Macrina’s Raspberry Muffins

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I don’t usually buy raspberries from the shops. It seems like too much of a lottery to me. They can look like the biggest, most amazing raspberries in the world, and at $10-$12 a punnet, can still turn out flavourless or sour. Unless it’s for a special occasion; like when I’m making a special cake for a friend, I’d much rather be buying blueberries or even strawberries. When you do strike it lucky however, and manage to land a punnet of good raspberries, they are definitely worth the money and the trouble. I love these little orbed fruits. Self contained vessels of flavour that burst in your mouth. That intense red. Their fragility.

Being such striking fruits, I find we use them a lot at work, even during the winter. The climate in Australia is such that in the middle of winter you can be wearing woolen scarves in Sydney, but walking around in the shorts and a t-shirt, further up north of the country – I know I did, when we were on a family holiday near Townsville, several years ago. So that means a constant supply of berries all year round.

Raspberries (like most other berries) are great because they are high in fibre, packed with vitamins and minerals, and are rich in anti-oxidants. They also have the added bonus of being reportedly good for your eyesight – just think, with the combined power of raspberries and carrots, I will have.. X-Ray Vision!! (try telling that to your kids)

Raspberries don’t last long at their peak, so I try to use them up quickly once I’ve bought them. Any leftover or less-than-perfect fruit, often get turned into muffins as a mid morning snack. For added texture, I sometimes sprinkle some crumble mixture or demerara sugar over each muffin before baking them in the oven.

This raspberry muffin recipe is one of many I’ve been trialling over the past couple of months. It comes from the Macrina Bakery Cookbook, which is worth having a look at. These muffins are at their best eaten almost straight from the oven, and are my contribution to this week’s WHB, hosted by The Chocolate Lady.

Macrina’s Raspberry Muffins :

3 cups plain flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups whole milk
8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 cups whole raspberries
1/2 cup coarse raw sugar

Preheat oven to 190’C.

Sift flour, caster sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. Mix gently with a wooden spoon and set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine eggs, vanilla extract, lemon zest and milk, and mix with a whisk until combined. Add to the bowl of dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon just until all the dry ingredients are moistened. Slowly add melted butter and continue mixing until batter is smooth and there are no visible streaks of butter. Gently fold fruit into batter, taking care to avoid crushing the fruit.

Scoop batter into lined muffin tin, filling the cups to the top. Sprinkle coarse raw sugar on tops of muffins and bake on center rack of oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Finished muffins will be golden brown. Let cool at least 10 minutes before lifting each muffin from the pan.

23 Comments »

  1. Kalyn said,

    July 24, 2007 @ 1:41 pm

    I agree about the rasberries being a bit of a gamble. It’s like that here too. But when they’re good, they’re good! This sounds delicious with the lemon zest and vanilla with rasberries.

  2. Susan from Food Blogga said,

    July 28, 2007 @ 5:22 am

    I’m curious, is a punnet like our pint? Because $10-12 is a lot of money for that size. I usually pay about $6 for a pint. The best raspberries I ever had were from a bush in my Dad’s back yard. So plump and juicy, they were almost the size of cherries. Lovely recipe here; thanks for the link to the Macrina Bakery cookbook; I’ll have to check it out.

  3. Y said,

    July 28, 2007 @ 6:46 pm

    Kalyn : They’re even better when someone else is paying for them! ;P

    Susan: A punnet here is about 125g worth of raspberries. And AU$10 is about US$8.50. Can’t speak for the rest of the country, but in general, fresh raspberries are pretty expensive in Sydney. At their cheapest during the summer, they may be $6-$7 for a punnet. I’ve never had the opportunity to pick my own raspberries, so am doubly envious of your experiences with cherry-sized raspberries!

  4. Claudia said,

    August 1, 2007 @ 12:19 am

    Your muffins look delicious! I like the combination of raspberries and lemon zest.

  5. Betsy said,

    September 4, 2008 @ 4:51 pm

    AAAAAHHHH! HELP! I am making raspberry muffins and I don’t know how and there are no good recipes anywhere, unless this turns out alright!! Thank You SO MUCH!

  6. ... said,

    September 4, 2008 @ 4:53 pm

    yuuuuuuuuuuuummmm

  7. Jennie said,

    June 10, 2009 @ 9:30 pm

    Guess we must be lucky in Melbourne. In peak season you can get raspberries for $2-3 at the markets. Best to buy them frozen for muffins though.

  8. Y said,

    June 10, 2009 @ 11:33 pm

    Jennie, $2-3 is a bargain! I admittedly sometimes resort to frozen also.

