In my first book, The Perfect Recipe, I developed a muffin I thought was…. well, perfect. They were light, airy, and tender, but all that came at a cost. The recipe called for 10 tablespoons of butter, which at the time felt okay, but these days it’s rare I’ll squander that many fat calories in a sitting.
I’ve updated the recipe, subbing in applesauce for some of the butter, and I’ll be darned if these muffins aren’t equally good. I’ve created some new flavors too. When I asked Maggy which one I should share with you she said, “The Raspberry-Lemon Curd Muffins!” and I totally agreed.
No need to slather this one with butter, the lemon curd filling really makes it special.
Raspberry-Lemon Curd Muffins
by: Three Many Cooks
Serves: 1 dozen
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon each: salt and baking soda
- 1½ cups plain low-fat yogurt
- 2 large eggs
- 6 tablespoons flavorless oil or melted butter
- 6 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 generous cup frozen raspberries
- 6 tablespoon lemon curd
Instructions
- Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and soda in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, mix yogurt, eggs, butter or oil, applesauce, vanilla. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and then stir in raspberries. Scoop batter in each of 12 greased muffin cups. Make an opening in each portion of scooped batter; spoon in a heaping teaspoon of lemon curd and press in a few extra frozen raspberries onto each top and bake.
- Bake on the center rack of a 400-degree oven until golden brown, 23 to 25 minutes. Let stand a few minutes; turn onto a wire rack to cool.
I am SO excited that you lightened up your old muffin recipe. Don’t get me wrong – I love that recipe – but I avoid making it now unless it’s a SUPER special occaision because of how much butter is in it. Sometimes flavor is all that matters (Christmas morning?!), but most of the time I need a good health/flavor balance. Thanks for doing the work in recipe testing so I don’t have to 🙂
Love lemon and raspberry! These sound divine and lighter, too. Question: Can you use fresh berries or will they not hold their shape in the muffin? Thank you for the tasty treats 🙂
These look delicious. May I suggest, however, that you add the lemon curd to the ingredient list? I always make my shopping list from the ingredients and fear I might forget it otherwise. 🙂
Thanks, Monica Rae! We’ve amended the recipe. 6 tablespoons lemon curd 🙂
I love the lemon curd in there!! Yum!
its tasty raspberry with lemon curd , love to eat now..
I discovered these and all their variations on AARP on they look wonderful….do you have any idea what the sodium content might be?
Hey Pam, Thanks for your comment. I’m glad you found the other muffin variations at AARP. I don’t know exact sodium content, but it couldn’t be much. Obviously you can reduce the salt in the recipe for an even lower sodium count.
There’s about 300 mg. sodium in each muffin. There’s sodium in the baking powder, baking soda, if the butter is salted, in the yogurt. You have to check it all if you’re on a sodium restricted diet.
I made these today–and they were really good. However, the recipe makes a lot more than 12 muffins! I had enough batter to probably do more like…18? I didn’t quite know what to do so I kind of made 12 enormous muffins and discarded the rest of the batter. The lemon curd and raspberries kind of overflowed and made a huge mess! But again–they tasted great! I took them to a brunch and got rave reviews. I would just say this recipe makes more than a dozen.
I absolutely agree. Same thing happened to me
There is NO doubt in my mind with all that yogurt and fruit that is one MOIST muffin. Lemon curd rings my taste bells right along with raspberries. Wonderful!
Thanks so much for the delicious recipe and for giving us permission to make recipes our own! Reading the comments I found all of the variations on the AARP website. However, using your base, I made a variation that I knew my little son would like (grated apples with cinnamon/nutmeg for the muffins with a cinnamon/brown sugar/flour/butter topping). I even replaced 1 cup of the all-purpose with whole wheat flour. It turned out great. It’s still really moist 4 hrs later. He’s eaten at least 4 muffins, or at least the tops. Sigh. Half a recipe made 12 muffins (I have a small muffin pan). And I’m excited to see what variation I make tomorrow with the other half of the recipe! This might be my new go to muffin recipe!
WOW! These looks fantastic! I love raspberry and Lemon curd–I will definitely have to make these little lovelies!!
OMG, I had some lemon curd and was looking for a muffin, and stumbled into this recipe, had not previously been at this website. I am an avid baker, but I don’t usually comment about recipes, but these are divine! The only change I made was using nonfat yogurt instead of low fat, and adding about 1.5 cups of frozen raspberries. They are fabulous! Thanks!
Anyone made this as a cake instead of muffins?? Love to make it like that but wondering about the cook time??
I’d start by lowering the oven temperature to 350 and increase baking time to 30 to 35 minutes. Good luck. Hope it turns out well.
I made these today. Using a standard 3-inch muffin cup pan this recipe makes more like 20 muffins and not 12. The lemon curd spilled over and burned as the muffins rose. Next time I will fill the muffin cups half way and then add lemon curd followed by more batter to keep it inside the muffin.