Oh my god, people. Just OMG. Let’s just make this one succinct, for once? Surely, I am capable of concise thought, right? These muffins are the shockingly good. Make them.
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 (225 grams) sugar, divided
4 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel (from two large lemons)
2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
1/2 cup (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1 cup (235 ml) buttermilk
2 teaspoons (10 ml) 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 (25 grams) 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!
Holy SMOKES! This sounds great. I made these (Deb’s version) last week for my friend’s mom; she ate 12 of them in about 36 hours. Needless to say, there’s been another request. Your combination sounds divine!
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.
I just made these for my family this Christmas morning. They are easy and absolutely delicious! I didn’t have buttermilk on hand so I mixed a cup of milk with lemon juice and they turned out beautifully. Just keep an eye on the oven, mine cooked in about 28 minutes.
So yummy! I made these in a spur-of-the-moment “sure I’ll cook Christmas brunch tomorrow morning” decision…after all the stores were already closed for the holiday. So that meant I had to make do with the ingredients I had on hand and they were lovely – all gone within the day. I used orange instead of lemon (it took the peel of one average size navel orange). I used frozen blueberries I had in the freezer from this summers berry picking adventures. I thought the orange and blueberry made a nice match. I also really liked that they weren’t too sweet and had both substance and fluff.
Hi Smitten Kitchen!
I have recently discovered you and what a fantastic discovery it was:-)
I originally found your apple muffins which led me to these muffins and I tried them out, and wow, delish! (though I did fill the muffin cups slightly too full)
The flavours of the lemon and rasberries compliment each other so well, i would never have thought, oh and the melted ooziness of the rasberries was perfect.
I plan to try out the apple muffins next:-) so will def be back.
Your photographs are gorgeous and make the already mouth watering food look even doubly mouth watering.
I made the minis today; they are sooooo delicious! I’ve eaten three already and I have to remind myself that these are supposed to be for the office and to not be selfish. Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful recipes!
My son and I made these today and they are fabulous! He is 3.5 and LOVED pounding the lemon peel and sugar together. We’ll def make this one again! Thank you Deb :)
I made this this morning and they are FANTASTIC. I am now trying to figure out if I could make this recipe into one great little ‘everyday cake’ for a friday night dinner party we are going to.
Mine had just got out of the oven and they smell fabulous!
I used strawberry instead of raspberry and lime instead of lemon, however the taste was still very delightful. Very flavourful, very moist and extremely soft! I will definitely make these muffins again.
Thank you for the recipe.
PS I love your blog
I made these this morning and they were fantastic!
I used 1% milk and vinegar instead of the butter milk, and placed 3 frozen raspberries on top of each muffin.
I also added the juice of half a small lemon to the batter as I felt that it wasn’t lemon-y enough.
Question, though. Perhaps it’s because of my lack of muffin exposure (my mum only ever made banana chocolate chip muffins for us when I was a kid), but are these more cupcake-ish than muffin like? To me the batter tasted pretty well exactly like my nana’s old sour cream cake recipe (maybe that’s just a giant muffin in rectangle form!) which wasn’t exactly surprising seeing as the ingredients are exactly the same less the lemon sugar mixture. So I’m just curious as to where on the like super legit muffin – total cakey cupcake scale these would land.
Regardless, these muffins will be found in my kitchen all the time from now on!
Gillain — I don’t think anyone knows where that line is. Muffins are tiny cakes. Sometimes they have more hearty stuff (nuts, oats or bran) in them and less sugar, often they have a coarser or looser crumb, but pretty much, they’re cakes. Small enough that we feel okay calling them breakfast food. :)
Hi, I remembered to buy everything for these except the mini-muffin liners. Are they firm enough that greasing the tins will suffice, or do I need to go back to the store?
Just grease them well and I think you’ll be fine. If you have a butter/flour spray, use that instead.
Just made these for dinner at the in-laws tonight and they are fantastic! So lemony and just sweet enough. I used frozen blueberries tossed in some flour and pressed about 3-6 berries in the middle of the muffins. Now they have a lovely blueberry center and some on top too! Great recipe, Deb, as always!
Tried one pan with liners and one pan with flour/butter spray; both turned out perfectly.
