raspberry-topped lemon muffins
That’s not enough? Fine. Two lemons worth of grated peel are muddled into a paste with sugar, and that sugar is used to bake a simple buttermilk and vanilla muffin that is topped with a whole fresh raspberry. If it sounds simple, that’s because it is, but the flavor is anything but. The lemon peel gives what should be a sweet, harmless muffin a bitter, intense edge, and the raspberry, an almost sour contrast whose impact rivals the best blueberry muffin you’ve ever had. What I once thought was my favorite approach to lemon cake is no longer. There’s a new muffin in town.
Deb, you sound a little rushed today. Oh, you can tell? It’s true. Work has been very… work-like this week, which I wholly resent. Next week I’ll be spending three days in a nine acre glass-enclosed pod, and I’ve decided it’s more fun to see which of you figures out what I’m talking about first than to just tell you outright: it’s not an asylum. (Hm, or isn’t as far as I’ve been told… Actually, I should verify.) And finally, our families are coming over on Sunday for a Mother’s Day Brunch (hence all these wee muffins), and while we all know how much I adore cooking for crowds, I actually hate organizing the grocery shopping that precedes it. Surely, Alex is taking bets on how many times he’ll be sent back to the store for forgotten items (my money is on two); feel free to weigh in. Which reminds me: yogurt! Gah, gotta run.
Raspberry-Topped Lemon Muffins
Adapted from Susan Elizabeth Fallon via Bon Appetit, July 2006
Yield: 14 large or 56 miniature muffins
1 1/8 cups sugar, divided
4 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel (from two large lemons)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 1/2-pint containers (about) fresh raspberries
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 14 standard muffin cups (or 56 minis) with paper liners. Mash 1/8 cup sugar and lemon peel in small bowl until sugar is slightly moist. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat remaining 1 cup sugar and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg. Beat in buttermilk, then vanilla and lemon sugar. Beat in flour mixture.
Divide batter among muffin cups (the 2/3-3/4 level worked well for minis). Top each large muffin with 4 raspberries (or mini muffins with one each). Bake muffins until lightly browned on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes (baking time was on the shy side of 20 minutes for mini muffins).
These are adorable!!! Makes me want to run out right away to get the ingredients!
are you going to Nashville? to Opryland?
Yes! And it looks scary!
The muffins look fantabulous, the kind of thing you could just pop into your mouth one after the other. How are you going to have any left by the time Sunday rolls around? Happy Mother’s Day to your mother! Are you going to Opryland?
Gaylord Opryland Hotel…
Ahhhh you’ll love it. Although it was a lil much for this Nor Cal Hippie at times.
FYI.. if you have sinus issues, take some “ocean” with you… the air in there drys (me) out bad! Its like being in a casino.. or does that only happen to me?
A nine acre glass pod? Ummmm. I don’t know, but wear sunscreen. Oh and save me a muffin please.
I LOVE grocery shopping and preparing to do so.. I am a shopping list nerd and take pleasure in making the list from the recipes!! If only i could make that into a full time job :)
muffins look yummy-are you going to promises rehab in malibu-ha.
Opryland
The Gaylord Opry Land Hotel isn’t that bad. Have you been practicing your Southern twang? Now, a Tennessee ya’ll is different from a Savannah ya’ll. Think Justin Timberlake and less Paula Dean. If you need help, just shoot me an email and I’ll give you precise instructions. I have southern inflections down since I lived in most of the South: Florida (the lower Alabama part), Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee and visited the missing states multiple times. Also, near the hotel is one of the biggest Outlet Malls…Shoppin’ ya’ll!
As for the muffins, if you made it this far, OMG…I’m SO MAKING THEM! We’re berry fanatics and this will do both of us some good. And, it’s only half a stick of butter, so I’m thinking, it won’t be too bad for the WW points system. Okay, screw the points, this is so a Saturday I-don’t-give-a-flip food.
that’s so funny. I passed up an opportunity to go there once upon a time…
I put my money on 3 times!
So why has everyone heard of this place but me? And what’s its deal with fresh air? Why the pod? Am I going to have to have ride a Delta Flatboat from meeting to meeting? I’m skeered.
Don’t worry, Deb, Nashville has running water and ‘lectricity just like New York City. It’s actually a pretty good town. However, if you’re offered a ride on the General Jackson Riverboat Cruise, put on your best Nancy Reagan face and “Just Say No”. It’s 3 hours of boring.
