Lemon Raspberry Muffins

I love a good muffin. There's something about them that just makes me happy. I also love the combination of raspberry and lemon so this little muffin made me VERY happy. These are so easy to throw together and are great for breakfast or a snack and freeze beautifully! I throw them in IT Guy's lunch instead of cookies...just to mix things up because I like to walk on the wild side. You should give them a try!

 Lemon Raspberry Muffins



½ cup shortening
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk
1 8-ounce container raspberries
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Line muffin cups with cupcake liners. Spray cups lightly with cooking spray.

Cream shortening and sugar together until creamy.

Add eggs, one at a time until combined.

Add lemon juice and lemon zest.

Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add to the sugar mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.

Stir in frozen blackberries.

Spoon mixture into prepared muffin tins and sprinkle with a bit of coarse sugar.

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until lightly golden brown and done in the center.

Makes about 18 muffins.

The cast of characters. You will need a lemon...

not just lemon juice if you want a more intense 

flavor. You need the zest for that!

Combine the shortening and 

the sugar then add the eggs, one at a time.

Then add the lemon juice and lemon zest.

Then alternate the flour mixture and 

the milk, beginning and ending with the flour.

Gently mix in the raspberries.

Fill your muffin cups. At this point I 

sprinkled some coarse sugar on the 

tops because I like sparkly food!

Bake!

Mmmm....enjoy!

I'm a big white chocolate fan. Also...I love raspberries. Put the two together and I'm a happy girl. I made this to take a function so I put mine in lots of little cups so it would serve lots of people but normally this serves about 6 - 8 depending on your dishes. I managed to reserve enough for one pretty little crystal goblet. You know...purely for picture purposes. Honest!

White Chocolate 
& Raspberry Mousse



1 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 10-ounce package frozen raspberries
1 cup powdered sugar

Allow raspberries to thaw then press through a sieve or strainer to remove seeds. Set aside.

Heat water in saucepan, with sugar, until sugar is dissolved.

Add chocolate chips and melt until smooth. Set saucepan in cold water to cool mixture. Place in the fridge until thoroughly chilled. Whisk smooth.

Beat cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form.

Combine raspberry juice and powdered sugar.

Fold half of the whipped cream into cold chocolate mixture and the remaining half into the berry mixture.

Pour into serving dishes and enjoy.  

Serves 6

Let's get going.

Drain the berries then push them 

through a sieve to remove seeds.

See?

Then add the powdered sugar and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat 

the water and sugar together.

Then add the chocolate chips. 

Let them sit for about 5 minutes. 

Whisk to combine and smooth then 

chill in the fridge for a little bit.

Whip your cream. 

Now somewhere I lost a couple of pictures 

but after your cream is whipped, divide it in 

half between the white chocolate mixture 

 and the raspberry mixture. 

Gently fold the cream in. You don't want to 

 deflate the cream you just whipped into a frenzy.

Then in your serving dishes, put a little of each mixture.

Top with some fresh berries and serve!

When we lived in California, we lived right down the street from a Trader Joe's. LOVE that store! One of the things they sold there that I really enjoyed was a spinach salad. It had the raspberry dressing...but it also had feta cheese, dried cranberries and candied pecans. Oh. So. Good. Once in a while, a friend and I would go there and pick ourselves up a salad, pretend it didn't have an calories whatsoever and just enjoy it. Yum. Since moving to the south, we DO have Trader Joe's but the stores here don't carry the same salad. Must be a regional thing or something. Well..never fear! I made my own version of their salad and I have to say...I'm pretty impressed with myself. If you're into froo-froo salads like this...you will love it! So good. I told IT Guy...psshhhh....TJ's aint got nuthin' on me!

Spinach Salad 

with Raspberry Dressing 

(and other yummy stuff)

1 bag Spinach
1 4-ounce container crumbled Feta cheese
1 6-ounce bag Craisins
Candied Pecans ~ recipe follows (or buy ready made)
Raspberry Dressing ~ recipe follows (or buy ready made)

Pile it on your plate and eat!!

 
Here are all the salad fixin's.

Raspberry Dressing

1 6-ounce package fresh raspberries
5 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
Cracked black pepper to taste
4 tablespoons olive oil

In a blender, place the raspberries, Balsamic vinegar, mustard, honey and black pepper.

Blend until well combined then while blender is running, drizzle in the olive oil.

Makes about 2 cups of dressing. Store in the fridge in a jar with a well fitting lid. Shake before using.

 
The ingredients for the dressing.


 
Put everything in the blender EXCEPT the olive oil.


 
After everything's blended, drizzle in the 
olive oil while the blender's running.


 
Here you go!

Candied Pecans

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup pecans - halves or very rough chopped
1 tablespoon butter

Cover a small cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Place sugar in a small skillet and cook over medium heat until sugar begins to melt and turns golden and caramel-y….stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add butter and stir, then dump in the pecans, stirring quickly. 

Immediately turn pecans onto parchment paper. Separate with two forks and allow to cool. The pecans can be broken into smaller pieces once they are completely cooled.

 
For the candied pecans.


 
Heat the sugar over medium heat in a medium sized skillet.


 
As the sugar heats, it will start to melt. 
First it will get kind of lumpy. See?


 
And lumpier. Don't panic! It WILL melt. 
Just keep stirring so it doesn't burn. Yuck.


 
See how melt-y it is? 
Remove the pan from the heat.


 
Stir in the butter and let that melt.


 
Then stir in the pecans.


 
Working quickly, spread the pecans 
out onto some parchment paper. 
When they are completely cooled, 
you can break them into smaller pieces.

I love scones. I didn't always love scones, but I love them now. I guess it took a while to educate my palate to appreciate them. I think what I love more than eating them, is making them. There are just so many different options when it comes to flavors. One of my favorite combinations of flavors is white chocolate and raspberries so I figured it would be good in a scone. Was I right? Oh yeah...I was right. These disappeared pretty quickly around here. They were delicious!

White Chocolate Scones 
with Raspberries



3 cups flour
2/3  cups sugar
5 teaspoons baking powder
pinch salt
2 sticks butter, chilled and cut into chunks
1 egg - beaten
3/4 cups heavy cream
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking pans with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Using the paddle attachment, add the butter chunks. Combine until mixture is crumbly.

Combine the cream and beaten egg. Add slowly to the flour/butter mixture until well combined. Add white chocolate.

On a floured work surface, dump out the scone mixture. Shape into a round. Sprinkle frozen raspberries on top and gently work dough so raspberries are dispersed evenly.

Gently roll dough out into a 14 inch circle then cut into triangles. Place scones on prepared baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Drizzle with glaze.

Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons milk

Combine ingredients into a medium mixing bowl and stir until smooth. Add enough milk to make thick glaze. Drizzle over cooled scones. Allow to set.

Here's what you'll need to 

make these awesome scones.

 

Combine the dry ingredients.

 

Add the butter chunks until the dough is crumbly. 

You'll want to see some small butter chunks in the dough.

 

Combine the egg, cream and vanilla.

 

Pour that into the dough.

 

Then stir in the white chocolate chips. 

This is what you want it to look like.

 

Dump it onto your work surface.

 

Sprinkle the raspberries on top. 

Make sure the raspberries are frozen 

so they don't break down too much in the dough.

 

Roll out the dough into a circle..

or whatever shape you want...

 

..then put them on parchment paper lined baking sheets.

 

Bake them until they are nice and golden.

 

Whip up your glaze them drizzle the cooled scones.

I was grocery shopping the other day and happened upon the day old bread rack. Tucked back inside were two packages of ladyfingers! I grabbed them and the wheels started turning. I know that ladyfingers are standard in making tiramisu so I figured I'd do something along those lines. How fun did this dessert turn out?? Very fresh...light and a little sweet and a little tart. Everyone really enjoyed it...even #1 son who's not a big fan of citrus-y desserts, liked this.

Raspberry Key Lime Tiramisu

 
Here's the line-up....


Raspberry Jam Sauce:

12 ounces frozen (thawed) raspberries
6 tablespoons sugar


 
In a medium sauce pan, combine the frozen 
raspberries and 6 tablespoons of granulated sugar.


 
After the berries have been cooked down, 
press them through a sieve to remove the seeds.


 
This is what you'll end up with.


Key Lime Simple Syrup:

¼ cup granulated sugar
¼  cup key lime juice

 
In a small sauce pan, combine the key 
lime juice and 1/4 cup of sugar until thickened.



Key Lime Filling:

2 cups heavy whipping cream
8 ounces cream cheese, (or mascarpone) at room temperature
½ cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons key lime juice

 
In a mixing bowl, beat the whipping cream 
until stiff peaks form. Then combine the 
whipped cream, cream cheese, powdered 
sugar and key lime juice. Mix well.




2 4-ounce packages lady fingers

1 cup fresh raspberries for garnish

Thaw frozen raspberries. Cook them with 6 tablespoons of sugar in saucepan over medium heat until mixture is thickened and reduced to 1 cup, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes. Push mixture through a sieve to eliminate seeds. Cool.

Combine ¼ cup sugar with ¼ cup key lime juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until sugar has dissolved and mixture is syrupy. Remove from heat and set aside.

Using and electric mixer, whip the cream until stiff peaks form.

In a large mixing bowl, fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese. Stir in the powdered sugar, and key lime juice. Blend until cream is fully mixed.

Separate the lady fingers and layer some on the bottom of an 8x8 inch dish. Brush the layer with 1/3 of the Key Lime syrup  followed by 1/3 of the raspberry sauce.

Spread 1/3 of the cheese mixture over the lady fingers. Scatter 1/3 cup fresh raspberries
on top of the cheese mixture. Repeat the procedure until all of the lady fingers, cheese mixture and sauces are used ending with the cream mixture and fresh berries on top.

Makes 10 servings.


 
Lay some ladyfingers in the bottom of an 8x8 inch pan. 
Then paint them with 1/3 of the key lime syrup.


 
Then drizzle on some of the raspberry syrup.


 
Spread 1/3 of the whipped cream mixture on top 
of the ladyfingers then sprinkle with 1/3 
cup of the fresh raspberries. 
Repeat two more times until all ingredients have been used....


 
...and it looks like this! 
Chill until set..a few hours or overnight.