*The Cooking & Baking Lab*

*Raspberry Lemon Muffin*- with cinnamon sugar sprinkle over the top

Best thing in the morning~ Warm, soft, and moist raspberry muffin, topped with cinnamon sugar. Serve them right away; these muffins are best straight out of the oven!

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

*Dry ingredients*

2 cups – unbleached all-purpose flour

2/3 cup – sugar

2 teaspoons – baking powder

½ teaspoon – baking soda

Pinch of salt

*Liquid ingredient*

85g – butter

1 lemon (finely grated zest)

2/3 cup – buttermilk

2 large eggs (room temperature)

1½ teaspoons – pure vanilla extract

1¼ cups – frozen raspberry (do not defrost)

*cinnamon sugar*

1 tablespoon – sugar

¼ teaspoon – ground cinnamon

(1)

-      Preheat the oven to 400F and place oven rack in the center.

-      Lightly coat muffin tin with melted butter. 

-      In a large bowl, place the dry ingredients and whisk to blend thoroughly.

-      In a medium skillet, melt butter with lemon zest. (This will help to bring out the flavor of the zest and distribute it evenly in the batter).

-      Turn off the heat. Add the buttermilk to the melted butter and let the mixture sit for 2 minutes. (make sure it’s tepid, or else it might cook up the egg )

-      In a medium bowl, pour the butter mixture in (make sure it’s tepid, or else it might cook up the egg), then add eggs and vanilla, and whisk until well blended.

(2)

-      Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, then pour the butter mixture into the well and stir gently.

-      Mix only the batter looks fairly smooth.

    (Do not over mix the batter, few lumps are ok!)

-      Gently fold in the raspberries until evenly distributed in batter.

(3)

-      Use the large ice cream scoop to divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups.

-      Stir together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle it over the tops of the muffins.

(4)

-      Bake the muffins for 18-20 minutes until top feels firm.

-      Insert skewer into the center, muffins are ready when skewer comes out clean.

-      Transfer the muffin tin to cooling rack, let cool for 5 minutes.

    (Do not let the muffins sit in tin for too long as the condensation builds up quickly and bottoms will get soggy.)

-      Gently lift the muffins out and let them finish cooling.

-      Serve warm or room temperature!

<3 Completely cooled muffins can be stored up to 2 days in a plastic bag at room temperature.Reheat, wrapped in foil, in a 325F oven for 8 minutes, until warmed through.

(Recipe adapted from The Art & Soul of Baking)