Deb,can you post the recipe for the blueberry muffins? I didn’t see it anywhere on your site. I love your site! I am a big Ina fan as well. Have you tried the beef bourguignonne? I’m not a huge fan of red meat but this was out of this world!!
OMG…No, you won’t have to ride a boat to get to meeting to meeting. You’ve just been sheltered by those peeps in NYC. Opryland is the mecca of the South. If you’ve grown up a fan of country music, you pray to go to Opryland and then take a trip to the Grand Ol’Opry – where ALL the country musicians play.
Oh, there are some good eats on Broadway in Nashville. Hop in a cab and play tourist. You’ll pass a lot of small honky tonks and juke joints. Too bad it’s not New Years, when they drop a guitar. Ah, Nashville, good times. (Goes back to not talking with Southern accent now.)
Yes, I second Julie on the blueberry muffin recipe! I am dying to try a better blueberry muffin recipe than ye ole stand-by:The Muffin Mix. I know your sweet heart just shriveled into a prune…Also, I grew up eating sharp cheddar with muffins. Is that just my kooky family?
This look so different from the traditional muffins- a nice and light recipe for summer- I have got to try them!
Oops! I thought I’d linked it on the picture. These are from Cooks Illustrated Best Recipe Cookbook via Elise, and I really liked them. In minis of course, because that seems to be my thing.
Of course they’re mini too…and look totally delish!
Yummy,yum,yum! Goodness for the tum! OMG indeed! Had a festive “happy hour” in the kitchen this afternoon making these muffins, and they are truly light and delicious. I hope I have a few left by Sunday to deliver to my mommy friends!
There are times that I love shopping for groceries more appealing that actually cooking what I buy….I know, how freaky is that??
Those muffins looks yummay. I love it when you make something that seems like one thing but comes out unlike anything you imagined. And bonus points if it’s actually delicious in the process.
I absolutely love raspberries, lemons, and muffins but to have them combined into one – sublime! Thanks for the great recipe, I can’t wait to try it.
Okay, I caved and made these this morning. I did the regular-size, 4-raspberry version. Absolutely divine!
When I first saw these, I thought they had maraschino cherries on them, and I was really upset.
Then I read the description, and I was so, so, so much happier. I’m making these for mother’s day, it’s official. Thanks for another great recipe.
Wow, wow, wow. Did I mention wow? I have total faith that these are indeed shockingly good.
About going to Nashville, don’t mention Memphis when you’re there. The rivalry is insane.
These were wonderful thank you! Though my grocery had no raspberries (?) so I subbed blueberries – which are lighter and fell through into the batter. I wound up with a small blueberry center to the muffins which was a nice surprise and well recieved. Overall though the essence of the muffin was the same and delicious!
I am always in search of perfect muffins and these look like they may be “the ones”. If only I had read this before today, they would have been a Mother’s Day gift to myself.
Oh, oh, those look just marvelous! And horribly bad for me, I want some! ;) I use the Cook’s Choice Better Baker for just about all my muffin recipes now so they’re edible bowls rather than simple muffins. I’m thinking the wells in the bowls could be filled with something akin to creme brulee and topped with the raspberries. Hmm, maybe something more like cream cheese with a tad of sweetener and almond extract. Okay, this one is being added to my “to do” list. It’s getting longer and longer and longer…
Can’t believe I’ve missed those. They sound so fresh and delicious. Can’t go wrong with lemon and raspberries.They would have been perfect for my birthday breakfast.
Deb! I’ve been reading your website for about a year and a half (since the days of iVillage) and I’m finally de-lurking to tell you that I tried your English muffin recipe and am over the moon about them! So tasty, so delightfully different from their store-bought counterparts. Thanks for the recipe and cooking tips.
Also – I stayed at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando on my wedding night last fall and have been searching for an excuse to go back and spend that kind of money on lodging again. It is absolutely lovely. I’m sure you’ll enjoy your stay at the Nashville location, work-related or not.
Thank you, Deb. I made the standard size with blackberries (on sale) last night. Delicious!
Holy muffins these are over the top fantastic. Made the mini-variety but used slices of strawberries instead of raspberries. They’re a huge hit! Perfect muffin indeed!
well…I do have some blackberries at home that need using. Raspberries are still too expensive at the moment!
I think I found a new breakfast treat — yum!
those look SO good! i must try them tonight. thanks so much for posting this! :)
Oh my. I made these today….WOW. I took them to a outdoor music gathering! They were perfect snacks! So light and tart! They are amazing! Thanks!
