STRAWBERRY Muffins :->

    Last week Monday, Kate came over and we did some baking. This time*, one of the things we chose to try, was these Strawberry Cupcakes I had stumbled across the recipe to on-line. As I just went back to the site that I found them on, so as I could give proper credit where credit is due, I also discovered that this recipe has been hopping around the internet via quite a trail of people whom have posted it. Each one tweaking it to their own style in some manner.
    Annie, of 'Annie's Home' had posted it HERE on June 13th. Annie's is where I had found it. She had found the recipe at Mags, 'The Other Side of Fifty', when she had posted it HERE.  Mags had stated, that she had found the recipe at Cathy's 'Noble Pig' blog, when Cathy had posted it HERE. Cathy shared that she had found the recipe on the blog 'Culinary Wannabe', when it's owner had posted it HERE. 'Culinary Wannabe' shared that she had found the recipe on the side of her yogurt container. She had also shared that she had skeptically tried them, thinking they would be very healthy due to being made with both whole wheat and yogurt.
    By the time I found the recipe, it no longer contained yogurt. And by the time we finished with them, they no longer contained whole wheat. Nor were the ingredients used in them, the 'low fat' variety that most of the earlier blogs had stated they used. But you know what, whether we should have been or not, we were okay with that. o;-p The only other thing that I'm going to say is, they were/are such moist yumminess!!!!

    About the "*" by the "this time" in the first paragraph. Kate is leaving this area near the end of July. She is headed to a medical college east of here, to become a doctor.  In the mean time, we are going to do some fun cooking/baking times together. :-D
    I have so GOT to get over this 'Ms. Vertigo' period of my life. First Amanda had headed off to and then stayed in part of Indiana. Then Byron had headed off to and ended up staying in part of Illinois. And now Kate is headed off, yet another direction. ALL of them at least 3 1/2 hours from here!! Mercy! I need to stop being 'Ms. Vertigo' and get o/~ "On the road again ... "baking goodies with my friends" (o;-p)" o/~

    Per Reva's request, it's pictures first and then the recipe. :->  And for what it's worth Reva, Kate says she is VERY glad that you have requested I do it this style. ;->

    Measure the amount of sugar you are using (as in, if you are making a single recipe, or tripling it like we did) into your mixing bowl, set the required amount of butter on top, and microwave it to melt the butter.

    Blend the sugar and butter together thourally. Add the vanilla, eggs (remembering to break the yolks with the side of the shell, so they are ever so much easier to blend in), and then the sour cream. Mix/blend everything thourally.

     Dump half of your required amount of flour onto the mixture in the bowl. Add ALL of the baking soda, placing it on top of the not yet mixed in flour, in approximately the middle of the flour. Gently sort of blend the flour and baking soda together first, before then blending them in with the rest of the already mixed together ingredients.

    Add the rest of the flour and blend well.
    It's time to cut up your fresh strawberries (although this winter I will most likely be trying this recipe using frozen strawberries).  First thing you do is cut off the stems.
     Secondly, you thinly slice them one direction.

      Then, as though your starting all over, thinly slice them the other direction, thus creating nice little chunks.

       Dump the chopped up strawberries on top of the mixture in the mixing bowl.

       Have Kate start blending it all together ;->

       She did a good job - doesn't this look yummy?  It was, we h-a-d to try a spoon (or two o;-p) full.

       Lots of people use papers to bake their muffins in. I use them for cupcakes, but not for muffins.  Instead, I just spray the muffin pans extra heavily... Look closely (you might need to click on the picture to see it better), see how the six cups on the right have a white coating on them, but the ones on the left don't? Just trying to show you what I mean by 'spray your muffin cups heavily'. ( <-- Bonus tip there ;->)

       Yes, I did spray the rest of the cups before we put batter in them.

       After they have been out of the oven for about five minutes, ever - so -gently - with either your finger tips of a super thin knife, pop the muffins up out of the pans, then put them back in on their sides, to cool completely. Or, you could set them on wire racks.

        We 'sacrificed' and tried them rather fresh from the oven, topped with butter, that melted right down into them. Our vote? Yummy!   We tried them a couple hours later, after they had cooled. Still Yummy!!  And I have just tried some, straight out of Tupperware(R), which had been in the refrigerator.... Still Yummy!!! :-D

     And now, with out further ado, our version of the
             Strawberry Muffins
                     recipe adapted by Cheryl B. and Kate F.
        This is a tripe batch recipe - it made 1 shy of 3 and 1/2 dozen muffins.

    1 1/2 cups White Sugar
     2 cups Butter*
     3 teaspoons Vanilla
     6 Large Eggs
     3 cups Sour Cream
     6 cups Regular White Flour
     4 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
     3 to 5 cups small chunks of Fresh Strawberries
               (depending on whether you like LOTS of fruit in your muffins or not. We do!)

    *Butter = turned out there was a slight miscalculation in figuring out how much butter to add - a stick equals HOW much?  For the record, one stick of margarine or butter equals 1/2 cup. So one solid block of butter from GFS = 2 cups.  Tripling the recipe should have meant we would add 3/4 cups, or one and one half sticks. Two whole sticks were added. In the end, it turned out to be a good thing though, because the batter itself was very thick and sticky... and would have been all the more so with less butter.

       Mix your ingredients together in this order - sugar and butter; then add your vanilla; then your eggs and sour cream; then half of your flour and the baking soda; then the rest of the flour; then add the strawberries; making sure you mix/blend in every addition thourally.

     HEAVILY spray your muffin cups with pan coating spray, before filling them 3/4ths of the way full.
      Bake in a preheated 375 degrees oven for 18 to 20 minutes -
                   until tops are golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.

      Five minutes after removing them from the oven, pop them out of their cups.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
  I 'plan' on linking this particular posting up to: 
~ "Recipe Swap Sunday('s)" are hosted by Cassity, at 'Remodelacholic' (http://www.remodelaholic.com)
~ "Homemaker Mondays ... Yours, Mine & Ours", are hosted by Jen, at '11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven' (http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/).
  ~  "Kitchen Tip Tuesday('s)", hosted by Tammy, at 'Tammy's Recipes'  (http://www.tammysrecipes.com/).
~ "Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits", hosted by Susan, at 'Permanent Posies - Creative Chaos' (http://permanentposies.com/) 
~ "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday('s)", are hosted by Lisa, at 'Blessed with Grace' (http://blessedwithgrace.blogspot.com).
~ "Recipe Swap Thursday('s)", hosted by Alison, at 'Prairie Story' (http://prairiestory.blogspot.com/) 
~ "Full Plate Thursday('s)", hosted by Miz Helen, at 'Miz Helen's Country Cottage' (http://mizhelenscountrycottage.blogspot.com/)
 ~  "Foodie Friday('s)" (# 1),  hosted by "Gollum" (aka: Michael), at 'Designs by Gollum'  (http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/)
~ "Foodie Friday('s)" (#2), are hosted by Bianca, at 'Little Brick Ranch' (http://www.littlebrickranch.com/)

Late addition('s):
~ "These Chicks Cooked", hosted by Katie, at 'This Chick Cooks' (http://thischickcooks.blogspot.com/)
~ "Fresh Food Friday and Seasonal Saturday('s)", are hosted by Roz, at 'la bella vita' ( http://bellavita-bellasblog.blogspot.com/)