These raspberry muffins are moist, chocolatey and filled with raspberries. They’re made with simple ingredients, come together in minutes and are perfect for breakfast or a midday snack!
These raspberry muffins are the best easy treat for a quick weekday breakfast or a weekend brunch with friends. Cocoa powder adds the perfect touch of chocolate flavor and they’re filled with juicy raspberries and a hint of fresh lemon.
Raspberries, chocolate and lemons are incredibly delicious together. Everyone will love these unique muffins!
For more raspberry recipes, try my White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes, Raspberry Ricotta Cake, and White Chocolate and Raspberry Blondies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- You will love the combination of fruity lemon and raspberry with delicious cocoa powder!
- They have a super soft texture.
- You don’t need a mixer or any special tools to make this simple recipe for raspberry lemon muffins.
- Your friends and family will love it if you make these muffins for your weekend brunch. Enjoy the leftovers for a grab and go weekday breakfast.
- They are also special enough for a Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day brunch.
Ingredient Notes
Here areuseful notes on some of the ingredients needed to make this raspberry muffins recipe.
- Sour cream: Sour cream adds a delicious tangy flavor to these muffins. It also adds moisture without thinning out the batter.
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk makes these lemon and raspberry muffins tender and moist. It also adds flavor.
- Butter: Use unsalted butter to avoid the muffins from being too salty. Melt the butter and allow it to cool to room temperature before using.
- Granulated sugar and light brown sugar. This recipe uses both granulated sugar and light brown sugar. Granulated sugar adds sweetness and flavor and makes these muffins tender. Brown sugar adds flavor and helps make these muffins moist.
- Raspberries: Use either fresh or frozen raspberries. I use fresh raspberries, but frozen make it possible to enjoy these muffins even when raspberries are out of season. Do not thaw frozen berries. Add a couple of extra minutes to the baking time if using frozen raspberries.
- Baking powder: Baking powder helps your muffins rise.
- Baking soda: Baking soda helps keep the muffins from being dense.
- Lemon zest: Use the zest of 1 lemon.
- Turbinado sugar: Turbinado sugar is also called demerara or raw sugar. It is optional but adds crunch and a special touch to these homemade raspberry muffins.
See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Substitutions and Variations
- Instead of sour cream, you can use plain yogurt.
- Use blueberries, blackberries or strawberries instead of raspberries.
- Sprinkle muffins with granulated sugar in place of turbinado sugar.
- Add some regular or mini chocolate chips to make these extra chocolatey.
Step by Step Instructions
Here are the directions on how to make these raspberry muffins from scratch.
Step 1: (Picture 1 above). In a large bowl, whisk to combine the dry ingredients. In a small bowl, toss the raspberries with a tablespoon of flour.
Step 2: (Picture 2 above). In a medium bowl, whisk to to combine the wet ingredients. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a spatula. Gently fold in the raspberries.
Step 3: (Picture 3 above). Transfer batter to a muffin pan. Leaving a space between each muffin will help muffins rise higher but it’s not necessary. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar and press the remaining raspberries on top.
Step 4: (Picture 4 above). Bake at 425 for 6 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 Fahrenheit and bake an additional 9-11 minutes. Cool muffins in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.
Hint: Melt the butter first so that it has time to cool before you add it to the batter.
Expert Tips
Tip #1: Check for doneness with a toothpick. Insert a toothpick in the center of a muffin to check if your muffins are done. If it comes out clean, the muffins are done.
Tip #2: Use room temperature ingredients. You want your eggs, buttermilk, and sour cream to be at room temperature so that they fully incorporate into the batter. Take them out of the fridge 2 hours before baking.
Tip 3: Mix the batter by hand. Mixing the batter by hand helps to make sure you don’t overmix it. Stop mixing once the batter is just combined. Overmixing will lead to dense, rubbery muffins.
Tip #4: Don’t open the oven door mid-baking. Avoid opening the oven door mid-baking, or you risk the muffins deflating. Wait til it’s towards the end of the baking time to open the oven door.
Recipe FAQs
For moist muffins, it’s important not to overmix your batter. Also, make sure not to overbake your muffins.
Tossing fruit in a little flour will help keep it from sinking to the bottom of the muffins while they bake. The flour will absorb some of the juice the berries release as they bake. This will keep them from sinking.
This recipe starts with the muffins in a very hot oven. The hot oven activates the baking powder and helps the muffins rise quickly. We then turn the heat down so that the muffins don’t overbake.
Store these raspberry lemon muffins in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Freeze in a sealable plastic bag or airtight for up to 2 months. Defrost them at room temperature for about 3 hours.
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Raspberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- ½ cup sour cream room temperature
- ½ cup buttermilk room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1¼ cups raspberries divided
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- turbinado sugar (also called demerara or raw sugar) for topping, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two muffin pans with 18 paper liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk to combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk to combine the butter, eggs, sour cream, buttermilk, vanilla extract and lemon zest until just combined.
- In a small bowl, toss the raspberries with the tablespoon of flour. This will keep the raspberries from sinking in the batter while they bake.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir with a spatula until almost combined. Stop stirring when you see just a few streaks of flour remaining. They will get mixed when you add the berries. Add 1 cup of the raspberries and gently fold them in. Be careful not to overmix the batter.
- Transfer batter to your prepared muffin tin (an ice cream scoop works well for neatly and evenly scooping batter into the muffin tin). Fill each one to the top with batter. Leaving a space between each muffin will help muffins rise higher but it's not necessary. Sprinkle turbinado sugar evenly on top of every muffin and gently press a raspberry or two on top.
- Bake at 425 for 6 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 Fahrenheit and bake an additional 9-11 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick. When a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of a muffin, they are done. Remove from oven and allow muffins to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.
Barbara Briggs Ward
Perfect! Will be making these Raspberry Muffins for Valentine’s Day
Natalie
Happy to hear that! Hope you love them.