Double Sweet Treats to Celebrate My Mom :) - Part 1

Every year I make sure to make it home to spend Mother's Day with my mom. So far, in the five years I have been in the OC, I haven't missed one. This year was no exception. It was a busy weekend but I made it! And had a blast with my family eating great food and just being together - and of course having new sweet treats!

Because my mom is the greatest I couldn't just make any ordinary sweet treat, I couldn't just make one for that matter either. So I made a breakfast sweet treat and a dessert sweet treat. Both are worth repeating...and both were loved by my mom. I even got a good nod from my dad (an EXCELLENT cook) and to me that made it even better!! When you make anything for someone who knows what they are doing it's always nice to get a good seal of approval.

By now you have to be wondering what exactly I made...so here goes :) For breakfast I made fresh strawberry muffins with a toasted pecan strudel and a strawberry butter. They were very easy and very good. (You know me and strawberries - there is no way that I could think this recipe wasn't good.) The only thing I would change - and did omit from the recipe below - was that it originally said to add powered sugar to the strawberry butter. This was overkill on the sweetness. The muffins on their own had the perfect amount of sweet - the sugar in the butter almost killed it. Here's the recipe:

Fresh Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients:
muffin batter-
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs (beaten)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup milk
½ cup butter (melted)
1 cup fresh strawberries (chopped and light tossed in 2 tablespoons of flour)
Streusel-
¼ cup chopped toasted pecans
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter (melted)
Strawberry Butter-
½ cup butter (softened)
¼ cup toasted pecans (finely chopped)
¼ cup chopped strawberries

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees and grease the bottom and sides of an 18 cup muffin tin/s. Mix together all ingredients for the streusel and set aside.
Step 2: Mix together for the muffins- 1 ¾ cups flour, 2/3 cup sugar, and 2 teaspoons baking powder.
Step 3: In a separate bowl mix ½ cup milk, ½ cup melted butter, 2 beaten eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Gently mix this mixture into the flour mixture. Fold in lightly floured chopped strawberries.
Step 4: Pour muffin batter into your tins and top with the streusel mixture. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes
Step 5: Allow muffins to cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the pan or else they will stick. Finish cooling muffins on a wire rack.
Step 6: Now you are going to make the strawberry butter by thoroughly mixing ½ cup butter and 1 cup powdered sugar. Fold in chopped strawberries and toasted pecans. Chill until needed and soften before serving. The strawberries butter can be spread on the inside of halved muffins.

Enjoy!