Warm Kitchens = Little Joys

This morning was a bit chilly and foggy. Coming in from my morning run with a red nose and cold cheeks something hot sounded good. So looking in the fridge to see what needed using up I decided to make some raspberry filled muffins. Thus using up the raspberry cake filling Natalie made for a cake that sadly did not end up coming to fruition. See picture.

We tried to salvage them but the bottom was doughy and the top was gum-chewy and...well we ate a bit of it but just couldn't stomach the rest. Needless to say I am still trying to figure out my European oven!!

Anyways, the recipe I came up with was Raspberry Filled Lemon muffins. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com but did a bit of tweaking. Give them a go they turned out pretty well.

Raspberry Filled Lemon Muffins

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used vanilla yogurt with strawberries in the bottom and just left out the strawberries)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice (I put in about 2 T)
2 egg whites (I used one whole egg)
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (optional) -(I left it out)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 cup frozen raspberries (instead I used the raspberry cake filling I had, the recipe for that is included below the muffin recipe)

2 tablespoons white sugar for decoration (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, or line with paper liners.
In a large bowl, mix together the yogurt, oil, lemon juice, egg whites, and, if using, lemon extract. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until just blended. Gently stir in the frozen raspberries. Spoon batter evenly into the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle remaining sugar over the tops for decoration, if desired.

**If you decided to do the cake filling instead, fill the muffin tins 1/4 of the way full, put 1 1/2 tsp raspberry filling on top of the batter then put more batter on top until the muffin tin is 2/3 full.

Bake for 17 to 22 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top springs back when lightly touched. Cool muffins in the tin on a wire rack.

Raspberry Cake Filling Recipe:

12oz frozen raspberries. partially thawed, but not drained

4 1/2 tsp. cornstarch

3 T sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

Puree all ingredients. Cook on medium low, stirring frequently, until filling bubbles. Simmer for 3-5 minutes, or until filling loses it "cornstarch" taste. Remove from heat, chill until cold and set. Makes 1 1/2 cups filling.

This makes enough for about 5 batches of muffins. This is also great in layer cakes with white chocolate frosting!