Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

Strawberries and Chocolate - a match made in heaven. Add them to muffins, with a cheeky strawberry jam centre and you have pure deliciousness.

These muffins take only a couple of minutes of hands on time to make. They are butter free, instead using a much lower fat combination of buttermilk and vegetable oil. This means there is no whipping, simply mix everything together in a bowl.

Oil is a great alternative to butter in muffins. Not only can you not tell the difference in taste, but butterless, oil containing muffins have a fantastic rise and height.

These muffins would work with all sorts of berries; raspberry chocolate, blackberry chocolate, or even blueberry chocolate!

I have a confession to make; I first made these muffins and wrote up the blog post two years ago. Yes, I actually did mean to write TWO YEARS!! Don't get me wrong, these muffins are super tasty. The problem was the photos (see the offending muffin to the right). I photographed the muffins a little while before I was even half decent at the task. I never posted them and then completely forgot to redo them until now! Another confession: I have 45 other posts in the same boat.... oops.

Strawberry Choc Chip Muffins

Makes 12

2 Cups self raising flour
3/4 Cup caster (superfine) sugar
1 Cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 Cup vegetable oil (such as canola)
1 Cup fresh strawberries, chopped OR 1 425 g tin of strawberries, drained and chopped
1 Cup chocolate chips
12 tsp strawberry jam

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and grease or line a muffin pan.

2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the sugar and stir to combine.

3. In another bowl, mix the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and oil. Pour into the dry ingredients. Add the strawberries and chocolate chips and stir until just combined.

4.  Spoon a small amount of batter into the prepared tin, add a teaspoon of strawberry jam, and cover with some more batter.

5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Once cooled, store in an airtight container.