This is probably a stupidly basic question but how do you store these? Can I leave them at room temperature or should they go in the fridge? From the post, it seems like they lasted at least from a Friday to a Sunday so they can be kept for a couple days at least…
n — Room temperature should be fine. However, I’m a big believer in the freezer to keep things as fresh as when you first baked them, and that’s what I did — I keep them well-wrapped (layered with waxed paper) in a container. Took them out to defrost that morning.
I made these this morning and they were a huge hit! I drizzled a little lemon glaze over each mini muffin. They were not only sweet looking, but they were honestly delicious. Thanks for another wonderful recipe!
These were absolutely wonderful! Do you think it would work to add a small amount of finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves when you muddle the lemon zest and sugar? I was just thinking that perfumey, herbacious flavor might temper the sweetness nicely…
I just made these with my two kids running around and forgot to add the vanilla!! Didn’t notice until they were already baking (the muffins not the kids) and I was washing dishes. I was so upset. But they came out awesome anyway. I would even say that they probably taste less like a cake and more like a muffin without the vanilla (back to the the line between the muffin and cake point). I am using your lemon raspberry buttermilk cake as a reference. Also swapped out 1/2 the white flour for whole wheat.
My one year old is gobbling one up as I type and asking for more. Thanks again Deb.
Just made these and they’re delicious! Strangely enough the lemon flavor wasn’t as strong as I hoped even though I added an extra half-lemon’s worth of zest. Also, I was wondering how you managed to keep the tips of your raspberries poking out so high! Once baked, my raspberries were almost completely swallowed by the batter. Oh well, at least they tasted good! :)
Could I swap the buttermilk out for yogurt? Would fresh apricots be delicious instead of raspberries?
We LOVE these muffins and serve them to our hotel guests as a delicious treat with coffee. It is hard for us to find raspberries in Mexico, but I top them with strawberries and they come out great! They are now a Villa Santa Cruz favorite!
These were a wonderful treat for my friend’s birthday.
Instead of a raspberry, since it is winter, I mixed powdered sugar with lemon juice and a bit of zest to give them a nice glaze.
Ok, I’m making these this afternoon for a friend’s birthday tomorrow. Other than lowering the temperature of the oven and cooking longer, any high-altitude tips?
Also, I’m planning to top them with the 7 minute frosting from the lemon layer cake because I want cupcakes, not muffins. Yay!
These turned out great! I’d recommend this recipe to anyone to try. A little labor intensive with the lemon zesting, but otherwise easy.
This is a wonderful recipe! I’ve made them 2x this week (in a cake form instead of cupcake), and I previously made them as cupcakes.
Delicious, easy, great ingredients.
This is very likely to become my bring along food item to parties!
I just made these as mini muffins and absolutely love them. They turned out great and are a huge hit. So cute (and easy) and such a refreshing little treat!
I just made these using cherries on top, sprinkled with a little cinnamon sugar. They were delicious! :)
I just made two batches of these, one for my dad who is recovered from a stroke, the other for my boyfriend who has a massive sweet tooth. I made batch one with no-salt flora margarine and granulated sweetener, and batch two with a little square of white chocolate tucked under the raspberry. Both have come out brilliantly and both parties are very happy. Everyone has commented on how pretty they look with the little raspberry poking out of the top. Super easy but taste amazing, thank you!
Just made these as per recipe as I had some buttermilk to use up and they are delicious! I used a silicon muffin try and didn’t need to grease it or use paper cases. Mine made 12 big muffins and took about 30 minutes in my oven. Love the combination of lemon and raspberries! Next time i think I’ll use more raspberries and perhaps try and mix of white and wholemeal flour.
My husband came home the other day w/ 4 pints of raspberries from his parents garden. Knowing we couldn’t consume that many fresh, I turned to SK for some tried & true recipes. I just made these muffins this morning & they turned out fabulous! I didn’t tweak the recipe at all, unbelievably quick, easy & so good.
i made these! and om so in love with these that i made them with raspberries, cranberries, blueberries and chocolate chips! they are just fabulous.
What exactly is “grated lemon peel”? I assume if you meant zest, you’d say that?
Karla — Either will work. Peel sometimes includes more of the white but I’m pretty sure I just used zest.
