Strawberry Clementine Muffins

makes 12 regular muffins or 6 “Texas sized” muffins
Adapted from Southern Country Cooking from the Loveless Cafe: Fried Chicken, Hams, and Jams from Nashville’s Favorite Cafe

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon, divided

1 cup roughly chopped strawberries
1 Clementine orange, sectioned and roughly chopped

1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a standard muffin tin with cupcake liners or spray with cooking spray and lightly flour.

Melt butter in a measuring cup in the microwave, about 1 minute. Stick should be completely melted. Stir, then add to a large mixing bowl. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Once the butter is cool, add 1 1/4 cups of sugar, salt, eggs, and vanilla to bowl and whisk briskly to combine.

In a separate smaller bowl, combine flour, baking powder, nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon together. Use a dry whisk to combine and aerate. Pour the flour mixture on top of the butter mixture, but do not stir.

Chop strawberries and orange segments into small, roughly 1/2″ chunks. Add to the flour mixture, then fold the whole mixture together a couple of times. The mixture will be very crumbly. Do not overmix!

Add buttermilk to the bowl, then gently fold again until the buttermilk is just absorbed in the batter,, then use a large cookie scoop to fill 12 muffin cups. Overfill the cups more than you would cupcakes, you will get large fluffy muffins.

Bake for approximately 29 minutes, until the muffins spring back when touched and are lightly golden brown.

Allow to cool slightly in the pan, then remove to a cooling rack and allow to come to room temperature.

Perfect as an afternoon snack with a cup of tea or breakfast with a strong cup of coffee.