Chocolate Covered Strawberry Muffins

Just in time for Valentine’s Day (or any sweet holiday for that matter), these chocolate covered strawberry muffins are here!

And while these muffins themselves might not be chocolate covered, they feel exactly like biting into a chocolate covered strawberry – except a little warmer, a little gooier, and definitely more moist. You’ll be shocked at how well the strawberry flavor comes through on these, and for that I have a massive amount of freeze-dried strawberries to thank.

These muffins add themselves to my muffin family, meaning that they are super easy, usually only need a bowl or two, and yes, this time we succumbed to a crumble. But after a dusting of adorable strawberry sugar on top of the crumble, it’s totally justified.

What are freeze-dried strawberries and why do people use them in strawberry muffins?

Using freeze-dried strawberries over the real thing might seem counterintuitive, but freeze-dried strawberries are the BEST way to get the absolute most strawberry flavor in anything you are baking.

Freeze-dried strawberries are dehydrated strawberries, meaning that you get all the flavor and sweetness of a normal strawberry, but without any moisture diluting it. It’s like strawberries 2.0.

The reason we use freeze-dried strawberries in this recipe is two-fold:

1. Fresh strawberries tend to lose a lot of their color and brightness in the baking process, plus their weight makes it very likely that they’ll sink to the bottom of a muffin. Both of these things are bad for your muffin’s visual appeal and taste, so they aren’t the ideal thing to bake with.
2. The moisture from fresh strawberries really impacts the baking consistency of a baked good, along with its ability to bake. Fresh strawberries tend to inhibit a muffin from baking, so we use freeze-dried to mitigate that issue.

Dry ingredients you will need for these strawberry muffins

• 280 grams all purpose flour, 2 cups
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt, use half if using Morton’s
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Wet ingredients you will need for these chocolate strawberry muffins

• 2 large eggs
• 113 grams melted salted butter, 1/2 cup
• 220 grams sugar, 1 cup
• 85 grams skyr or greek yogurt, 1/3 cup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 80 mL milk of choice, 1/3 cup
• 35 grams freeze dried strawberries, 1 cup, chopped
• 70 grams chocolate, 1/2 cup, chopped

How to make the batter for these chocolate covered strawberry muffins

The batter for this is super simple, in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, butter, sugar, skyr and vanilla until very smooth.

In batches, add the dry ingredients to the wet, alternating with splashes of the milk. Mix until a smooth batter forms. Add in the chopped freeze-dried strawberries and the chopped chocolate. Swirl to combine. And the batter is done!

How to make strawberry sugar

Making strawberry sugar is a breeze, you just pulse together freeze dried strawberries and sugar in a small blender (I love a Magic Bullet) or a food processor. Then you have it all ready!

Baking and serving this recipe

The assembly and baking of this recipe is my favorite part.

You just scoop the muffin batter about 1/3 of the way up in your jumbo muffin tin (if using a regular tin, see notes).

Add a generous sprinkling of the pink strawberry sugar to the middle, then top off the muffin with more batter. You should have a tablespoon or so of strawberry sugar left over, reserve that for later.

Sprinkle the crumble topping generously on top of each muffin. Bake at 375°F for 30-35 minutes.

When the muffins are out of the oven, let them cool for a few minutes and dust the tops with the remaining strawberry sugar. Serve whenever!

Tips & tricks on how to store these strawberry muffins and keep them moist

How you store a baked good greatly impacts how it will taste over time. And don’t we all want our leftovers to be 10/10? These chocolate strawberry muffins will last up to a week, and here are my best tips on how to store them:

• Store in a cool, dry place like a pantry or a cool part of your kitchen – this is not the best recipe to store near the stove! Temperature variance won’t affect the moisture, but it will affect your muffin’s ability to keep for the full week.
• Store in an air-tight container – this is imperative to keeping a cake’s moisture. Let the muffins cool completely before moving them to a tupperware container with a snap-lock lid.
• For extra moisture, throw in a damp paper towel 12 hours before eating your next muffin – it’s wild, but it works!
• Forgot to do that step? Microwave your muffin for 20 seconds with a wet paper towel draped over it. I learned this from Emily Mariko and I’m never going back.

Why is this recipe in grams?

Baking is a very finicky and exact science. The only way to ensure complete accuracy is through measuring by weight, and not volume. As much as I wish I could give you multiple ways to measure ingredients, in this recipe measuring by cups might cause some volatility and miss-matched results. I want to ensure you get the best results with this recipe (and I want to keep this recipe fool-proof!) so I highly recommend getting a small affordable kitchen scale if you want to move forward with this muffin recipe!

PS – I also develop recipes strictly in grams, so it’s easier for me to translate them to that here! I have cups measured to the side if that’s all you have, but I’m much more of a grams girl, just for accuracy.

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And that’s everything for these chocolate covered strawberry muffins!

If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.