Strawberries Galore!

Yesterday the local farm was having a free pick your own strawberries and tomatoes weekend! Needless to say we went and took advantage of that. While everyone knows I don't like tomatoes we couldn't resist them and J brought them into work for the team. We definitely underestimated the picking and quickly filled up our 3 Tupperware containers with strawberries. This meant J brought in 1 container to work but I had to find a recipe to use some of them up.

Lemon Ricotta Strawberry Muffins (adapted from The Way the Cookie Crumbles)

Makes 15 muffins

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat pastry flou
1½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1½ cups strawberries, chopped

1. Heat the oven to 350ºF. Spray the bottoms only of a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick spray or line with paper liners. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

2. In a medium bowl, rub the lemon zest into the sugar. Whisk in the eggs, ricotta, buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice, and butter. Pour the ricotta mixture into the flour mixture and fold in until the flour is evenly dispersed. Add the strawberries and fold until the flour is moistened (some lumps are okay) and the strawberries are evenly distributed.

3. Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean, 20-22 minutes. Let them cool for about 5 minutes and enjoy!