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.

Raspberry Lemon Tart with crumble topping

If you love sweet and sour desserts, you are sure to love this one. This divine tart starts with a thick layer of sweet and flaky shortbread crust, then piled with lemon curd and raspberries, then topped with more crumbled shortbread. Pair it with a cup of coffee and you will have yourself a little slice of heaven.

This recipe comes from The Grand Central Baking Book, from the bakers at the Grand Central Bakery in Portland, Oregon. An inspiring book, one of my favorites. I actually combined two of it's recipes to make this one awesome dessert.
 
To save myself time and effort, I used a jar of lemon curd that I bought at my local farmers market. One of the vendors there makes small batch jams, relishes, chutneys and lemon curd in the authentic British way. The following recipe tells how to make the lemon curd from scratch. I suggest that you make it in advance; the lemon curd will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Also, note: the picture above is of an unfinished tart, before I baked it with the crumble topping on. Once it was baked, it was so quickly devoured that I didn't get a photo. Next time.


Serves 8

Crust:
2 1/2 cup all-purpose unbleached organic flour
3/4 tsp sea salt, finely ground
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Lemon Curd:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp finely chopped lemon zest
4 egg yolks
6 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 tsp sea salt, finely ground

1 pint fresh raspberries
3 Tbsp granulated sugar

3-4 Tbsp confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350°. Assemble a 10-inch spring-form pan.

For the dough:
Whisk the flour and salt together. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or a hand beater like I did, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed for about 5 minutes, until light in color and fluffy. Add the vanilla and mix to incorporate. Reduce he speed to low and add the dry ingredients, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl several times. Stop mixing when the dough is still crumbly. This happens quickly; the mixture will look dry and floury, then little clumps will suddenly appear. Don't over mix, or you will end up with a ball of dough that will be difficult to use.

Set aside 1 cup of the dough, then sprinkle the rest (about 2 1/2 cups) on the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan. Distribute it evenly, without pressing it. Bring the dough slightly up the sides of the pan to contain the lemon curd, then lightly press the dough to hold it in place. Refrigerate the reserved cup of dough. Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time. The crust should be toasty brown.

To make the lemon curd:
Combine the sugar, lemon zest, and egg yolks in a bowl or the top of a double boiler and whisk together immediately; don't delay or the mixture will coagulate. Put the bowl over a pan or the bottom of the double boiler with about an inch of lightly simmering water and whisk continuously until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon juice and, still whisking continuously, cook for about 5 minutes. Add the butter and salt, then use a spatula to stir constantly until the mixture is the consistancy of sour cream, which will happen at about 170°.

Strain the curd through a fine mesh sieve. If you won't be using it right away, cover with plastic wrap, placing it directly on the surface so the curd doesn't form a skin, and refrigerated for up to one week.

Fill and bake:
Spoon the curd into the baked crust, smoothing with a spatula. Scatter raspberries onto the lemon curd, sprinkle with the granulated sugar. Crumble the reserved 1 cup of dough over the top. Bake for 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time. The berries will collapse and the topping will be slightly brown. Immediately dust the warm tart with the confectioners sugar, then let cool slightly before removing the sides of the sprinform pan.

Pancake Crepes with Raspberries

This is not a true crepe, rather my experiment with a pancake recipe forgoing any rising agent. True crepes have a large liquid to flour ratio. I have had crepes before, however, I do not prefer them. I love a good pancake and so do my sons; we make them frequently around here. I have, for some time now, wanted to see what happens when you leave out the chemical rising agent (baking soda, baking powder) when making fluffy pancakes. Our home has increasingly become a chemical free zone as we have replaced our usual grocery store products with, from-nature-as-God-had-intended, natural and organic products. I read food and product labels religiously and even if there is one thing objectionable in the mix I will not buy it.

Anyhow, back to my recipe. These pancake crepes turned out so well, I will be making them all the time in the future. As sometimes happens with fluffy pancakes, these are not dry or pasty, nor do they require one to douse the whole bottle of maple syrup on top. These come out moist, tender and sweet.

Makes six 5" pancake crepes:

1 large free-range egg
1 cup all purpose, unbleached organic flour
3/4 cup milk, non-homogenized
2 Tbsp organic sugar
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp pure vanilla
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Beat the egg in a medium sized glass, ceramic or metal bowl until fluffy. Beat in remaining ingredients until just smooth. Do not over mix; too much mixing will give these a gummy texture.

Heat a stainless steel pan over medium heat. When the pan is heated up, add a small swirl of olive oil, turning pan to coat the bottom. Let oil heat for a few seconds.

Pour pancake crepe batter onto hot pan until roughly 4-5 inches in diameter across (or the size you prefer.) Cook cake-crepe until edges are dry and only the middle seems uncooked. Flip and cook on other size for a very short time, until golden on bottom.

Watch cake-crepes carefully. Stainless steel pans cook more efficiently, so it may be necessary to turn down the heat a bit to avoid burning the cake-crepes.

If not serving cake-crepes as they come off the pan, hold in a pre-heated warm (200°) oven, in a single layer on a towel covered cookie sheet.

Serve hot, with a drizzle of pure maple syrup and a few raspberries on top.