Strawberry Lemon Muffins

For those of you who know me, or are getting to know me, you know that I don't get too creative when it comes to baking.  I follow the recipe, I don't make changes, I just feel it is too risky!  That all changed when I made these muffins!  I didn't make significant changes, but made a couple and felt a little out of my comfort zone until I tasted them - they were delicious!

I found this recipe a few years ago in Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious Cookbook and have made it time and time again!  This particular cookbook of Jessica's incorporates pureed veggies into the recipes, these muffins have pureed yellow squash in the batter as an added bonus!

What did I change?  Well - when I returned from the grocery store, I realized I forgot to buy the blueberries, as in the cookbook, they are Blueberry Lemon Muffins!  But - I did have strawberries so improvised there!  When I asked my 5 year old about the change, he thought it was acceptable - then suggested that next time we make blackberry lemon muffins!  Secondly, I had no brown sugar in the house!  I found this to be quite unbelievable, so much that I searched the pantry 5 times for it!  I'm still not quite clear on how this happened!  So, after placing phone calls to a couple of neighbors, no one was home to donate the 1/2 cup of needed brown sugar.....so I placed a call to my mother to ask if I could use granulated sugar, her response, "I don't see why not" - so I did, they tasted great! 

I'm sure you are wondering why the muffins are so "low" in the baking cup, well, my boys are beyond the mini muffins (they will eat like 10 at one sitting) and the "below regular size" muffin fits perfectly in my 2 year old's hands!  The benefit of these shorter muffins too is that I am able to get about 18 out of the recipe!

Ingredients:

Strawberry Lemon Muffins
12 Muffins

Nonstick cooking spray
1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar (I used granulated sugar)
4 tablespoons trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread, chilled
1 cup low fat lemon yogurt
1 cup blueberries (I used 1 cup finely chopped strawberries)
1/2 cup yellow squash puree
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure lemon extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup flax seed meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and the margarine with a wooden spoon.  Stir in the yogurt, blueberries, yellow squash puree, egg, lemon extract, and lemon zest.

Add the flour, flax seed meal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Stir just to combine, but do not over mix - the batter is supposed to be lumpy.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups. 

Bake until the tops of the muffins are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center, 13 to 16 minutes.  turn the muffins out onto a rack to cool.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, or wrap individually and freeze for up to 1 month.