Lemon Ricotta Muffins

A wonderful recipe for spring! Perfect for extra ricotta when you've made lasagne.

Lemon Ricotta Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar or more as needed for sprinkling

(I actually used the decorative sugar sprinkles to add a little texture to mine...loved that!)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons)

1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese

1 large egg

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/3 cup thinly sliced almonds

We doubled the recipe....hence the sheer magnitude of lemons you see here in our ingredient line-up. And doubling made even more than I dreamed. I thought we would come out with two dozen, instead I had 2 1/2 dozen plus 2 dozen mini muffins. We had muffins coming out of our ears today!

The E-LEMON-EATER.

This child has eaten (not just tasted or chewed on but actually eaten) lemons since he was a wee little tike. It's bizarre. We realize how bizarre it is when we go out to eat with people and he's bartering for lemons from our water to eat them (rind and all)....and our friends' look of shock is pretty apparent. I always figure there's a whole lot worse he could be eating. It is fruit.

Back to the recipe...

Directions:

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners (again this made way more than what it was supposed to for me). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat 1 cup sugar, butter, and lemon zest in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the ricotta. Beat in the egg, lemon juice, and almond extract. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended (the batter will be thick and fluffy-- see photo below).

Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle the almonds and then the remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar over the muffins. Bake until the muffins just become pale golden on top, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yes, the batter was thick alright. More like cookie dough. In fact, this is my cookie dough scooper I had to use to "pour" the batter in to the muffin cups.

They looked so stiff to me in the cups....but I figured they'd sort themselves out in the oven. And they did.

So yummy. With all that butter, they'd have to be, right?