Our family loves these delicious strawberry muffins. We swirl juicy fresh strawberries into a lightly spiced vanilla batter, then finish with a crinkly vanilla sugar top. Trust me, these are incredible!
Watch the Video
This quick and easy strawberry muffin recipe bursts with sweet, fresh strawberries. It’s one of my all-time favorites, and I can’t wait for you to try it!
For more delicious muffin recipes, check out our vanilla peach muffins, chocolate strawberry muffins, and these incredible blueberry muffins.
Key Ingredients
- Strawberries: Use sweet, flavorful, fresh strawberries for the best strawberry muffins. If you only have frozen strawberries, thaw and drain them first. Their texture will be softer, so they may break apart slightly when mixed into the batter.
- Flour: I use all-purpose flour in this recipe, but you can easily substitute whole wheat flour, spelt flour, or even an all-purpose gluten-free blend.
- Sugar: Granulated sugar keeps these muffins light and airy. I also create a vanilla sugar topping by mixing sugar with vanilla extract (it’s so good). This bakes into a delightful crinkly, almost crunchy crust.
- Baking powder: The secret for light and airy muffins. Use recently purchased double-acting baking powder (it lasts about 3 months), and use aluminum-free if you are sensitive to the taste.
- Spices: These muffins have an incredible flavor thanks to a combination of vanilla extract, salt, cinnamon, and a touch of black pepper. Although the black pepper might seem unexpected, it complements the strawberries beautifully! Feel free to leave it out.
- Oil: This is the secret to creating moist and tender muffins. While you can use melted butter, oil produces a more light and airy texture.
- Milk: Use regular milk or your preferred non-dairy milk in this recipe.
How to Make Strawberry Muffins
These strawberry muffins are so easy to make they will be in the oven in no time!
Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, pepper, and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Then, combine the oil, egg, and milk in a measuring jug. Add the vanilla and whisk thoroughly before pouring it into the bowl with the flour mixture. Gently stir the muffin batter until combined, then fold the fresh strawberries.
In a small bowl, use your fingers to rub a little vanilla extract into some granulated sugar, creating a sweet, crunchy topping for your muffins. Sprinkle this over the batter before baking. (This is the same technique we use for our lemon blueberry muffins!)
Bake the muffins at 400°F for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The high oven temperature encourages a quick rise, activating the baking powder for a light and fluffy texture. Let them cool slightly before digging in. To watch me make this recipe, watch the video below!
Storing Strawberry Muffins
Store homemade strawberry muffins at room temperature for up to 3 days. Line an airtight container with paper towels to absorb extra moisture and prevent your muffins from getting soggy. Avoid the refrigerator, as it dries them out. Freeze muffins for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge or reheat from frozen in a 300°F oven for 5 to 8 minutes.
More Strawberry Recipes
Perfect Strawberry Muffins
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- TOTAL
Our family loves these light and airy strawberry muffins. The recipe is easy and quick to make. We love the spice from cinnamon and black pepper. The pepper is unusual, but the black pepper and strawberries are lovely. If you are not convinced, feel free to leave it out. The muffins will still be delicious!
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
Muffins1 ½ cups (195g) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1/3 cup (80ml) vegetable oil
1 large egg
1/3 to 1/2 cup (80ml – 120ml) milk, reduced fat or whole milk are best
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
8 ounces (226g) fresh strawberries, hulled and diced, 1 ¼ cup diced
Topping1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
1Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Line 12 standard-size muffin cups with paper liners.
2Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and black pepper in a large bowl.
3Choose a measuring jug that holds at least 1 cup. Add the oil to the jug, and then crack in the egg. Pour in enough milk to reach the 1-cup line on the jug (this should be about 1/3 cup of milk). Add the vanilla extract and whisk until everything is combined.
4Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir gently until the batter comes together. Be careful not to overmix! The batter will be thick.
5Gently fold in the strawberries.
6Make the sugar topping by stirring one tablespoon of sugar with a 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
7Divide the batter between muffin cups. Sprinkle a little vanilla sugar on top of each muffin.
8Bake muffins for 15 to 20 minutes or until the tops are no longer wet and a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out with crumbs, not wet batter. Transfer to a cooling rack.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Frozen strawberries: Thaw, drain excess liquid, then dice. The thawed frozen strawberries might break apart when mixed into the batter, but they taste great.
- Measuring your flour: Fluff the flour in its container, then gently scoop it into your measuring cup until slightly mounded. Level off the top with a knife for accurate measuring. For even more accuracy, use a scale and measure the flour by weight (in grams).
- Batter thickness: The batter should be thick and “scoopable” — not runny and not dry or extra thick like dough. If the batter is too runny, add flour, a tablespoon at a time until correct consistency. If the batter is dry or too thick, add milk, a tablespoon at a time until the proper consistency.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates, assuming reduced-fat milk.
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Made these for the first time with fresh strawberries earlier! I had originally been unsure about the black pepper, but you can’t even taste it and these are absolutely delicious! We had to substitute sea salt with regular salt, and they were just fine, but I’m excited to potentially try them with sea salt as well! I’ll absolutely make them again!
Best strawberry muffins, ever! 10 stars.
Came out great. I didn’t use the cinnamon or black pepper tho (hate cinnamon and pepper sounds weird). They are delicious and I will definitely be making more of them, especially as my strawberries come in. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Try the black pepper…I promise you’ll never go back! Best muffins ever!
Super moist muffin recipe!
Lovely moist muffins. I added a little Oats, coconut and sugar mixed into the bowl after spooning the mix out, it made a yummy crunchy topping.
Absolutely my favourite muffins! So delish! Easy to make, I’ve made with fresh strawberries and frozen. Think I’ll try to make them with blueberries too.
Added chocolate chips, subbed strawberry extract instead of vanilla. Drizzled chocolate on top. To die for! Yummy.. Recipe was wonderful as a base for my alterations. Tasty!
This is my new go to spring strawberry muffin recipe! Excellent dessert cut in half and piled with more fresh strawberries and ice or whipped cream. Better than shortcake! Delicious!
Made these tonight and they were absolutely gorgeous. Thank you for this recipe.
I’m not a huge fan of muffins (usually crave savory over sweet) but this recipe is outstanding! I have a large basket of local blueberries so used those instead of strawberries and they came out so light and delicious! Will try with peaches when they come into season.
This strawberry muffin recipe is the ONLY one I use now. It’s the best tasting muffin ever!! That hint of pepper just adds such a unique special touch. I enjoy all your recipes but had to tell you what a hit these are at our house! Thank you.
Doubled the recipe and it made 36 large muffins. Took them to a class and everyone enjoyed them. They were nice and moist. I did not add the topping to the muffins because I thought they would be sweet enough without it and they were. I would recommend letting the muffins cool a bit before removing from the muffin pans, as they were extremely squishy if removed directly from the oven. I let my muffins sit for about 10 minutes before removing them to the wire rack to cool completely. Will be making them again for another gathering.
This is my go to muffin recipe now! So good, and always do the pepper.
Delicious. I followed the recipe to the letter… but at the last minute I added a couple of tablespoons of crushed pecans to the vanilla sugar topping. They provided a little crunch and tempered the sweetness of the muffins ever so slightly. Decadent….
Wonderful! I substituted Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten Free flour and used Almond Milk. I added unsweetened Cocoa powder, so we could have chocolate strawberry muffins. My 3 year old Granddaughter loved them! The recipe made 12 regular size muffins which is the size tin we had, perfect!