[Recipe] "Summer's Kiss Goodbye" Strawberry Nutella Muffins

I love autumn.  This, dear reader, you know.  I love the colors and tastes of fall-- so warm, inviting, and bright but muted.  I love my fall wardrobe—sweaters and leggings and peacoats, at once slouchy and sleek and sexy and oh-so-comfortable and chic.  I love the crispness of the air in fall, so crisp and brisk it has its own scent but not yet so cold as to have bite.  Autumn, to me, is sugar and spice, warmth and family.

Autumn makes me wax poetic.

But all this is not to say that there aren't things I love about summer equally as well.  Top of that list are sundresses, sandals, and summer fruits.  Like strawberries.

Growing up, my mother had a beautiful garden, but it consisted almost exclusively of flowers.  The only type of fruit she grew was strawberries.  They were inevitably tiny and carried off by my neighborhood's resident rabbits, but they always signaled the beginning of summer to me, and all during the hottest months of the year, I'd eat strawberries with fresh cream, white sugar (so simple, so delicious), and strawberry shortcake.  Summer strawberries are sweet romance to me, gorgeous and juicy and red, the fruit of simultaneous innocence and seduction.

When this recipe, courtesy of Two Peas and Their Pod, popped up on my Facebook newsfeed, I just knew I had to make it.  I can't think of a better way to kiss summer goodbye than with strawberries and nutella in breakfast pastry form :)

"Summer's Kiss Goodbye" Strawberry Nutella Muffins

a recipe by Two Peas and Their Pod

There's something ephemeral about summer and in particular summer romance.  Both are bright and beautiful but also, in a way, delicate.  I'm not sure why this is, except that maybe everything seems bright and beautiful in the summer, before they wilt or fade in the autumn and winter cold.  But their somewhat doomed, delicate nature makes them no less beautiful, and they should be embraced—if only for a little while (and if only in the form of this muffin).

My sweetest summer romance was tall, dark, and sensitive, with a musician's voice, a philosopher's soul, and blue eyes that could pierce through all my defenses and lay all my secrets bare.  He was going one way, and I was going another, and we were doomed the moment we smiled and said, "Hello."

How about you, dear reader?  Do you have a particularly bittersweet summer romance?

Soundtrack: Jon McLaughlin feat. Sara Bareilles - Summer Is Over

Autumn never seemed this cold before

Here I am sleeping on the floor

We changed just like the leaves

Outside my house

And my phone lay silent by the couch

I remember June

Back when I met you

And your eyes were green

And we were, too

But summer is over

We were tangled in the morning sun

Felt you getting colder

And we knew that we would come undone

And it's back to my town, back to your life

Gray skies are blowing a kiss goodbye to the lovers

'Cause summer is over...

Yield: 10 muffins

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1 large egg

1/3 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped fresh strawberries

1/3 cup Nutella

Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling on top of muffins

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners or grease well.  Set aside.

2.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar.

3.  In a small bowl, combine the canola oil, egg, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Use a fork or whisk and mix until well combined.

4.  Incorporate the wet ingredients into the flour mixture.  Add slowly and gently stir-- but don't over-mix.  The batter will be thick.  Carefully fold in the strawberries.

5.  Fill each muffin cup half-way with batter.  Next, add a small spoonful of Nutella to each muffin cup.  Cover the Nutella filling with the remaining batter.  Sprinkle each muffin with Turbinado sugar.

6.  Bake the muffins for 17-20 minutes, or until they are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove the muffins from the pan and let cool on a cooling rack.