  9. betty said,

    June 17, 2009 @ 10:02 am

    giving this recipe a go tonight ! 🙂

  10. Amanda said,

    July 23, 2009 @ 9:18 am

    By the sounds of it I’m super lucky… I refuse to buy raspberries. My in-laws grow them on their property. There are so many in summer you start to get sick of them and they usually sell most of them to the local shops to get rid of them. This year I started freezing them so that come winter I could enjoy them as much as I do in summer 🙂
    That’s the reason I’ve been looking up raspberry muffin recipes. This one sounds great and it makes a nice change from all the chocolate and raspberry recipes out there. I’ll definatly be trying this one!

  11. Y said,

    July 23, 2009 @ 3:41 pm

    Amanda : Yes, very lucky indeed! I don’t think I’ve ever had so many raspberries that I’ve gotten sick of them 🙂 This muffin recipe is pretty good, though I haven’t used it in awhile. I should probably post an updated recipe at some point! Thanks for your comment 🙂

  12. Amanda said,

    July 23, 2009 @ 8:11 pm

    This was a great recipe. My husband is having trouble stopping himself from eating to many and we had to hide them away from the kids 🙂

  13. Maddy C said,

    January 11, 2010 @ 4:28 pm

    Wow!!!! thanx sooo much, we were in a bit of a hole when mum burnt the cookies :'(…. so we jumped online and found this recipe!!! it tastes so0o0o0o0o go0d!!! hahaha l0l! i do admit though, there was alot of ingredients!!!!thanx again!!!! XD! Maddy C!!! ;P

  14. Y said,

    January 11, 2010 @ 9:32 pm

    Thanks for the comment, Maddy C! It looks like a lot of ingredients, but is quite deceiving actually. Two kinds of sugar, lemon zest and vanilla all equate to extra yummy flavour 🙂

  15. Catelyn O'D said,

    February 28, 2010 @ 12:45 pm

    I’m just about to start to make it, it looks SOOOO GOOD!!!!!! This is going to sound stupid but can u substitute raw sugar with normal sugar? Now i feel really dumb!!! Anyway, thanx for the recipe!!!!

  16. Y said,

    February 28, 2010 @ 1:06 pm

    Hi Catelyn! Yes I’m pretty sure you can. You won’t get as much of the crunchy texture as if you were to use raw sugar, but the muffins will still be delicious 🙂

  17. Catelyn O'D said,

    February 28, 2010 @ 3:11 pm

    Thanx heaps!!! I just put them in the oven!! The batter was delisious 😉 They look so good!!

  18. keshia said,

    March 21, 2010 @ 5:48 pm

    as a chef i am always looking for new recipes, and have never come across a recipe like this, i have my muffins cooling on the bench.. after cutting one in half, i have noticed, the mix is very gluey and has a grey tinge to it. not very appealing.. it has a great taste. i have a feeling the ratios of wet to dry ingredients is a little off. 3/10.. great taste. but dont like the glueyness of mix.

  19. Y said,

    March 21, 2010 @ 7:54 pm

    Hi keshia! Sorry to hear you had a problem with the mix. It’s been awhile since I’ve made this recipe, but I don’t recall any gluey-ness or grey tinge to the batter. Perhaps liquid from the raspberries had also seeped into the batter?

  20. Lauren said,

    May 23, 2010 @ 9:38 pm

    Thought this looked like an interesting muffin recipe so I gave it a go…. Turned out FABULOUSLY!! thanks for the recipe…. beautiful and moist, the lemon zest adds a bit of interest too. I made a little cocunut crumble with shredded coconut, brown sugar, butter and flour – sprinkled over the top before baking = devine!!

    Thanks again! definitely will be using this recipe again!!

  21. Sarah said,

    September 21, 2010 @ 12:07 pm

    I’ve only tasted the batter as it’s currently in the oven.. but so far YUMMY!!!!

    I’m trying an organic version, as I’m on a bit of a organic health kick.. perfect recipe for organic products!

    I did feel that the batter was a little wet, so I added 1/2 cup coconut & it changed the texture completely… can’t wait for the finished product, thanks for the tip of adding the lemon zest!

  22. Y said,

    September 21, 2010 @ 6:36 pm

    Good to hear some people are enjoying Macrina’s recipe! 🙂

  23. B said,

    August 21, 2011 @ 6:14 pm

    Tried this recipe last week and it was YUM!! Based on one of the previous comments I went easy with adding the milk, added 1 cup to the wet mixture and only added the remaining half little by little once wet and dry mixed together, I didn’t need all the milk to get the right consistency of batter. They turned out really well and am now making a new batch (double on request!).

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