Berry Delicious Raspberry Muffins

We have raspberry bushes in our garden and are lucky enough to get two harvests from them.  One bushel in the spring and one at the end of summer.  It's like eating candy!  Seems like we do that with blueberries too!

Don't you just want to pop one in your mouth?

Before we had the raspberry bushes in our garden, we used to make a day of it and head out to the country for some pickn' time.  Once you arrived on the farm, you got one of these...

I know, this Florida girl was also confused.  This fancy contraption comes with a string tied around the handle.  You then loop the string around your neck.  Now your hands are free to pick as many berries as possible and just drop them into your "raspberry collection contraption."  Very efficient I have to say.

Look at my youngest cutie, in the dark purple hoodie, and her friend.  Where did the time go?  Those two are as sweet as the raspberries we were picking!  Don't they model the "raspberry collection contraption" so well?  So what do you do with all those raspberries you have picked?  Feed them to a donkey.  Yeah, we did that too.  Must have fed him a lot because their buckets are empty.  The rest of us ate them as is or ended up taking those berries home to make raspberry streusel muffins!

Raspberry Streusel Muffins

www.tasteofhome.com has a recipe that is pretty close to the recipe the farm used to hand out after you had picked the berries.  Really the only difference is adding some chopped pecans to the streusel topping.  I'll leave that up to you.  These muffins are delicious for breakfast!

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• STREUSEL:
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
• 3 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tablespoons of cold butter
• Confectioners' sugar

Directions

• In a bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in egg. In a small bowl, mix sour cream, milk and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients; stir into creamed mixture alternately with sour cream mixture just until moistened. Gently fold in raspberries. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Combine flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 400° for 18-22 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Dust with confectioners sugar. Makes: 1 1/2 dozen berry delicious muffins.

Head out to a farm or farmer's market.  See what you can find and whip up your own creation.  If you run across raspberries, by all means bake some muffins.

Celebrate the little things that make life raspberry patch sweet!

Christine