I’m completely confused by how so many of you can write/think about ANYthing else if you’ve made these muffins. Super DUPER yummy! I made a pan of the little ones and used the rest of the batter for big ones. The mini muffins were PERfect. Such an awesome blend with that one raspberry in the center. I didn’t have buttermilk so I used the ol’ lemon juice trick. Here’s the kicker. I put them out after dinner (they were supPOSed to be for breakfast tomorrow) and everyone snagged a couple for dessert! Thank you thank you thank you.
Loved these little muffins, but felt they needed a little something on top to ramp up the lemon flavor. I went to Bon Appetit to see the reviews (since the recipe said it was adapted from Bon Appetit). The original recipe called for a brushing of cream and a sprinkle of lemon sugar. I was making 150+ muffins and the lemon sugar was very damp making it hard to sprinkle evenly, so I opted for a brushing of lemon glaze. Another small change I made to the directions – I put the lemon zest and sugar in the mini food processor to make sure they were well muddled.
I also have a general suggestion. I would love to have known why you made the changes to the Bon Appetit recipe that you did (omitting the cream and lemon sugar topping). Did you feel the topping was unnecessary?? To difficult?? Would you consider adding the reason for your recipe adaptations to your postings? thanks!!
Louise — I didn’t find it necessary. We found these muffins sweet enough without it.
I make these at least every couple of weeks, and often times use blueberries instead. These are amazingly delicious. Something about the lemon sugar that gives such a fragrantly potent flavor vs. using juice. These are a favorite in this house!
Just made these for a baby shower tomorrow. Kind of wish I had the mini-muffin pans cause yours look so cute! But even without the cuteness factor, these are amazing! Another keeper in my arsenal of recipes stolen from smitten kitchen!
Deb, Would there be any advantage to using Meyer lemons for these (or any disadvantage)?
Thanks!
No advantage or disadvantage, just a slightly different flavor. If you love ’em, use them.
Hi Deb! So, what if I don’t habe buttermilk in my country? (Peru)
What should I use instead? Would this replacement work in every recipe?
Thanks!
I really enjoy a lot of the recipes found on Bon Appetit. Your photos of the results of your making this recipe are lovely…makes me really want to try them myself. I, of course see you decreased the sugar amount and eliminated the topping, but your ingredients and directions seem a little too cut and paste for me when looking at the two recipes side by side. I’m surprised no one has mentioned this already in the last 96 comments.
Deb! These look so awesome :D Just to check, how wide’s the base of your mini muffins? I recently bought a new muffin tin and liners for it, and the look mini to me, but I just wanna be sure :)
First let me start by saying I love this website! I have had so many successful recipes from it. I tried this recipe today and followed your advice for making my own buttermilk. One tablespoon into one cup of whole milk and let it sit. It was sitting for a couple of hours before I used it in this muffin recipe. As soon as I added the homemade buttermilk to my butter/egg/sugar mixture the entire thing curdled and separated :( So now I’m running to the store to get some buttermilk to start over…Any ideas why that happened?
The same thing happened to me when I added my buttermilk (lemon in milk, strained), but I plowed ahead. When I added the dry ingredients, the batter came together beautifully. The muffins were delicious. (I realize this comment was posted years ago, but I’m replying in case anyone else runs into the same problem in the future.)
FWIW, the suggested baking times are way too long (at least for my oven — I’ve never baked cupcakes/muffins for 35 minutes!), so check early. My mini muffins baked for about eleven minutes.
hello!
do you know if this recipe will stand up to if i make the recipe and then cook it the next day? i want to bring these muffins to work, but i don’t want to wake up at 5 am to start making them.
hannah — I think they’ll keep fine overnight in an airtight container, so you can bake them the night before.
Hello! do you think i could use the batter to make some lemon cupcakes? i was thinking of skipping the raspberries and instead putting some cream cheese frosting, and a candied lemon peel on top of the cream cheese frosting? what do you think? thanks! ( love all your recipes by the way)
Another winner! I made these as mini-muffins for my daughter’s 1st grade poetry tea and they were perfect–adored by kids, teachers and parents!
