Have you noticed the strawberry shortcake crumble topping trend? I noticed many people sharing various versions of the crumble recipe all over Tiktok. I’ve seen the topping on cake, cupcakes and countless other desserts. Most people seem to make it using strawberry gelatin mix and vanilla pudding mix. The version I’m sharing here uses freeze dried strawberries instead. I’m not opposed to using gelatin mix, I just seriously love the tart, natural flavor of freeze dried strawberries.
This topping is irresistible on these tender strawberry muffins. I wanted to pile on as much crumble topping as possible so I used tulip baking cups. They’re made of grease-proof parchment paper squares. You can buy them online or make them yourself with squares of parchment. You can use the link provided at the end of the recipe to find the ones I used. Keep in mind, if you use standard muffin liners, you’ll use less batter and topping for each muffin, so you’ll end up with a few more muffins.
I used fresh strawberries for the puree in the muffins, but feel free to use frozen, defrosted strawberries if you cant get fresh ones.
| Servings |
muffins
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- 1 cup (128g) all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (113g) cold, unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 cup (14g) freeze-dried strawberries, finely crushed (weigh or measure before crushing the strawberries)
- 2 1/4 cups (287g) all purpose flour, sifted
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/8 cups (225g) sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon strawberry extract
- 1/2 cup (118ml) buttermilk
- 1/2 cup strawberry puree
- 1-2 drops pink or red gel food color optional
Ingredients
Strawberry Shortcake Crumble Topping
Strawberry Muffins
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- In a medium-size bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Work the cubed butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips until it looks like wet sand, with no large pieces of butter remaining.
- Place half of crumble mixture into another medium-size bowl and combine it with the crushed freeze dried strawberries. Mix well and press it together with your fingers to form pea sized pieces. Gently combine the two bowls of crumble together. Set aside in refrigerator while preparing the muffin batter.
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Line a 120serving muffin tin with tulip baking liners or parchment squares.
- In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter, with an electric mixer on medium speed, until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Beat in the extract until well combined. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed, just until combined. Add the buttermilk, strawberry puree and food color. Beat on low speed, just until combined.
- Divide batter evenly into the tulip muffin liners. (If using standard muffin liners, fill them 2/3 full.) Sprinkle crumble topping evenly over the batter.
- Bake at 375ºF (190ºC) for 5 minutes, then turn oven temperature down to 350ºF (180º) and continue baking until topping is golden and a toothpick inserted in center is clean, about 12-17 more minutes. (If your topping starts to brown too quickly, you can cover the muffins with a bit of aluminum foil.) Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.
* A small food processor or a clean spice grinder is helpful to pulverize the freeze-dried strawberries. Pass the crushed strawberries through a sieve to remove seeds if desired.
To find tulip baking cups, click here
To find floral tulip baking cups, as seen on TikTok, click here
What’s the best way to store these muffins? Can you freeze them?
Hi Geegee, I typically store muffins loosely covered on my countertop for up to 24 hours. For longer storage, I freeze them in a freezer bag for up to 1 month. I let them defrost on the counter then warm them up briefly in the oven.
Do you have to use freeze dried strawberries?
Hi Ashely, I used freeze dried strawberries in the crumb topping to give it a bright natural strawberry flavor. You can certainly leave out the freeze dried strawberries and use a plain crumb topping if you like.
My muffins all fell in the center what did i do wrong ?
Hi Alyssa, there are several things that could go wrong and cause muffins to sink in the middle. The most common reason is that they were underbaked. An oven temperature that is too low can cause this too. Also, if you overfill the muffin liners, the muffins can puff up, then sink after you take them out of the oven. Improperly measured ingredients, especially flour, can cause sinking too. I recommend weighing ingredients for the best outcome.