This recipe came about because of leftover ricotta in my fridge. I’d made ricotta-topped spaghetti for dinner on Sunday, which left me with most of a fifteen ounce tub of cheese left…and no plans for it. Normally, what would happen is it would languish in the refrigerator until I remembered to pitch it. This time, I got some inspiration from Deb’s ricotta muffins. The original version are a walnut-fennel muffin, and at some point I might try them, but I didn’t have most of the ingredients. I did, however, have the ingredients for a gateau aux noix.
(Rule of Baking #1: Everything is always fancier in French. Gateau aux noix? Walnut cake.)
Cut half the sugar out, scooped them into muffin tins and stuffed them with ricotta cheese, and Saturday brunch is taken care of, basically. This recipe would be great with eggs and bacon for a weekend brunch, just impressive enough to…well. Impress. But not at all complicated.
Walnut-Ricotta Muffins
3 eggs
1/2 C granulated sugar
1/3 C walnut oil
1/3 C white wine
1 1/2 C flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t sea salt
3/4 C (or more) walnuts, chopped
Ricotta cheese
Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 12 cup muffin tin. Set aside.
Whisk together eggs and sugar until creamy and yellow. Add oil and wine, whisk to combine. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold in walnuts.
Fill the muffin cups a little less than half-way. Top with a teaspoon of ricotta cheese, and then the remainder of the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until slightly golden. Let cool a few minutes in the pan, and then remove to a rack.
Eat while still warm.
I’ve had three so far.
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I’m never quite sure how to classify the muffin. Technically speaking, it resides in the the quick bread category, along with biscuits and scones and banana and zucchini bread, but I’ve adapted cake recipes to make muffins and I imagine I could reverse that in some cases. There are definitely more cake-like muffins out there. This isn’t one of them.
I first came across Elise’s Blackberry Muffin recipe back in 2005, and wanted to try it then, but when I blogged about it on my now inactive blog, my mother promptly sent me her sweet muffin recipe from Betty Crocker and informed me that they made the best fruit muffins ever, and I never got around to Elise’s. Then I was hunting around for something to bake today, came across them again, and finally, four years later, I’ve made them.
They might be the best raspberry muffins ever. Don’t tell my mother.
The secret is the sour cream, which makes for a fluffy, slightly dense, moist muffin. It’s also only got 2/3 cup of sugar, so it’s not overly sweet either; it’s perfect, and I’m currently devouring them as an accompaniment to my tomato and spinach soup for dinner tonight. I chose raspberries, my favorite fruit for muffins, but blueberries or the original blackberries work fine too.
Raspberry Sour Cream Muffins
2 C all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 large eggs
1 C sour cream
2 t Half-and-Half
2/3 C sugar
8 T warm melted butter (1 stick)
1 t vanilla
1 C frozen raspberries
Position rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a standard 12 muffin pan or line with paper muffin cups.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, milk, sugar, butter and vanilla.
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix together with a few light strokes, just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Add the berries. DO NOT OVERMIX. The batter shouldn’t be smooth.
Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of 1 or 2 of the muffins comes out clean, 17-20 minutes (or longer). Let cool for 2 to 3 minutes before removing from the pan. If not serving hot, let cool on a rack.
It actually makes 18 instead of 12, which amazed me, because even when a recipe says it makes 18, I only ever get 12.
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