Lemon Muffin with Red Currants

(Photo taken by Jovett Lopez)

Note (May 25, 2012): I recently made this as a cake with blackberries instead of red currants. Coat blackberries with 2 tablespoons sugar and spread evenly at the bottom of the pan. Spoon cake batter over it and bake. A lot of people have trouble turning an upside down cake without the middle sticking on the pan. Use wax paper or foil to cover the bottom of the pan so when you flip it over, the whole cake comes out foil and all. If the berries stick to the foil, stick the cake in the freezer for 30 minutes before peeling it off.

~*~

Almost a year ago, I had a love affair with muffins. Obsession is probably the proper way to describe it. I wanted to learn how to bake (aside from the token brownies and chocolate cake) by baking as many kinds of muffins as I could find. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a lot of pictures and those that I managed to take were poorly focused and had horrible exposure.

I had the chance to make these muffins again for my friends last weekend. Breakfast should always be the biggest meal of the day and we sure had a huge meal with varied dishes. My contribution was a batch of lemon and red currant muffins.

You can be creative with this muffin and use all sorts of berries. SK’s original recipe uses raspberries. I used red currant here. In hindsight, I think the red currants should have been coated with a tad of sugar since they’re really sour. The first time I made this muffin, it had a cherry centre and I topped it with sliced almonds. I think I like the latter version better. Here’s a photo of it, taken just before I brought them to work for my colleagues:

It’s not great, but I used to be really bad with photography and used the “Auto” setting far too often. *wince* These days, I learned how to adjust my dSLR properly to take the type of photos I want. I still have a long way to go, especially when it comes to composition, but I’ll get there eventually.

Note: The lovely topmost photo was taken by my friend, Jovett, just before we ate them.

Lemon Muffin with Red Currants
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 20-22 regular muffins.

1 1/8 cups sugar, divided
Finely grated lemon peel from two large lemons (or 3 medium)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 cup yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup red currants (or any other berries of your choice)
1 tablespoon sugar
Sliced almonds (optional but it makes things better)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line standard muffin cups with paper liners. Mash 1/8 cup sugar and lemon peel in small bowl until sugar is slightly moist. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat remaining 1 cup sugar and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg. Beat in yogurt, then vanilla and lemon sugar. Beat in flour mixture.

Coat the red currants with sugar in a cup. Divide muffin batter among muffin cups, filling 2/3 of each muffin cup. Top each muffin with the red currants and sliced almonds. Bake muffins until lightly browned on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes.

[print recipe]