{"id":264755,"date":"2025-05-31T04:13:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T04:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/bread\/a-sweet-surprise-in-the-muffin\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T04:13:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T04:13:13","slug":"a-sweet-surprise-in-the-muffin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=264755","title":{"rendered":"A Sweet Surprise in the Muffin"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Most muffins are OK, but sort of boring. Fortunately there are small things that you can do to make them more interesting, like substituting some rolled oats for part of the flour, adding citrus zest to take them from stodgy to zippy, and adding mix-ins like dried or fresh fruit for additional flavor, texture and fun. An added surprise is putting in a teaspoon or so of flavored ricotta, then covering that with the batter that included fruits. It isn’t until you are well into eating the muffin that you discover the lovely tangy and creamy center that goes so well with the soft muffin and sweet fruit. These are very similar to a muffin that I invented over 40 years ago when I had a muffin business in the East Bay. I only had a few caf\u00e9 outlets and it was before retail muffins became popular. They were called MegaMuffins because I overfilled the baking cups so that the excess spread out over the pan. You had to cut them apart before serving, so you had circular muffins with sort of square tops where the pan had been, and then a mound in the middle.<\/p>\n

This Strawberry-Lemon-Oat-Surprise Muffin recipe brings lots of flavor, plus the surprise, to a dozen muffins.\u00a0 There is oat enriched batter, a secret center of sweetened lemon flavored ricotta cheese, and sweet, fresh strawberries baked into the top layer. If you like you can add a bit of crunch and more sweetness with some sanding sugar sprinkled on right before you bake them.<\/p>\n

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You don’t need added butter or jam…or anything really…for these because they are delicious just as they come from the oven. Unless you are feeding a crowd, that means some for now and some for later! If you’re keeping these, I recommend an airtight container and that they live in the fridge. That way the secret ricotta cheese part will stay delicious. You can wrap a muffin or two in foil the next day and warm it for 10 minutes in a 300 degree F oven and it will be almost like having a freshly baked muffin.<\/p>\n

As with all muffins, there are a few tips to remember. Everything should be at room temperature. This helps the ingredients blend together as they should. This means setting eggs and buttermilk and cheese out before baking time to allow them to warm up. The melted butter also needs to cool off. It might be a little warmer than room temp, but it shouldn’t be by very much…don’t want to scramble the eggs when you add it to the egg mixture.<\/p>\n

Another tip for this recipe is to be generous with the lemon zest. The zingy lemon flavor really helps the strawberry flavor pop. This is important because cooked strawberries are not quite as flavorful as fresh ones.<\/p>\n

The last tip is to be fairly gentle with the batter when you are mixing the dry and wet ingredients. You want to mix it so that there aren’t any clumps of dry ingredients, but only mix until just combined. This will keep your muffins nice and tender.<\/p>\n

It might seem like a lot to have batter, cheese mixture, then the berry\/batter mixture having to be put into 12 cups. I have found that if I use a 1\/4 cup measure and only half fill it for the first batter layer, and also put that into all the cups quickly, then a tablespoon of the cheese mixture roughly in the center of the cut, also into all 12 cups one right after the next, then pretty much fill the 1\/4 cup measure for each of the cups for the final better\/berry mixture that it comes out right. Each cup should be about 3\/4 filled.<\/p>\n

You are going to love these muffins! The secret filling is also the secret to their popularity. Try it and see. If you are like Sweetie, you won’t want to stop at one muffin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Strawberry-Lemon-Oat-Surprise Muffins<\/b>
Makes 12<\/p>\n

1 1\/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
<\/span>1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1\/2 teaspoon salt
1\/4 cup granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 1 1\/2 Meyer lemons (or regular lemon if Meyer unavailable), divided<\/p>\n

2 eggs, beaten\u00a0<\/p>\n

1\/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine, melted and cooled<\/p>\n

juice of 1 Meyer lemon, seeds removed<\/p>\n

1 cup buttermilk<\/p>\n

1\/2 cup ricotta cheese
2 teaspoons milk or soy creamer
2 teaspoons powdered sugar<\/p>\n

1\/2 pint fresh strawberries, washed and drained, hulled and sliced
about 1 tablespoon clear sparkling or sanding sugar (optional)<\/p>\n

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with baking spray. Set aside.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a bowl, sift or whisk the dry ingredients together. Add half<\/b> the lemon zest and stir or whisk to distribute.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a second bowl, whisk together the egg, cooled butter, lemon juice and\u00a0 buttermilk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prepare the filling by stirring together the ricotta cheese, milk, powdered sugar and the remaining half the lemon zest in a small bowl until completely combined. Set aside.<\/span><\/p>\n

Add the wet ingredient mixture all at once to the flour mixture and stir together with a fork, just until all the dry ingredients have been moistened. Don’t overmix.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scoop enough of the batter into the prepared muffin tins to cover the bottom – about 2 tablespoons. Dollop about a tablespoon of the ricotta mixture on top. Stir the sliced strawberries gently into the remaining batter, then top the ricotta mixture in the pans with the berry-rich batter, distributing evenly. Sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired, distributing evenly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Bake in preheated oven for 17 – 25 minutes until tops are golden brown and the center springs back when pressed down with a clean finger. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack 3-5 minutes, then removed carefully from the muffin tin and serve.<\/p>\n

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Most muffins are OK, but sort of boring. 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