Baking Porn

These are the most wonderful Raspberry muffins, ever. Of course, I'm not terribly experienced in the ways of raspberry muffins, but when I was forced to borrow i Tablespoon of baking powder from my neighbour, I was happy to send her back two of these in return. I sent them over with Aurelia who reported back that Mrs. D said she'd never had a Raspberry muffin before. Never? She has twice as many bushes as we do: does it all become jam?

Anyway, here they are.



The recipe is from this blog. I made a few modifications, as noted.

Beat together:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 c. yogurt-- I didn't have any plain, so I used 7% M. F. sour cream, instead.
  
• 2-3 T. lemon juice
• 1/4 c. melted butter
• 1 t. vanilla

In a separate bowl, mix or sift together:

• 2 c. all-purpose flour --I used 1 cup all purpose and 1 cup whole wheat, as I usually do.
  
• 1 T. baking powder
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1-2 t. lemon zest
• 1 t. salt

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix until thoroughly moistened. Then fold in:

• 2 c. raspberries (frozen is fine, just don’t thaw them too much before mixing them in, or you’ll end up with bright pink muffins)

Pour into 12 large muffin tins. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

This made quite a stiff batter, and required fourteen muffin cups: not twelve.

I actually used a real lemon. I thought it was time to introduce Aurelia to the concept of "zest." (I didn't know anything about it until my twenties.) And I knew she'd have fun working with the zester. She did--but she asked me, "Why is it called zest?" I had no good answer.

Raspberry-Banana Loaf



I wondered how this Raspberry Banana Bread would turn out. The reviews on the web site were mixed. First, I reduced the bananas to two. Unfortunately, mine weren't as ripe as I like them to be. The resulting dough was much too stiff to fold raspberries, so at the last minute I quickly mixed in two tablespoons of apple sauce and 1 tablespoon of canola oil. That helped immensely. I also made a sugar and cinnamon/nutmeg crust. It took only 50 minutes in the oven.

The recipe is from here. As I won't make it again and don't recommend it, I won't cut and paste. However, my son, who is an extraordinarily picky eater, pronounced it "not bad."

Nonetheless, I'm anxiously waiting for more berries to ripen so I can try a Raspberry-Orange Loaf/Muffins and the Zesty Raspberry Loaf mentioned above.

Oh dear. This diet may be well and truly lost. I just found a recipe for Chocolate Raspberry Bundt cake. And it is Aurelia's ninth birthday on Tuesday.