Raspberry Almond Muffins

With raspberries in season, I've been looking for new recipes and ways to use them since I'm not making any raspberry jam this year. I made way too much strawberry jam a couple weeks ago!

I tried out this muffin recipe this morning, and they are awesome (I promise they are despite the not so great picture). You can go here for the original version. The one below is my adaptation.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup buttermilk (or sour milk if you don't have buttermilk)
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Arrange 3/4 c. almonds in a single layer on a medium baking sheet, and bake in the preheated oven 5 to 10 minutes, until lightly toasted. Toss the remaining 1/4 c. of almonds with some sugar and carmelize in a pan.
3. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 6 cup jumbo muffin pan or 12 cup regular muffin pan
4. In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, 3/4 cup almonds, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. In a separate medium bowl, mix water, almond extract, butter, and eggs. Blend into the flour mixture. Fold raspberries into batter. Spoon into the prepared muffin pan. Sprinkle with remaining candied almonds.
6. Bake 25 minutes in the 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven, until a knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
   

The muffins came out incredibly moist, and the almond and raspberry flavors mix really well. I think I will be making another batch to freeze for when the baby gets here (~5 more weeks!).

FYI: Make sure that you use frozen berries in order for them to keep their shape in the batter and not turn the muffins a greyish color.


Erika