Raspberry Muffins

I tossed together these delicious muffins tonight after dinner for a bit of dessert and so I can have some to grab for breakfast in the morning before leaving for church. I had a few handfuls of raspberries leftover from last weekend's Farmer's Market that really needed to be used up, as I just bought several more pint boxes of them at today's market.

I found these muffins absolutely perfect. Soft in the middle yet with a slight crunch to the crust. Not too sweet or syrupy, satisfying as a dessert but not so sweet that you feel guilty eating them for breakfast (like I tend to feel after eating leftover brownies for breakfast.) These also have a pleasantly lemony taste, thanks to the lemon zest and juice. It is not a overpowering lemon flavor, just enough to compliment the raspberries. However if you are not a lemon lover or happen to not have a lemon in the refrigerator, feel free to leave it out.

Note: I just recently became a consultant for the Demarle At Home products and I am developing and testing my recipes to suit these fun baking forms. If you have the Straight Muffin Tray that I used for this recipe, then great, use it! If not, not to worry, a conventional metal muffin pan works just fine too. And, suppose you'd like to learn more about the Demarle At Home products or even buy some for yourself? Well, then I could help you with that.

So, here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Makes 12 muffins (I made only 8 muffins since I overfilled my cups to make large muffins)

 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
zest of 1 whole lemon
juice of 1/2 of lemon, about 2 Tbsp
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cup raspberries, lightly crushed

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease and flour muffin cups, or use paper liners. ***If using a Demarle At Home muffin tray, there is no need to grease or flour the cups, or even use liners.***

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg until pale and frothy. Add the vanilla, sugar, zest and juice and whisk vigorously until thick and well combined. Slowly, whisk in the melted butter. Then add the buttermilk and whisk until just combined.

Fold the egg mixture into flour until nearly combined. Add the raspberries and give it a few stirs. Batter will be very thick.

Spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean, or with a few dry crumbs attached. I popped these muffins out of the Demarle At Home muffin tray as soon as the tray cooled (5min) but you can leave these in the muffin tin for up to 20 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.