Tev: Cherry-Vanilla Ricotta Muffins

[Terrytx]

We all want new muffin recipes. This is a good one. I used fresh cherries, 1 1/2 cups WW pastry flour and 1/2 cup oat bran, 1/2 cup Splenda, EggBeaters, and canola oil. It made 12 (full to the top) muffins, that rose up nicely and were delicious. (oh, and part-skim ricotta) I have no idea what the nutrition stats are, but it can't be too bad.



* Exported from MasterCook *

Cherry-Vanilla Ricotta Muffins

Recipe By :Mollie Katzen
Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Bread Breakfast


Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
nonstick cooking spray
2 cups unbleached all-purpose
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1/2 to 2/3 cup sugar
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cy buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons (1/2 atick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups cherries (fresh or frozen, undefrosted),
pitted and sliced or 1 cup dried cherries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray 8 standard (2 1/2-inch-diameter) muffin cups with nonstick spray.

Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, lemon zest, and sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Place the ricotta in a second medium-sized bowl, and beat in the buttermilk. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well with a medium-sized whisk after each addition. Beat in the lemon juice and vanilla.

Pour the ricotta mixture, along with the melted butter and the cherries, into the dry ingredients. Using a spoon or a rubber spatula, stir from the bottom of the bowl until the dry ingredients are all moistened. Don't overmix; a few lumps are okay.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. For smaller muffins, fill the cups about four-fifths full. For larger muffins, fill them up to the top. If you have extra batter, spray one or two additional muffin cups with nonstick spray and fill with the remaining batter.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly browned on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (The baking time will be slightly longer if you are using frozen cherries, as they give off more liquid.) Remove the pan from the oven, the remove each muffin from the pan and place on a rack to cool. Wait at least 30 minutes before serving.





Source:
"Sunlight Cafe"


Serving Ideas : Variations:
Lemon Ricotta Muffins: In step 2, use up to 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest. Decrease the vanilla extract to 1 tablespoon, and omit the cherries.

Poppy Seed Ricotta Muffins: Add to the dry mixture in step 2, 1/4 cup poppy seeds. Omit the cherries. You will get a slightly lower yield with this variation.

NOTES : Canola oil can be substituted for some or all of the butter. Can sub soy protein powder for up to half the flour. Can sub WW pastry flour for the all-purpose.

[Gracie]

Terry these sound good. I have a book called Miracle Muffins which ironically has Cooking Light on the cover (I didn't realize when I bought it) and most of them have ricotta, too.

Thanks!

Loren

[Chocolate Rose]

Mmmmmmm, Cherry Vanilla, mmmmmmmmm. These sound wonderful!! Thanks, Terry!

[claire797]

Terry,

I'm making a batch of these right now. I noticed that the instructions did not say when to add the butter. When do you add it? Also, how in the world does this yield 8 muffins? Is that the yield for 1/2 the recipe? I'm making the whole recipe and am getting about 15 muffins.

BTW. I'm being a rebel and using real eggss, real sugar, real butter and all purpose flour.

[Terrytx]

Originally posted by claire797
Terry,
I noticed that the instructions did not say when to add the butter. When do you add it? [/i]


Pour the ricotta mixture, along with the melted butter and the cherries,.....

Also, how in the world does this yield 8 muffins? Is that the yield for 1/2 the recipe? I'm making the whole recipe and am getting about 15 muffins.


I agree, I got 12 full muffins. I really don't konw unless she used those "Texas" size muffin tins.

[claire797]

Originally posted by Terrytx



Pour the ricotta mixture, along with the melted butter and the cherries,.....



I agree, I got 12 full muffins. I really don't konw unless she used those "Texas" size muffin tins.

Okay. I'm an idiot. I read the recipe 4 times and missed that. Weird how the brain works (or does not!).

She must have used Texas sized muffin tins.

I haven't tried a muffin yet, but I cut into one and they are very tender.

[sweetpea]

I made these this a.m. before work and they were great! i used dried bing cherries from TJ's and split the amt of vanilla in half and replaced the other half with almond extract. DH loved them and i thought they could use a bit more sugar ( i used 1/4 c. sugar and 1/4 c. splenda) for sweetness but DH said "if you are having one, yes, but if you are having two then it's perfect" HA! Overall the muffin taste and texture was perfect..i would used this for my base of blueberry muffins too! YUM

[newcook]

I just made a batch of these muffins, Yummy and very big. A definite repeater.

