It’s time for another Monday filled with muffins!

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins to brighten their Mondays. There isn’t a theme to #MuffinMonday posts so anything goes, as long as it’s a muffin!

You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

I’m keeping the Valentine’s Day spirit alive with my February #MuffinMonday submission. Muffins shaped as hearts! And involving both chocolate and strawberries together. Who doesn’t want to start their morning with a little love in a muffin cup?

As part of our Valentine’s themed school unit, I thought it’d be fun to bake muffins with the boys. It was the perfect way to end the lessons

Bonus points – the boys now have added marbles to their toy collection. I taped an octagon (because who can tape a circle?!?) on the carpet with painters tape and we played a game of rolling the single larger marble into the “circle” to get marbles out of the circle. Firecracker is really into this game. Treat prefers to just kick and stomp through the circle, dispersing every single marble across the floor. If you have other good marble games to play, please share them in the comments!

Treat even took a nap the day we baked these muffins so I was able to put in a little extra photography effort with the help of Firecracker, who really wanted to be in the pictures.

This recipe makes 24 muffin hearts.

Strawberry and Chocolate Muffin Hearts

Ingredients:

• 2 C flour
• 1 C sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 10 oz frozen strawberries, thawed, chopped, and drained
• 1 egg
• 2/3 C buttermilk
• 1/2 C canola oil
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add the strawberries, tossing to coat and distribute evenly.
3. In another bowl, whisk the egg, buttermilk, oil, sour cream, and vanilla until combined.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring to incorporate. Fold in the chopped chocolate.
5. Fill muffin cups halfway with the batter. Gently tuck back the liner and put a marble between the liner and the tin (not in the batter). Bake 20min, until a toothpick inserted comes out cleanly.

*This recipe is adapted from Averie at https://www.averiecooks.com/2014/01/strawberry-chocolate-chip-muffins.html, the method from Getty at http://www.gettystewart.com/does-using-marbles-to-make-heart-shaped-muffins-really-work/*

And don’t forget to check out these other muffin recipes:

Bouchon Bakery Style Carrot Muffins from Karen’s Kitchen Stories

Cocoa Beet Chocolate Chip Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts

Lucky Charms Muffins from Palatable Pastime

Morning Glory Muffins from Food Lust People Love

Rice Cereal Apple Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Strawberry and Chocolate Muffin Hearts from Sew You Think You Can Cook