I’ve had this muffin recipe floating around for quite a while. I couldn’t even begin to tell you when I sought it out, but I know I’ve had it sitting here, waiting for the right opportunity to be made. Basically, I needed to have a lemon and an abundance of raspberries on hand at the same time. An abundance or raspberries is terribly difficult- when I bring them home, we eat them all, end of story. Raspberries are Zander’s favorite fruit, and Abigail’s second favorite- sidling in just a touch behind a ripe, juicy mango. Last week I bought a large carton of raspberries because they really looked like they’d been fresh picked. Some of them were turning dark, but they were all intact, and I just knew they were going to be good. Lucky for me, it was a big package, so the kids ate their fill, and the rest went into the fridge for the next day.
That next day was national doughnut day, and while everyone else still slept, I was looking through my recipes for a baked doughnut when I found this recipe for Raspberry-Lemon Muffins. I scanned the recipe, saw that I had both raspberries and a lemon on hand, and I knew that I was not going to be making doughnuts. I don’t think anyone minded.
Seriously, my friends, these muffins really are spectacular! They are bright and lemony, and the pop of raspberry with the crunch of sugar on top makes these some of the best I’ve ever made. They totally taste like they come from a really good bakery. The original recipe called for frozen raspberries, I used fresh, and I really liked it that way. The berries kind of mashed up into the batter, swirling it with raspberry, and then I popped a fresh, whole one right on top. You could use frozen berries, but they will take longer to bake, and the raspberry flavor won’t be as nicely distributed throughout.
Make these. If you find yourself out of lemon extract, you could always add a drop or two of lemon oil, or increase the lemon zest a bit. But I thought the lemon extract really pushed the lemon flavor over the top in a very good, real-tasting way. I honestly was surprised to find that I had lemon extract on hand, so that tells you how much I use it. It would be worth buying just to have for this recipe.
Raspberry Lemon Muffins
1/2 cup sour cream (or plain yogurt) 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used olive oil) 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice 2 egg whites 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2/3 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (about 1 lemon) 1 cup fresh raspberries, plus 12 additional berries for topping 2 tablespoons demerara or turbinado sugarDirections:
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and/or grease the muffin tin.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the sour cream, oil, lemon juice, egg whites and the lemon extract.
In a separate mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon zest.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Gently stir in the cup of fresh raspberries. Most of them will mash up a bit and kind of combine with the batter- this is okay, but don’t stir them in too many times.
Divide the batter among 12 muffin cups. Press one raspberry into the top of each one, and then sprinkle with the demerara sugar.
Bake for about 15 minutes, or until a tester inserted near the middle of a muffin comes out clean. If you’ve used frozen berries it make take 20 minutes to bake.
Allow to cool completely before serving. If you can.