Raspberry-Lemonade Muffins

A couple of weeks ago, I impulsively bought the Comfort Foods edition of Country Living's magazine. Big mistake. Every page offers a mouth-watering recipe filled with sugar and flour. All of our off-limits favorites. Everything from bacon-topped corn muffin sliders to stuffed macaroni and cheese. On Saturday, I tip-toed into our kitchen to make coffee before work and noticed the magazine suspiciously found it's way onto the recipe display, opened to a beautiful picture of strawberry-lemonade muffins. I decided to take the hint and give it a try during my usual therapeutic day-off baking session the next day.

I made some adjustments to the recipe and it still turned out incredibly delicious (especially for something sugar-free and gluten-free), although it didn't resemble the fluffy, high-topped muffins in the magazine, it hit the spot. I'll include the original recipe and my altered version:

 

GF & SF Raspeberry-Lemonade Muffins

(Makes 15 muffins)

2 1/2 cups gluten-free baking flour

3/4 cup raw honey

8 ounces plain yogurt

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 Tbsp. lemon zest

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries, slightly defrosted

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine flour, honey, yogurt, melted butter, lemon zest, lemon juice and eggs together until just moistened. Don't over-stir the batter, some lumps are fine. Gently fold in raspberries.

2. Spoon batter into lightly greased muffin pans or paper liners, filling almost to the top. 

3. Once you put the muffins into the oven, lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees (the heat change helps get a better rise on the muffin tops). Bake between 16-18 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Cool for about ten minutes. Serve alone or with homemade raspberry jam.

Here's the original recipe printed in the March issue of Southern Living's recipe edition.

Strawberry-Lemonade Muffins

2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1 (8oz) container sour cream
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 Tbsp. lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups diced fresh strawberries

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour and 1 cup of the sugar in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture.

2. Stir together sour cream and next 4 ingredients; add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Gently fold strawberries into batter. Spoon batter into lightly greased 12-cup muffin pans, filling three-fourths full. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sugar over batter.

3. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans or on a wire rack 1 minute; remove from pans to wire rack and cool 10 minutes.

Although everything about "raspberry" and "lemonade" screams summer to me, it'd be a delicious addition to an Easter brunch. I'm slightly tempted to make (and devour) a batch of the real stuff for this weekend...