Try them!
This is an amazing recipe! I couldn’t find any raspberries (which was weird), so I replaced it with rhubarb (I cooked it with some sugar until it got soft)
Superb! ;)
Any description of a recipe with OMG all over it is worthy of a try. So glad I found this blog–love it!
I can hear the astonishment in your voice (er, writing voice, that is). OK. That’s all I need. The photos merely frost the cake, so to speak. I’m gonna attempt these this week. Will the nits eat them? Who cares. I plan to. And if it means I have to eat 24 of them….
Yum! I did go ahead and make these with blackberries. These are, by far, the best muffins I’ve ever made. Soooo good. So lemony and delicious. Several friends, family and the boy all enjoyed them :). Great recipe!
There’s a new new muffin in town! Try this same thing, but as a lime blackberry muffin. Holy crap!
Delicious! I changed up the berries a bit. I used a boysenberry and blueberry combo on half the batch and boysenberry only on the other half. Both were delicious. Thanks for posting this recipe :)
These made the perfect Mother’s Day treat–fabulous! I made the mini variety with huge, fresh blackberries. They were perfectly tart, and even my baking-whiz grandmother was impressed. Nice!
Just made these muffins today. Love them! I topped them with a glaze made with fresh lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar. It will be fun to experiment with various citrus/berry combinations. Thanks for all the great recipes and the fun website.
Meyer Lemons!! I caught them (usually miss the 2 days they’re in season at our rural grocery store), organic even! And I made these muffins. Only with blackberries, my favorite. Oh my. Perfectly soft, moist crumb and great lemon flavor. I think these really highlighted the delicacy of the meyers. Thank you!!
Hi Deb! I made these using lime zest and frozen raspberries… they were so good! I used mini muffin pans like you, and it was great. I couldn’t have fed all my friends with 14 standard muffins but it was no problem at all with 50 bite sized ones. Thanks for the recipe!
http://17andbaking.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/lime-tea-cakes-with-raspberries/
Great recipe – thanks Deb!
I had some kind of school fete sprung on me this morning and an hour in which to provide. AAARGH! I immediately thought of this recipe, and it was a triumph. A basket of mini cakes for the littlies, just fancy enough, and still warm as I handed them over. Phew!
ps best tasting raw cake mix ever!! (is that too gross?)
pps CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love this recipe, i tried it and it was great…… its was so easy!
I’ve been following your site for some time. Your stories by recipes are always fun to read.
I needed an excuse to buy minimuffin pan and your recipe gave me on! :) I’m not very good at sweet things. My top level are muffins and biscuit layered cake. Your raspberry-lemon muffins seemed interesting and different from my usual muffins. So i gave it a try and they came out super wonderful!
It’s not very common, that i’m happy with the result of my cakes and baked goods. But these little things were absolutely wonderful!
Thank you so much for the recipe!
Below is link to my blog, but it’s in estonian, so you won’t understand a thing, but i’m saying really good words about your muffins :)
http://kuutydrukkokkab.blogspot.com/2009/05/muffinid.html
Ooooh. Yum.
The raspberries were ripe this morning, & I happened to have a couple of lemons. It was a good morning to wake up at my house, thanks to you!
I only had frozen raspberries, but they still turned out great. I will make them again, I live in Oregon which means I have plenty of opportunities to try these with many different kinds of berries!
Deb, you never fail me. I found this one using your Surprise Me feature (my favorite way to kill time, btw), and it pleased a whole crowd of hungry friends! Thanks :)
Thank you for your great blog! I tried this recipe last week-end and it was a great success. It was indeed the best muffin I’ve ever done! My next try is the birthday cake! I can’t wait :-)
Thank you! thank you! thank you!
I just baked these this morning they are a HUGE hit! I’m going to post a link to your recipe on my blog! Thank you so much!
Just finished making these with fresh raspberries and they are SO SO SO amazing. The perfect hit of lemon and the raspberries really ‘pop’. I made buttermilk with soy milk and vinegar and they came out great. The only thing I found is that my muffins cooked much quicker than the posted times—15 minutes for mini muffins and 21 minutes for the big ones. It probably has to do with my oven, but just goes to show that it’s always worth it to keep an eye on the muffins and not rely on the timer exclusively.
Thank you for this recipe. It’s a winner.
I made these with whole wheat flour and raw cane sugar. They’re still fantastic. I did pecans on half of them instead of raspberries. A different twist, but I like it.