I made these muffins (along with the Bacon and Leek Risotto) for Father’s Day this past Sunday – huge hit, very delicious! I just made them again tonight to take in to my office tomorrow morning. A couple things I found:
1) I made the minis, and apparently filled them up a bit more than you did, ’cause I only got 40-44 minis each time I made them. (Filling them up gave them each a muffintop though…hard to be sad about that!)
2) Most of the raspberries had been eaten by the time I got around to this second batch…luckily we had some other kinds of berries, so I stuck in some small strawberry pieces or a blackberry. Hoo boy, were those delicious. Next time, I’m just going to do an assortment of berry-lemon muffins!
Thank you for all your recipes, beautiful pictures, and delightful stories. I just read the comments above mine, so I’m going to go stick mine in an airtight container before going to sleep! :)
im making these for my Norwegian-breakfast-is-my-thing grandmother tomorrow. she WILL be amazed.
I made these a few weeks ago (in mini muffin form)and they were great! I really liked the mini-muffiness of them because it made the raspberry almost a filling but leaning towards a topper. Even my mother who wont eat raspberries because of the seeds loved them. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
I made these muffins in a regular muffin tray but I think they would be much better in mini-size. They were tasty but the texture was more like a cake. I would have preferred more raspberries, ie. not just on top but in the muffins as well.
I added 1 1/2 tsp. poppy seeds to the batter and omitted the raspberries. After the muffins were baked, I poked a few holes in the tops with a toothpick and spooned a glaze over the tops made of juice from lemons and 2 TBL sugar. I heated the glaze in the microwave for 30 seconds to dissolve the sugar. Really added a nice lemony burst of flavor!
Deb! Oh my goodness, I made these muffins the other night and they were instantly devoured by my roommates and boyfriend. The Boyfriend wolfed down five of them before they were even properly cooled! We were all overwhelmed by how deliciously they turned out, and it was immediately decided that Raspberry-Topped Lemon Muffins Should Be Made Often. This, and your apple-pie cookies. :D Thanks so much for posting such an amazing (and wonderfully simple) recipe!
I’m totally making these this weekend! Beautiful!
These dainty cutiepies looked lovely after I rescued them out of the oven, and by rescue, I mean the bottoms got a wee suntan. The result: they looked good, but were tough yet flavourful. Moral of the story: don’t surf the net or rub your dog’s belly when you should be focusing on your muffins! They would have been great if I hadn’t lost track of time, in that Proustian way we all do sometimes.
I made these last night- the lemon/ raspberry mixture is really nice. I usually cook mini-muffins for about 11 minutes- i was surprised to see the directions say over 20 minutes. So I split the difference and baked them for 15 minutes, which led them to be a little dry and overdone. I think I’ll try again and cook for less time.
I tried these mini muffins again last night- perfect when baked for 11 minutes.
I made the original recipe which turned out great, and then I changed up the flavors for a second batch. Dark chocolate chips instead of raspberries, and shaved sweetened coconut and coconut extract instead of the lemon peel and vanilla extract… Delicious!!
Just pulled these out of the oven, made them for a baby shower – OH MY, they are perfection – thank you – always such great recipes and easy to follow directions!
Made these yesterday, Sunday morning….they are superb! Great lemon and dairy flavor….keeping this recipe!!!
If fresh raspberries aren’t in season, would these work with a dollop of good raspberry jam? Is there a good technique for doing that, or would jam just run all over the top? Maybe you’d scoop out a bit of muffin AFTER baking and add jam?
Hi, I tried making the muffins but my raspberries sank right to the bottom while it was in the oven and all the batter rose over it! How do you get your raspberries to stay at the top? And also my raspberries got all melty and sticky after i finished baking them and im not sure why!
Any ingredient changes worth mentioning? I’ve actually never heard of them sinking. I’ve heard of it in other recipes, but not this one. Fruit doesn’t usually sink if the batter is thick enough to hold it.
I didn’t change any ingredients except making my own butter milk (1 cup milk and 1tbs vinegar). Could it be the raspberries? I used fresh raspberries but after being baked, they got all melted and gooey and tasted funny(raw and extremely sour). They tasted fine when they werent baked yet though!
Y — It might have been a little thinner than storebought buttermilk, but otherwise, I am stumped. As I mentioned, sinking usually comes from thin batters. I don’t remember finding this one especially thick, so it’s feasible that it would sink; I only found it strange that this is the rare recipe where it hasn’t even once been an issue. I guess that means you are first — lucky you! You might try yogurt or something thicker for the buttermilk next time, to create a thicker batter.
Re, the raspberries — I do find that berries tend to get more sour when baked; it’s why all of those berry jams and pies and bars have so much sugar in them. But, this is a sweet muffin; ideally, it would have balanced it out.
Thanks so much for your help! It could be the buttermilk which made my batter so watery. I will go and try again. The cake part tasted great though:)
hi deb! if you are baking in batches, should you keep the batter on the counter or in the fridge during the time in between? does it make a difference? i only have one muffin tin, so i’ll need to do 2 rounds of baking, which means the 2nd half of the batter will probably need to be sitting for 45-60 minutes (when taking into account cooling round 1, etc.). thanks in advance!
anita — I usually just leave things out. Pop the first batch out of the pan as soon as possible, wash it, etc. so you can use it again ASAP.
Would you recommend adding Lemon Extract instead of Vanilla? Would you ever mix in both? I love intense lemon, who doesn’t, but sometimes I feel like I would be missing out on the touch of vanilla that I so enjoy. Any thoughts?
You just linked to these again and it reminded me that I made them many years ago, after you first posted this recipe. I called them Raspberry Berets. :(
I just made these! I think I burnt them by not moving them to a cooling rack (only the bottom burned) but they were hugely popular at work anyhow; I cooked the second batch (I doubled the recipe) for a few minutes less and took them out of the muffin tins more quickly, and they were perfect. Yum!
I made these muffins. The flavors are subtle and they were just the right amount of sweetness. My raspberries fell over instead of sinking into the muffin nicely. Next time, I will push them in more and see if that works because I think the centered raspberries are very cute for mini muffins. Also, I wouldn’t refrigerate them overnight again. They were in an airtight container and they dried out considerably.
These are absolutely delicious, however the cook time for regular size muffins is way off. I pulled mine at 23min and I think they could’ve come out even a minute or 2 sooner.
Please convert recipe to grams if possible. Thanks
All done! Enjoy.
Hello!
I struggle to find buttermilk. Any ideas what I can use instead?
Thanks a lot!
Anna
You can use yogurt thinned with a little milk (maybe 2/3 or 3/4 yogurt, the rest milk) or make your own soured milk.
How long would this batter last for? I would like to use half the batter to make mini muffins for a party on a Friday and then would like to use the other half for mini muffins on Monday (to bake Sunday night). Would it be better to refrigerate or to freeze? Please help!
Once baking powder and soda are mixed, they’re starting to work so I don’t think batter keeps. But muffins keep very well in the freezer, even for just a couple days.
Im looking to make a birthday cake where the cake itself is lemon flavored? Would this work as a layer cake? I could do rapsberries in between the layers and vanilla buttercream on the outside?
Deb, in general, you have the best notes on recipes of any blog out there– so thank you for that.- That is what makes this recipe so maddening. It would be really helpful to include at the top of the recipe that if it curdles– it’s no big deal. I went through first not having buttermilk and making it ..and having it curdle which i thought was due to my faulty home made buttermilk– so i tossed it. Then I did it again using a different percentage milk and again curdle and trash– you can imagine I really wanted these suckers..finally, I sent my husband to the store to get buttermilk and it curdled again– so I read through every comment and saw the guy that had the same issue…it would have been great to have a side note mentioning that at the top–because I think most of us would think curdling would be a problem…. and yes, it did finally, come together beautifully– they are in the oven and I hope they are stupendous!
Nice tasting recipe, overall. I wish the muffin had just a little more lemon flavor to it. As others have mentioned, the cooking time seems to be quite off. I made the full recipe and used my 12 muffin tin. Baked at 375 F for 24 minutes (I keep a thermometer in the oven).
Just made these yesterday and they are delightful! I also juiced the lemons after they were zested and added confectioners sugar to make a glaze (kids found them a bit tart without the glaze, I loved them as is).
100% agree with others on the timing, these took about 22-23 minutes at 375, I’d imagine they’d be VERY dark or totally burnt at 35 minutes. I’ve made loads of muffins before so I knew approximately the timing that would work in my oven but I’d be bummed if I was a new baker and burned these based on the posted baking time.
