Strawberries and Cream Cheese Muffins

These are super fantastic.  Jeremy said they're his new favorite muffin.  They take a bit of extra time, but I think you could make the cream cheese mixture and slice the strawberries the night before to cut down on work in the morning.

Strawberries and Cream Cheese Muffins
Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp. almond extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups All Purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup fresh ripe strawberries chopped into very small pieces (the redder and sweeter, the better!)
  

Cream Cheese Filling:

• 4 oz. cream cheese, very soft
• 1 and 1/2 Tbsp. of liquid from one whole egg that's been beaten lightly
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
  

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Put paper liners in the cups of your muffin pan, or use nonstick baking spray liberally.

Cut up your berries and set them aside.

In a small bowl, mix together with a spoon the cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 and 1/2 Tbsp. beaten egg, and 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract. Mix until almost all the lumps are gone. Set this aside, but don't chill it.

Melt the butter slowly in a sauce pan on low heat. Add the vanilla extract, almond extract, and the milk into the butter, stirring to combine. Cool until the mixture is just warm, then whisk in the eggs.

Thoroughly combine with a whisk, in a large mixing bowl, the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour all of the butter and milk mixture into the dry ingredients, blending just until combined. Don't overmix. It's okay if a few little flour streaks are still evident.

Using a portion scoop, fill each muffin cup barely half full. Scatter a few pieces of strawberry on top.

Using a small spoon, dab a generous teaspoonful or so of the cream cheese mixture on top of the berries.

On top of that, add on another tablespoon or two so of the muffin batter.

On top of that, add a few more pieces of strawberry. Push them in just slightly.

Sprinkle the tops of the unbaked muffins very generously with coarse sugar.

Bake the muffins for about 12 to 18 minutes, until they're light golden on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. The middle of the cupcake should be kind of firm when lightly pressed with a finger. Check on the muffins early, and if they're browning too fast, lightly cover the pan with a sheet of foil.

Let the muffins cool in the pan, on a rack, for a couple of minutes, then carefully remove them from the pan to cool on the rack.