorites!
- Check out my Top 5 Favorite Summer Strawberry recipes for even more strawberry deliciousness!
- If you have an abundance of fresh strawberries and need a lazy but still delicious dessert, try my strawberries and cream pastries or opt for a healthful strawberries and cream chia seed protein yogurt
- But it doesn’t have to be only about the strawberries! Summer means lots of cookouts and BBQs, so try my ultimate burger rub or bring a 3-ingredient s’mores dip to that potluck picnic
fresh strawberry muffins;
Equipment
- 12 muffin/cupcake liners
Ingredients
strawberry muffins;
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups fresh strawberries diced
For the Cream Cheese Filling:
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
For the Crumb Topping:
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- ¼ cup cold butter cubed
Instructions
cream cheese filling;
- In a medium bowl, add 4oz softened cream cheese, 2 Tbsp sugar, 1 egg yolk, ½ tsp vanilla extract. Mix or whip until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
crumb topping;
- In a medium bowl, combine ¼ cup flour, 2 Tbsp sugar, and 2 Tbsp cold butter cut up into cubes. Use fingers or a fork to mix until coarse crumbs are created. Set aside.
strawberry muffins;
- Dice strawberries finely to approx. ¼" cubes, until you have enough to fill 1½ cups of a measuring cup. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, add 2 cups flour, ¾ cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, and ¼ tsp salt and whisk together.
- Add 2 eggs, ½ cup milk, ½ cup vegetable oil, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and gently mix until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Add in the diced strawberries and gently fold into the batter using a spatula.
- Add a liner to each of 12 muffin tins. I highly recommend using two muffin pans and staggering the cavities you use to every other (still making 12 muffins total).
- Fill each muffin cup a little less than halfway with muffin batter.
- For each muffin cup, make a small divet in each batter with a spoon, and immedately add 2-3 Tbsp of cheesecake batter. You can adjust and evenly spread any remaining batter across the muffins.
- Cover each muffin with more batter, filling the cups majority full.
- Generously sprinkle crumb topping evenly across each of the 12 muffins.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Allow to rest for at least 5 minutes before transferring. Serve warm or at room temperature. Note: the crumble topping may soften if stored for more than 24 hours depending on humidity and storage.
