Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins

Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins (inspired by Joan's Food Wanderings)

Muffin Batter:

2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/4 cup canola oil

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup fresh strawberries, cut into small pieces

Cream Cheese Filling:

4 ounces cream cheese

1 Tb sugar

2 Tb flour

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Butter Streusel:

1/2 cup all-puspose flour

3 Tb sugar

pinch of salt

4 Tb cold butter, cut into chunks

Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.

Streusel Topping:

Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until the chunks are no larger than small peas.

STREUSEL LESSON!!!

So, I don't know about you, but I have a dark history with streusel. I follow the directions, and instead of lovely little balls of crunchy deliciousness, it bakes into a puddle of crumbly streusel ingredients. I could never figure out what I was doing wrong, until I started messing with it. It turns out that if you stop when the instructions do, your streusel will fail. So, this is where you've left off, right?

Chunks no bigger than small peas. If you sprinkle this on your muffins, it will fail. So it's time to start playing. Using your fingers (you could also use a food processor, and I think a mixer, but I haven't tried it) start rubbing the butter into the dry stuff. Just pinch and rub together. After a few minutes it will start coming together like this:

Keep going, you're about halfway there! Keep mixing and rubbing with your fingers, and it will soften and start feeling like stiff cookie dough, and forming large clumps. When it does, break those big clumps apart into smaller lumps, and it will look like this:

Voila!! THAT is what streusel is supposed to look like!! A little more work, but infinitely better results! Okay, now set your gorgeous streusel in the fridge while you get the rest ready.

Cream Cheese Filling:

Beat the cream cheese, egg, sugar and vanilla in a bowl until smooth. Set aside.

Muffin Batter:

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. In a seperate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, egg and sugar. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and stir gently until just combined. The batter will be lumpy, that's fine, don't overmix!

Here's where it gets fun: Scoop a heaping tablespoon of the muffin batter into each cupcake liner. Sprinkle with a few pieces of strawberries. Add a dollop (about a heaping teaspoon) of the cream cheese filling. Divide the rest of the batter over the top of the cream cheese filling. Spread it gently, just a bit, to cover the top, but if it doesn't quite reach the edges, don't worry! Sprinkle with a few more pieces of strawberries, and top with a generous sprinkle of streusel.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling. Best served warm!