Raspbery lemon muffins


I know that in my last recipe (for mini cheesecakes) I extolled the virtues of minifying recipes, but I want to add an exception for when you plan on eating an entire batch by yourself. In that case, you want each portion to be as large as possible to save on trips from the couch to the kitchen.

Smitten Kitchen is one of the all-time great food blogs. Deb has the perfect recipe for any season or mood. You can lose hours just browsing her site and planning cooking projects for every day of the next week. It's a constant struggle to keep this site from just being pictures of me making recipes from that site.

Recipe

  • 1.125 cup sugar
  • 4 tsp grated lemon peel
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2.5 tsp baking powder
  • 0.75 tsp salt
  • 1 stick unsalted butter (softened)
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 half pint containers of fresh raspberries

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen's mini version

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place a dozen paper muffin cups in a standard muffin pan.

Mash 1/8 cup sugar and lemon peel in small bowl until sugar is moistened. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. In an electric mixer, cream the remaining 1 cup sugar and butter in until fluffy. Beat in egg until fully combined. Beat in buttermilk, then vanilla and the lemon sugar mixture. Beat in dry ingredient mixture (I always add flour in thirds when using an electric mixture to avoid splashes).

Divide batter among muffin cups (fill up to 2/3 full). Top each muffin with 4 raspberries. Bake muffins until lightly browned on top, about 35 minutes. Test by sticking a toothpick in the center of a muffin (it should come out clean).