strawberry pistachio muffins

The reason these muffins came to be is that I woke up one morning, with an uncharacteristic amount of energy, and just had a real hankering for a freshly baked muffin. Sure, I could have put on some outside clothes, walked across the street, and gotten one from the bakery, but I really just wanted to stay in my pajamas, play some happy tunes, and whip up a batch of homemade muffins.

what is needed to make muffins on a whim?

Once I was set on making my own muffins that morning, I just had to make sure I was stocked with the necessary ingredients. The most obvious muffin fruits would probably be blueberries or bananas. I didn’t have either of those, but I had strawberries. Sounds good! What goes great with strawberries? Pistachios and lemon. Done and done.

Besides the fun ingredients, I would need some baked good pantry staples. Luckily, I was stocked with flour and baking powder. I had butter, vanilla, eggs, and milk. Those should all work. However, I only had about a spoonful of granulated sugar (I know, how could that be?!). BUT, I had brown sugar. I figured that would work just as well, and it does!

how to crumble

With all of the ingredients listed above, I could have just whipped up a regular batch of strawberry pistachio muffins and enjoyed every bite. But I was feeling a little fancy, so I decided to add a crumble. The crumble kind of takes these muffins from breakfast to dessert, but you can ignore that distinction if you’d like.

Making a crumble is super easy, especially so if you have nuts to add in. So I amped up the pistachio flavor by chopping some nuts, and mixing them with butter, brown sugar, and almond flour. The important thing here is that your butter is cold and hard, so you can work the mixture with your fingers to produce a crumbly consistency versus a mushy one.

So if you’re ever feeling like a fresh, warm muffin one morning, there’s no need to haul yourself to the closest bakery. This recipe comes together quickly and easily, and you’ll be thanking me by the very first bite.

Enjoy!

⟶ the recipe

strawberry pistachio muffins

ingredients

½ cup (1 stick) melted butter

¾ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

Zest and juice from 1 lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup milk

1 ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon Kosher salt

½ cup chopped, roasted pistachios

1 cup sliced strawberries

For the crumble

3 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter

¼ cup brown sugar

½ cup almond flour

¼ cup chopped pistachios

1 teaspoon water

Prep time

15 minutes

Cook time

30 minutes

Total time

45 minutes

12 muffins

instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and either line a muffin tin with cups or coat it in oil.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, lemon zest and juice, vanilla, and milk. Set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pistachios. In a smaller bowl, toss 1 tablespoon of flour with the strawberries to dry them out.

Slowly, pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture, stirring to combine. Fold in the strawberries.

With a large spoon or a ladle, fill each muffin hole about ¾ way with the batter.

In a small bowl, add the butter, brown sugar, almond flour, chopped pistachios, and water. Using your hands, work the butter into the dry ingredients, forming a crumble. Once it seems well-combined, Spoon a bit of crumble onto each muffin top.

Bake muffins for 25-30 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the center of one to ensure doneness, and allow them to cool on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes before serving.

⟶ recipe notes

For the pistachios, you can either get raw pistachios and remove them from the shells or get shelled roasted pistachios. Either works fine. I prefer the roasted kind, because I absolutely despise shelling pistachios lol

⟶ modifications

If you’re gluten-free, you can substitute gluten-free flour here. I highly recommend Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 flour, as you don’t need to switch up any measurements
While I recommend trying pistachios with this recipe (they’re my fave!), you can sub other nuts as well. Walnuts or almonds would both work great. If you use almonds, you can add a tiny dash of almond extract to the crumble for an extra flavor boost!