Good morning and welcome to another edition of The Secret Recipe Club. For a little “behind the scenes” information, The Secret Recipe Club (SRC) is divided into four group. Each group posts on a different Monday of the month. I am in Group D and always post on the 4th Monday of the month. This means that those special months with five Mondays there’s a week without any fun reveal day! That is all about to change, beginning with today. On the 5th Monday of the month there will now be a themed reveal and it’s a “free for all,” which means that there aren’t any group restrictions. I’m looking forward to getting to know some of the other bloggers in the club.

That being said, I’m very familiar with my assigned blog for today’s tailgating themed reveal. My assignment this month comes from Group B, but I’ve participated in many blogging events with her in the past. Quite conveniently, she was a member of the #10DaysofTailgate blog event two years ago! Needless to say I had a lot of recipes to choose from that fit with today’s theme.

So who is this mystery assignment? It’s Ashley from Cheese Curd in Paradise!

I promised myself that I would not pick a dip recipe because 5 of my last 8 reveals were a dip recipe. This meant her pizza dip, Mexican spinach dip, and loaded baked potato dip were off limits.

Instead I thought about those morning games. Morning games are probably my favorite ones for tailgating. We would get to campus early and have a tailgate tent complete with fresh fruit, bagels, coffee, and muffins. Then after the game return back to the tent for more “traditional” tailgating fare of burgers, chips, dips, and beer. (I get pretty “home sick” during football season, wishing I could be back on the Plains cheering on my Auburn Tigers in person, throwing the football with family, and enjoying the atmosphere that is SEC football.)

I decided between Apple Strudel Muffins, Blueberry-Lemon Yogurt Muffins, and Strawberries and Cream Muffins. It’s a good thing I didn’t pick the apple ones because I ended up making Apple Cinnamon Muffins for my standard SRC reveal day (I made this tailgating muffin weeks before)! The only reason I picked strawberry over blueberry was because I had strawberries in my fridge that were reaching the end of their shelf life. Besides, there’s no way I can “waste” blueberries for baking – they’re my little man’s favorite food, he’d eat the whole pint if I let him!

We really liked these Strawberries and Cream Muffins – my only regret is that I misjudged how much of the cream cheese mixture to put in the muffins and there wasn’t nearly enough. My advice: use it all, it’s the best part! I loved having these muffins on hand for that mid-morning snack.

This recipe makes 12-15 muffins.

Strawberries and Cream Muffins

Ingredients for filling:

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 11/2 tbsp of beaten egg
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients for muffin:

• 2 C flour
• 3/4 C sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 C milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp almond extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 C diced fresh strawberries

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line muffin tins with liners.
2. Make the filling: Whisk together the cream cheese, egg, sugar, and vanilla until lump free. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
4. In a small bowl (I actually did this in the glass measuring cup I used to melt the butter), whisk together the melted butter, milk, vanilla extract, and almond extract. When slightly cooled, whisk in the eggs. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients.
5. Fill prepared muffin tins halfway with the batter. Add a few strawberries, and top with a generous amount of cream cheese filling. Top the muffins with batter and stud with some more strawberries.
6. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out cleanly. Allow muffins to cool 5 minutes in the tin before removing to a cooling rack.

*This recipe is adapted from Ashley at http://cheesecurdinparadise.blogspot.com/2012/08/recipe-swap-apple-strudel-muffins.html*

To see the other bloggers who participated in the themed Secret Recipe Club this month click here: