Lemon-Raspberry Muffins

Where did September go? It seems impossible to lose an entire month, but there you have it; it’s gone. It’s already the second day of October and if I don’t slow down and take notice, I will soon be saying the same thing about this month.

If you’ve been following the blog recently, then you already know that September was mostly spent moving my 87-year old parents from California out here to live near us in the Midwest. It was a month full of adventures and hard work, but now October is here, they're settled, and I’m ready to slow it all down.

To that end, I think a nice cup of tea is in order, and what’s a cup of tea without a little muffin, I ask you? And not just any muffin… but how ‘bout a Lemon-Raspberry Muffin?

I may have mentioned this before, but I’m just a little picky when it comes to muffins. I’m not a big fan of light, fluffy, cake-like muffins. I guess I feel like I might as well go ahead and eat a piece of cake. But if I’m having a muffin, I want it to be muffin-y. You know, sort of a little more textural and interesting.

And I love the texture of these muffins, which is almost biscuit-y, yet they still have a nice soft crumb. Of course, add some beautiful, fresh raspberries and a little zing from a lemon, and I can’t think of a better way to slow down an afternoon. Tea, anyone?

Click here for a printable recipe

Adapted from Living Well Magazine

The directions call for using a vegetable peeler to remove the lemon zest and then combining it in a food processor with the sugar, but I've never felt like I could get the zest fine enough using this method, and I don't really like biting into chunks of lemon peel. So I prefer to use a rasp grater to zest the lemon and stir this into the sugar to sit while I get the rest of the ingredients together. I've left the original recipe so you can try that method if you'd like.

I love the texture of these muffins and used white whole-wheat flour, but if you don't have it, just substitute regular all-purpose flour. And next time I will sprinkle a little raw sugar over the tops of the muffins before baking them.

1 lemon

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup nonfat buttermilk

1/3 cup canola oil

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup white whole-wheat flour or whole-wheat pastry flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (not thawed) raspberries

raw sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. (My muffins cooked a little too quickly at this temperature, so I may try 375 degrees next time)

Coat a muffin tin with cooking spray.

Use a vegetable peeler to remove the zest from the lemon in long strips. Combine the zest and sugar in a food processor; pulse until the zest is very finely chopped into the sugar. Add buttermilk, oil, egg and vanilla and pulse until blended.

Combine whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture and fold until almost blended. Gently fold in raspberries. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. If using, sprinkle the tops with a little raw sugar.

Bake until the edges and tops are golden, about 20-25 minutes. Let cool in the pan 5 minutes before turning out on a wire rack. Serve warm.