lemon-raspberry muffins

Today was swelteringly hot and overwhelmingly muggy. Obviously, then, the sensible thing to do was to go home and bake not one but TWO separate recipes, leaving the oven at 375 degrees for the better part of three hours. Luckily I am a very sensible young lady.

At any rate, my friends are moving this weekend, and I’m out of town so I can’t help. Instead I’m contributing snacks! Probably better that way anyhow, I have little to no arm strength so I’m pretty useless with the boxes.






I’ll stick with the first recipe for now, one I’ve tried before and already love. The other (blondies!) I’ve never tried, and they’re still in the oven, so I’ll report back later. Tasting the batter has given me pretty high expectations though!

So, at hand we have raspberry-topped lemon muffins, by way of Smitten Kitchen, by way of Epicurious. These muffins are honestly more like little cakes, sweet and light, but because I don’t frost them I feel entitled to call them muffins anyhow. And eat them for breakfast.

The pictures are a little iffy, because I forgot to borrow Sangyu’s camera and had to use my tiny one. But I think they get the point across.



It’s very warm in my apartment now, and it’s making me sleepy, so I’ll stop here. Recipe below!


Raspberry-Topped Lemon Muffins - Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Yield: 18 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) salted butter, room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 half-pint containers fresh raspberries, divided
  

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 18 standard muffin cups 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. Set aside 18 raspberries, and gently fold the rest into the batter.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Top each muffin with a raspberry. Bake muffins until lightly browned on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, around 20-25 minutes.

Red, white and blue tart

hmm... after weeks of inertia, I've been forced into action by the fact that Melissa is now following this blog... kinda mortifying to not actually have anything on it. But I'm also too tired to write anything intelligent, so I will just put up a pretty picture! Demonstrating my extreme patriotism.

Okay, maybe I'm motivated enough to include the recipe too... after all, that was kind of the point of this whole thing.

Red, White and Blue Tart (adapted from various Epicurious recipes)

Crust:

• 8 whole graham crackers, coarsely broken
• 1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

Filling:

• 6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:

• 2 large strawberries, hulled, sliced
• 2 1/2-pint containers blueberries
• 1 1/2-pint container raspberries

*** Note: This recipe makes a 9-inch tart. I actually roughly scaled these amounts up for a 10-inch pan, it worked beautifully and tasted amazing. Also, if you tuck the strawberries into each other like a fan, people think you're really fancy...

Make crust:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Grind crackers and sugar in processor until coarse crumbs form. Add butter and process until crumbs are evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom and up sides of 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Bake until crust is firm to touch, about 8 minutes. Cool crust on rack.

Make filling and topping:
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in medium bowl until smooth. Beat in sour cream, lemon juice and vanilla. Spread filling in cooled crust. Chill until firm, at least 4 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; keep chilled.)

For topping:
Arrange strawberry slices in star pattern in center of tart. Arrange raspberries in star pattern. Surround with blueberries. Cover loosely and chill until ready to serve. (Can be made up to 6 hours ahead.)


Oh, and this picture, while less pretty, gives a better idea of how to arrange the berries: