Raspberry White Chocolate Muffins

    Recently, I became one of the youth leaders at my church. So, when we were doing a morning event and opening up our coffee bar, I offered to make mini muffins! Immediately I knew I was going to make the standard chocolate chip and blueberry but I wanted to add a more fun flavor into the mix. After a conversation with my sister in law, we settled on the idea of white chocolate raspberry because they are fancy, tasty, and I already had all of the ingredients. On top of all that they just scream spring! Little did I know that these would be the favorite and be gone within five minutes of the start of the event. 

    I started off my muffins by beating together sugar, butter, and oil. When everything is beaten well, I add in my eggs one at a time, beating my mixture in between. Then, I added in my vanilla, milk, and sour cream and beat it again. I like to make sure all my wet ingredients are mixed together super well and that they have a good amount of air introduced to help make the end result a little fluffier. 

    When my wet ingredients are well combined, I get started on my dry. In a separate bowl, I mixed together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. I added half of that to my wet ingredients and folded it together with a rubber spatula. Next, I measured out 3/4 cup frozen raspberries and 1/2 cup white chocolate chips. I dumped those into my remaining dry ingredients and mixed it until my raspberries were coated in flour. I did this because uncoated fruit will often drop to the bottom of whatever you are baking, making the bottoms soggy and missing out on the fruit flavor on some bites and getting only fruit in others. When you coat your fruit in flour, it helps them cling to the batter and stay suspended while baking, causing a more even dispersion of fruit in your goodies. 

    Once my raspberries were coated, I added my flour mixture with the raspberries and white chocolate into my wet mixture and once again used a rubber spatula to fold everything together. To ensure I am. not overtaxing everything I like to stop just when there are a few dry streaks in my dough but the raspberries and chocolate are well dispersed.  When everything is mixed the way I like, I prepare my muffin tin. When I am baking for a large crowd I prefer to make mini muffins because I feel like they are a little more special and less intimidating for someone who wants a snack on the go. However, this recipe works well for regular sized muffins or even jumbo!

     I like to put cupcake papers in my tin but skip every other spot so that my muffins have enough room to puff up. Another thing I do to make sure I get a nice domed top is fill my liners all the way to the top. When everything is scooped out and ready I bake them for about 8 minutes for mini, 10 minutes for regular, and 12 for jumbo. However, I like to check them about two minutes before they are technically ready. The trick to getting the best moist muffins (other than a good recipe of course) is to find the fine line between under-baked and over-baked. This is really hard because it can mean a one minute difference between the two. To tell how ready your muffins are you can look at the tops or you can use a toothpick.

    If you are using the top method, you don't want them to be jiggly. They should be just slightly brown around the edges but just barely. They should also be nice and puffed up. Personally, I think the most accurate way though, is to use a toothpick. You do this by carefully inserting a toothpick into the middle of the muffin and if it comes out with wet batter on it then it is not quite done. If it comes out slightly damp but with a crumb or two on it it is perfect! However, if nothing is on it when it comes out, there is a good chance your muffins will turn out a bit dry and you should take them out right away! All you need to do is serve those muffins with a bit of butter or icing and they will be amazing!

   When my muffins were done, I cooled them just enough to handle and ate them warm by themselves. The raspberry and white chocolate flavors are so rich and amazing that these muffins need no icing, butter, or any other topping! They are super fancy with very little effort and will be the favorite of any brunch. 

    What did you think of this recipe? What should I make next? Leave me a comment!