A: How do I love thee? Lemon count the ways…

Don’t you think for one second that I have forgotten my beloved citrus delights. If anything, the house if bursting at the seams with all manner of lemon wonders. (Man is still adamant that his life is made no better by this seasonal barrage of sunburst-yellow.)

One of my all-time favourite muffin combinations has got to be lemon-raspberry. Actually, I suspect this has more to do with the raspberry and less to do with the lemon. Regardless, decided to make a batch of minis with my growing bounty of lemons.

Have bastardized a number of lemon-cake/muffin recipes over the years and I currently am quite happy with this one.

Lemon and raspberry muffins

Ingredients:

115g butter, softened

225g sugar

4 eggs, beaten

225g plain flour, whisked with 2 1/2 tsp baking powder

130ml milk

1tsp vanilla essence

juice and zest of 1 lemon

1 cup of frozen raspberries (I tend to add more)

Method:

Heat the over to 180C, line 12 muffin cups or 24 mini-muffin cups.

Combine the lemon juice with the milk and leave for 10 minutes (or just use 150ml buttermilk plus lemon zest).

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs gradually, beating well after each addition.

Add flour mixture and fold in using a spatula.

Fold in milk, zest, vanilla and frozen raspberries.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake for 15-20 minutes.

I would include a photo of the finished product but a large proportion of the muffins mysterious disappeared while they were cooling and I was so caught up in saving the rest from my ravenous manrat (who claims to abhor the dreaded lemon) that I forgot to take a snap. 😦

A: Buttermilk madness

I adore baking with buttermilk, and have in my recipe collection a decent repertoire of muffins and cakes that call for buttermilk. Unfortunately, buttermilk once opened tends to spoil quickly (yes, even in the fountain of youth I affectionately refer to as Fridge). My local supermarket sells buttermilk in 1l quantities, where the average cake/muffin recipe uses 1/2-1 cup of buttermilk, which always results in the onslaught of buttermilk baking in a quest to use up every last drop of this milky ambrosia. More often than not I call on an old favourite of mine- a basic muffin recipe that doesn’t require the Kitchenaid (much as I adore my empire red powerhouse), just 2 bowls and a spatula.

This time I split the basic mix in 2 and did a raspberry and white chocolate, as well as a lemon and poppyseed batch. I must say the raspberry and white chocolate combination is a hard one to beat!

Basic muffin mix

2 cups plain flour (or 1 1/2 cups plain and 1/2 wholemeal)

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

3 tbsp melted butter

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk well.

Combine all the wet ingredients and whisk well.

Add wet to dry and mix gently with a spatula.

Add fruit/nuts/ chocolate chips (see tried and tested additions, below).

Bake at 190C for 20-25 minutes. Makes 12.

Tried and tested additions (no fixed quantities here, just add ingredients until it looks right!)

Raspberry and white chocolate

Strawberry and lemon zest, followed by drenching it in lemon syrup (equal proportions lemon juice and sugar, boiled till sugar dissolves)

Chocolate chocolate chip (substitute 1/2 cup flour for cocoa, add milk and dark chocolate chips)

Lemon and poppyseed- zest in mix, drenched in lemon syrup or topped with lemon butter after.

The list is endless!!!

A beautiful light crumb, thanks to the buttermilk no doubt. Enjoy!