Raspberry Streusel Muffins

My husband is a finisher. You know, a finisher?

Illustration 1:  He opens the fridge. He’s greeted by a half bowl of soup left over from the night before. Whether or not he actually wants the soup, he pulls it out and eats it for lunch.

Illustration 2: He’s helping me tidy up the kitchen at the end of the day. I’m feeling oh-so-proud of myself for attacking that huge pile of dishes, and I figure that the very last dish — a large, intimidating stockpot — can just wait until morning. “It’s not going anywhere, Honey.”  ”Yes, Love, but the dishes aren’t done.” So we finish it. See? Finishing.

Illustration 3: He opens the freezer door (again, food-related), and finds himself face-to-face with a half-bag of frozen raspberries. When did we use the first half? Goodness, I have no idea. And I’m embarrassed to even make a guess. Let’s finish them off, shall we?

And so we were rewarded with a batch of moist and sweet purple-crumbed muffins, bestrewn with zingy raspberries. The crumbly streusel topping only adds to the fun, although if I could reverse time, I’d go back and tell Sugar Duchess Of The Past to not be shy with the streusel. Go to town. It’s like holding hands — there’s no such thing as too much.

This recipe made about 16 standard-sized muffins. That’s a slightly awkward number for a muffin recipe, I know. Sorry. You might try doubling it.

Raspberry Streusel Muffins

adapted from The Taste of Home Baking Book

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup (8 oz) sour cream

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Streusel topping:

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons cold butter, in pieces

Directions:

In a small bowl, make the streusel topping by mixing together the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add berries and toss gently (if you’re using frozen berries, do not thaw before adding to batter). In another bowl, combine the eggs, sour cream, oil and vanilla; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Sprinkle the tops with the streusel topping. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Tags: berries, streusel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 2:58 pm and is filed under muffins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.