Strawberry Muffins With A Secret Cheesecake Centre

I love to serve these strawberry muffins whenever I have any friends popping over for a cup of coffee. Now I'm probably biased, but I genuinely think that homemade muffins taste way better than any packet ones you can buy in a store. This particular muffin recipe makes deliciously light cakes, plus your guests may be surprised by the secret hidden filling!...

Preparation Time 20 mins - Cooking Time 15 mins - Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

For the muffins:

350g plain flour

140g caster sugar

85g butter, melted

250ml semi-skimmed milk

2 medium sized eggs

1 and a half tablespoons of baking powder

Half teaspoon of salt

Grated rind of 1 large orange

For the cheesecake filling:

175g low-fat soft cheese (I like to use Kraft 'Philadelphia Light')

6 strawberries, halved

3 tablespoons of caster sugar

Method

1. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Next, add in the orange rind, sugar and salt and stir very gently.

2. Lightly beat the eggs in a jug and add in the milk and the melted butter. Pour into the muffin mixture and mix very gently until the mixture is loose and slightly lumpy.

3. For the cheesecake filling, mix the low-fat soft cheese and sugar together in a bowl.

4. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases. Half fill each muffin case with some muffin mixture, then press a halved strawberry into the centre and top this with a teaspoon of the cheesecake filling. Next, spoon over the remaining muffin mixture to fill the muffin cases.

5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for approximately 15 minutes until the muffins have risen and are nicely golden on top. Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

Variations

You can easily leave the grated orange rind out of these strawberry muffins, although the taste of it is already very subtle anyway.

Top Tip

Be very careful not to overmix the muffin mixture as this can lead to hard, tough muffins.

Nutrition Nugget

As well as tasting delicious, strawberries are packed full of lots of the essential vitamins and minerals that our bodies need to stay in tip top condition such as vitamin C, vitamins B5 and B6, potassium and riboflavin.

For more delicious vegetarian cakes like these strawberry muffins, click here.

Or return to our home page for more vegetarian meal ideas.