Healthy Strawberry Muffins (2024)

These are the best healthy strawberry muffins for kids, and especially for picky eaters! You can even make these homemade strawberry muffins for kids who don’t like “chunks” in their food. We infuse these with great, natural strawberry flavor, without big pieces inside that could potentially turn your little one off. My recipes are ALWAYS made with kids in mind, because I know they can be hard to please, but the grown-ups in my house loved these, too!

Why I love this recipe

Muffins always sound good. I can usually guarantee my kids will eat a healthy breakfast or a healthy snack if I get some good nutrition into a muffin recipe!

Healthy Strawberry Muffins

Healthy strawberry muffins are lightly sweetened, and such a great recipe to make year-round. Using frozen strawberries instead of fresh strawberries means you don’t have to wait for strawberry season to come around to make these! Fresh fruit is great, but frozen is so EASY. And, you are guaranteed great taste when you choose frozen, since they are picked and frozen at their peak of ripeness.

Ingredients Needed

Ingredients needed:

• Milk (I used whole milk, you could also use 2%, oat milk, or soy milk)
• Large eggs
• Honey (or substitute maple syrup if your baby under 12 months old will be eating some)
• Unsalted butter
• Vanilla extract
• White whole wheat flour – you can substitute half whole wheat flour and half white flour if you do not have white whole wheat flour. I wouldn’t recommend using all whole wheat flour, it will be too dense.
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Lemon zest – you could omit this if you had to, but it does help bring out the flavor
• Whole frozen strawberries – you could use fresh but I haven’t tested it so I can’t guarantee results

Note: remember to use fresh baking powder and baking soda when baking! If it’s been sitting in your pantry for half a year (or longer), buy new. When it’s not fresh, you won’t get a great rise. I don’t want you to have sad, flat muffins.

How to make this recipe

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Line muffin tin with silicone cupcake liners, or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, honey, melted butter, and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Gently stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients, being careful not to over mix.

Measure the frozen strawberries. They won’t pack tightly into the measuring cup.

Then, defrost frozen strawberries according to package directions (mine said to use microwave defrost setting for 1 minute).

Next, mash the strawberries well. I roughly chopped them with a large chef’s knife, then used the side of the knife to smush them down and mash. A fork or potato masher would work too.

Your goal is to minimize any large chunks by mashing, but don’t mash so much that it turns into a puree. I would not recommend blending them; I tried this and the texture and flavor was not as good.

Gently fold in the mashed berries and lemon zest into the batter. If you mix too much the batter may all turn pink. Your little one might not mind that, though!

Scoop into muffin liners, filling almost to the top. I use an ice cream scoop to make this easier.

Bake muffins for 14-17 minutes for regular muffins; 11-13 minutes for mini muffins. Let cool completely before serving.

They are delicious as-is, but here are some ideas to spread on the muffin tops:

• Strawberry or lemon yogurt
• Butter
• Cream cheese
• Mascarpone

If you want to really go for it, I would mix plain Greek yogurt with crushed freeze dried strawberries and powdered sugar to make a sweet strawberry glaze! If you try this, share in the comments!

Recipe FAQs

Can I use a different fruit instead of strawberries?

• You can try it but different fruits have different amounts of water in them so you may not get the same result.

Can I use a different flour?

• I didn’t test the recipe with different flours but I think you could use white all purpose flour instead. I like using the white whole wheat flour for the whole grains. If you want to use something like almond flour, go on google to find how much you should use to substitute.

Can I substitute something else for the honey?

• Try pure maple syrup as an alternative, especially if a baby under 12 months will be eating the muffins (honey is not safe under age 1).

What if I don’t have silicone muffin cups?

• Grab some on Amazon! Or I also like this silicone muffin tin. But if you don’t want to get something new, you can definitely use cupcake liners in a regular muffin pan, or just spray a muffin tin really well with cooking spray so the muffins do not stick.

Expert Tips

I tried many different ways of chopping up the strawberries and I promise mashing them, while still leaving a small amount of texture, is the best result. If you only chop them and don’t mash, the flavor doesn’t mix as well throughout.

Other muffin recipes you might like

The Best Zucchini Banana Bread Muffins for Kids

Healthy Toddler Muffins (Easy + Picky Eater Friendly!)

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