I was disappointed in these muffins. They did not turn out well, I think the recipe could use some tweaking, 2 cups of flour is quite a lot for the amount of liquid, also the recipe just calls for the lemon zest, not the juice, which left them not very lemony tasting. A waste of good raspberries. Also 2 tsp of vanilla overpowers what little lemon flavor there is. I wonder if the lemon juice could be used as a glaze after they are cooked?
Flavor is delicious. My raspberries were super-sized, I think, because I could only fit 3 in each muffin. There was too much batter for 14, which I only learned once they were baked and I was trying to pry them loose from the tins and the tops had all run into each other. Agreed about baking time – 25, 26 minutes will do it. Shorter if you make 16 or 18 instead of 14. But they taste fantastic.
Is this one of the recipes that you can sub whole milk yogurt for the buttermilk?
Thanks Deb!
I would probably mix in some lemon juice or vinegar, as we do here.
These are awesome! I made them with yogurt instead of buttermilk. I skipped the berries but added a few teaspoons of poppy seeds to the batter. Perfect muffins, thanks!
While I loved the original version of this recipe, I was also able to successfully “veganize” it with the following substitutions:
– 1/2 cup butter > 1/4 cup coconut oil & 1/4 cup olive oil (you could probably do all coconut/olive oil, as well)
– 1 egg > 1 flax egg (if I were to do it again, I’d probably swap the egg out with apple sauce so that there aren’t brown flax seeds in the final product)
– 1 cup buttermilk > 1 cup soymilk and 1 tbs lemon juice/vinegar
I took it to a gathering, and people couldn’t tell that it was vegan! :)
Wonderful muffins. I upped the lemon flavor by making 3/4 cup of buttermilk using lemon juice and added in 1/4 cup of lemon yogurt. I made regular sized muffins that I baked at 375 for just 22 minutes and they came out perfectly. Mine came out with a slightly browned, crispy top. I made a little glaze with lemon juice and confectioners sugar. Delightful!
I’d like to make these for some kids (ages 5-8) and am worried they will be too tart. Would cutting the amount of lemon peel in half do the trick to mellow the flavor out, or will I just be ruining a perfectly good recipe?
I wouldn’t change them at all. I’ve made these several times now and the lemon flavor is lovely, but not at all sharp. The contrast between the lemon and the sweetness of the berries is absolutely delicious.
And? Given the chance, kids will eat a lot more than we think they will. :)
This is truly not a tart muffin.
Do you think frozen and then thawed raspberries would work?
I haven’t done it but think it would. I might not defrost them; they’ll lose their shape — they should bake fine from frozen on top.
Absolutely lovely and fluffy. I used plain Greek yoghurt thinned with lemon juice instead of buttermilk. Beware the cooking time – mine were done in 20 mins… 35 mins seems a long time for muffins, no?
Would i be able to make it as a cake? english cake or maybe even round?
I haven’t tested it as a cake but I bet it would be delicious. Note: You might also like this raspberry buttermilk cake. You could bump up the lemon if you’d like.
thanks so much for the quick response!
So good… and so cute! Perfect for a crowd.
But just wondering… do these have to be stored in the fridge because of the raspberry? If not, how long do they last in a container at room temperature?
Thanks!
Deb, I know you look at the comments — even on old recipes. I’m begging you to reevaluate the time here, per previous comments. I just made these, and they were delicious! However, I knew 35 minutes would be way too long, as I bake a lot. I doubled the recipe, and used a standard muffin tin, and they were done in 20 minutes. I don’t want someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience baking having a burned mess.
Will do! I will say that revisiting this years ago sent me off on a raspberry muffin pursuit which ended last month in these. It’s a different direction, of course.
I’ve made those, too! A standout. Thank you for your response.
Definitely need to update cook time, agree with other comments, 23 minutes max for regular size.
These are amazing. I’ve made them 4-5 times now and my kid totally loves them and I do too. I’ve even gotten away with baking it as a cake for a “light after lunch” dessert. So fabulous. I mix a little almond flour in with the regular flour (just for kicks) and use frozen raspberries because I live in a place where fresh ones are $$$ all the time. Just a hit every single time! Thanks Deb!!