Raspberry Muffins

I really can't believe I haven't posted a decent muffin recipe yet! I love muffins, and maybe it's just that I eat them so quickly that there's no time to post pictures or recipes! Either way, here's one of my favorites: raspberry muffins. The muffins themselves are very simple to make but do require a special tool: the muffin pan. I have a cheap version bought at Target, and this is definitely a case where you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars (or Euros, or...I guess thousands of crowns or pesetas, or whatever you use) on a piece of kitchen equipment.

Raspberry Muffins

2 cups AP flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 freshly grated nutmeg
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
Sugar for sprinkling

Turn your oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 12-slot muffin pan with either melted butter or vegetable oil. Cut the raspberries in half. Mix your flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs, then add the milk, sugar, oil and vanilla extract. Using quick and light strokes, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Make sure you do not overmix, just wet the flour mix through. It's perfectly all right that the batter is lumpy at this point.

Fold in the raspberries. Divide equally into the cups in the muffin pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. If desired, remove the muffins from the oven after about 10 minutes and sprinkle with sugar, then let bake the remaining 8-10 minutes.

Let the muffins cool for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack. They are best served within a few hours of cooking, but if not eating immediately, let cool completely and store in an airtight container for up to three days.