Raspberry Muffins

My family and I were very blessed this year with friends who offered to let us pick their raspberries for free. My children and I went and picked as much as we wanted, and we came home with gallons of raspberries. I froze a lot of them for the winter, and I made some into jam, pies, compound butter and syrup for pancakes. In the past I have made raspberry ice cream, raspberry sweet rolls, a vanilla custard tart, and even a raspberry chocolate coffee cake, but I wanted something different. All of these things are delicious ways to use up raspberries, but I had a hankering for a really good raspberry muffin. Not just an ordinary muffin, that is more like a naked cupcake. Or a so called healthy muffin that is better used for a door stop. I'm talking about a true muffin, with a coarse but tender crumb. One that's still soft and fluffy, but has some heft and depth to it. And who's top is overflowing, to create the most desired part of the muffin: the crispy edged muffin top.

I adapted a recipe from Alton Brown for blueberry muffins. I switched up a few things and I think they turned out perfectly.
The recipe calls for coarse demerera sugar or turbanado sugar to crown each muffin, but I left the extra sugar off of mine and they still turned out wonderfully. The sugar would add an extra layer of crunch if you choose to add it.

A nice large top on each muffin.

This recipe is definitely going to be a staple in my house.

*I use my homemade yogurt in this recipe, but if you are buying some to use, then make sure it's the regular yogurt and not Greek. The store bought Greek yogurt is too thick. If that is all you have, you can still use it, but I would thin it out with a tablespoon of milk.

Here's the recipe:

adapted from Over The Top Blueberry Muffins

1. Raspberry Muffins
2. 
   
3. 2 1/2 cups organic AP flour
4. 2 cups organic sprouted whole wheat pastry flour
5. 4 tsp baking powder
6. 2 tsp baking soda
7. 1 tsp fine sea salt
8. 1 cup organic cane sugar
9. 1 cup unsalted organic, grass fed butter, melted
10. 2 large eggs (organic, pasture raised is best)
11. 2 large egg yolks (organic, pasture raised is best)
12. 16 ounces plain whole fat organic yogurt (if using Greek, add 1 Tbsp milk)
13. 1 tbsp organic orange zest (optional)
14. 1 tsp pure organic vanilla extract
15. 12 ounces fresh organic raspberries
16. 2 tablespoons demerera sugar (optional) for sprinkling on top (can be substituted with turbanado sugar)
17. 
    
18. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F and coat a standard 12-cup muffin pan, and a 6-cup muffin pan, with non-stick cooking spray.
19. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In second bowl whisk together the sugar, butter, eggs, yolks, yogurt, orange zest, and vanilla until smooth.
20. Make a crater in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Stir with a rubber spatula until just barely combined. Resist the urge to over-mix – there should be a some lumps of flour in the batter. The batter will be thick.
21. Fold in the raspberries gently, mixing just to combine.
22. Fill each muffin tin cup. The cups should be quite full. Sprinkle the muffins with the coarse sugar and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
23. Remove from oven and turn out, upside down, onto a clean tea towel to cool completely. (This  prevents soggy bottoms.) They are best served immediately. They can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days, but the tops will become soft.

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