Strawberry and chocolate chip muffins

My son and his best friend meet up almost every day. They are of the same age, have the same energy levels and love to play together every evening.
She likes to draw and he likes to play something that involves running all over the house. She is very methodical and he strews his room with toys. They have their fights and threaten never to play again, but it lasts for about 5 minutes.
She comes over and we have a little chat, where she reports everything that happened at her school and on some days, if I am baking something, she checks what it is and asks if it will get ready before she leaves.
She loves strawberries, he likes chocolate. Luckily they both like muffins, so I decided to combine both in this muffin, which I made specially for them.



I had picked up this muffin pan about 3 years back. The moulds are deeper and more narrow than the ones in regular muffin pans and I really liked the look of it. I lugged it all the way back only to discover that it didn't fit it into my microwave oven, where I did all my baking. I was very disappointed, but decided that one day when I do buy an OTG, it will be big enough to fit this. I finally did buy my OTG (Morphy Richards, 40l) and this pan fits. I got to use this muffin pan now. Finally.



With beautiful strawberries all over the market, I land up buying them once a week and then spend the next couple of days figuring what I'll make with it. Most times, I land up wasting so many because they just don't last long enough. This time I decided to use them up the day I bought them and made these muffins.



The batter also has strawberry purée, which gives it a nice colour and a lovely taste. Its a nice soft muffin that kids would really enjoy.

Strawberry and chocolate chip muffins

What you need -

10-12 strawberries
1.5 cups maida / flour
1/2 cup butter / oil
1/2 -3/4 cup milk
15-20 chocolate chips
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt

What you do with it -

Purée about 6 strawberries and chop the rest into small pieces
In a large bowl, add the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda
Pre heat the oven to 170 (or 180) and grease the muffin pan or line with muffin holders
Blend the butter with the sugar till it dissolves well
Add this to the strawberry purée along with the oil
Add 1/2 cup milk and then add the flour and mix in together
If it is too dry, add the remaining milk, spoon by spoon till you get the right consistency
Add the strawberry pieces and chocolate chips and stir one more time
Spoon into the muffin pan, till it reaches about 3/4 level
Bake for about 18 - 20 mins
(I use 180 C for pre-heat and baking in the convection mode of my microwave oven. In the OTG, I pre-heat for 10 mins at 170 C and then bake at 170 C for about 12-15 mins)
Once done, allow it to cool slightly and then turn it out of the pan