Lemon Raspberry Muffins Cranked Up a Notch

The other night I was informed that my kitchen skills would not be required due to outside influences.

The Lakers were scheduled to play and Sir Sportsalot wanted a particular dish from a particular eatery.

And what was the first thing that went through my mind?

"Not cook tonight? What on earth will I do? I'm going to be so bored!!"

Next thought:

"Ooooooh....what yummy thing should I bake to bring with me to work the next day!".

I asked a gal at work what I should make (I needed inspiration)....she immediately said "something chocolate..."

So I went on a quick hunt and came up with a few choices....one of them being Lemon-Raspberry Muffins. A lovely recipe that I had starred and tagged back in September from Debs blog, Kahakai Kitchen. Turns out it's a Nigella Lawson recipe....can't go wrong there. After some deep thought and consideration, the muffins beat out the other recipe I had picked out (which did included chocolate....shocking, I know!!).

Off to the store I went to make a few purchases...raspberries for one. And to my utter disbelief, the store didn't have fresh raspberries!! Seriously? (Vons....your store on Victory and Tampa kinda sucks! Just thought someone should know.)

I was forced to use frozen raspberries (even so, there were only 2 bags to choose from). I also picked up some Cran-Raspberry Juice cuz I wanted a light glaze for the muffins.

Then as I was walking down the baking aisle, I noticed all those bags of chocolate chips and picked up some (just in case I needed to make cookies in the near future. I hate it when we're out of basic stuff like...chocolate chips!) when suddenly the bag of white chocolate jumped out right in front of my eyes! You see, deep inside I was feeling, I dunno....not "right" because I wasn't making something "chocolate" as requested. The white chocolate became the answer and the soother of my inner self, (which, according to a certain coffee commercial, "speaks french").

Now I'm all excited and ready to go!

Lemon Raspberry Muffins:
Printable Version
1/4 cup butter
1 1/3 cups a.p. flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
Juice and Zest from 1 lemon
about 1/2 cup milk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 oz fresh raspberries 12 oz frozen raspberries, defrosted & drained

Glaze:
1/4 cup cran-raspberry juice
1/3 cup powdered sugar

4 oz white chocolate

Preheat your oven to 400'F. Line 12 muffin tins with 12 paper baking cups.


Stir together the dry ingredients and lemon zest

Love that aroma of fresh lemon! 

In a measuring cup, pour in the lemon juice. Add enough milk to the lemon juice to measure just under 1 cup. Beat in the egg, melted butter and vanilla.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just to combine, try not to over stir. Fold in the raspberries carefully, especially if you're using defrosted berries. (which reminds me...you can really use any berry you want in this recipe.)

Divide the batter between the 12 paper lined muffin cups

Bake for about 25 minutes. Leave in the pan to cool a bit for 5 more minutes as the muffins are moist and almost fragile. Then allow them to cool on a rack for another 15 minutes.

Meanwhile combine the juice and powdered sugar, mixing until the sugar has dissolved. Once the muffins are cooled, spread a spoonful of the glaze over each muffin top.

Melt the white chocolate according to package directions and drizzle some over each muffin.

And enjoy your labor of love....the product of your inner soothing....and be thankful the Lakers redirected your cooking focus for a night from a rushed dinner to an enjoyable treat