I used yogurt instead of milk (1/2 the quantity as recommended), Penzey's double strength vanilla (I used a little less) and dried tart cherries I picked up at Trader Joe's when in Philadelphia last week. (I'm just showing off all my new foodie products).

Thanks for posting that recipe

Daniele

[pilgrim719]

I had copied this recipe months ago and finally made them this morning to use up some ricotta. Yum! They are really good! Very moist and flavorful! I made a half batch of them and got 8 good-size muffins, probably could have squeezed the batter into 6 cups, but it would have been slightly rounded on top and I didn't want to spill any in the oven. I used 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, and 1/4 cup oat bran. I also used 1/2 cup dried cherries. I like the slightly creamy texture these muffins have, kind of reminds me of some sour cream muffins I have made in the past. Maybe it's because I used whole-milk ricotta, or maybe that's just how ricotta muffins are -- I've never made any before.

Thanks for sharing this recipe, Terry! :)

Kari

[Natasha]

Terry, thanks for posting this, and Kari, thanks for bumping up the thread. I was trying to figure out which muffins to make for the upcoming week and have a ton of ricotta to use up. These may well be what I end up making today!

Natasha

[Natasha]

Well, I did make these this evening. The recipe yielded 12 large, fluffy, very moist muffins. I used natural cherry preserves instead of the cherries, oil instead of butter, milk and a bit of sour cream instead of the cup of buttermilk. I omitted the sugar, but did add a bit of sugar on top of the muffins. They're quite filling for muffins! I think I'll be all set for breakfast tomorrow with one of these, milk, juice and coffee. :)

Thanks again for posting this!
Natasha

[Peggy]

So glad to see this thread and recipe resurrected. I just happen to have buttermilk and ricotta cheese in the refrigerator to use up and also have dried cherries in the pantry. Will definately make these this week. Thanks!

Peggy

[Vicanddi]

These sound great...must have missed this thread the first couple of times around. If I have any ricotta on hand, I will be making these today. Thanks for sharing such a luscious sounding recipe :)

Dianne

[Vicanddi]

Okay, I want to make these, but I'm out of ricotta cheese. Anything I can sub,,,or do I have to wait til I go to the store???! Help please :confused: :)

[Jollyjo]

1 cy buttermilk

Is this supposed to be 1 cup?

[Terrytx]

yes-1 cup

[Jollyjo]

Thanks!

[Vicanddi]

Originally posted by Vicanddi
Okay, I want to make these, but I'm out of ricotta cheese. Anything I can sub,,,or do I have to wait til I go to the store???! Help please :confused: :)

Guess there's not a sub.......I gave up and went to the store. Wll be making these later today. Can't wait!

[Vicanddi]

I made these muffins today, and they didn't turn out as well as I expected. Maybe my hopes were too high? They are light, moist muffins, but just don't seem to have a lot of flavor. I did make a few changes: I added about 1/3 cup of chopped pecans, used light butter, used 1 cup of dried cherries, used closer to 2/3 cup sugar than 1/2 cup, and used 3/4 cup AP flour, 3/4 cup WWP flour, and 1/2 cup wheat bran. (I noticed others had used bran with good results, so thought I would try it to make a more healthful muffin) I also sprinkled a little sugar on the tops of the muffins. The nuts and the cherries are the best part of these muffins, IMO. The muffins are okay, and I am sure they will be eaten, I was just expecting "more", I guess. BTW, my yield was 18 regular size muffins.

Not sure what happened....may have been the bran. But, I've used bran in the past as sub for part of the flour with good results. Guess this will just be one of those things I'll just have to wonder about............... :confused: :rolleyes:

[pilgrim719]

Dianne, sorry I didn't see your reply sooner about a sub for ricotta cheese. Actually, I don't know what you could sub anyway, so I suppose I wouldn't have been much help. :rolleyes: As for the muffins lacking flavor, I didn't find that at all with the ones I made. I think they have a lot of vanilla flavor to them, which I really enjoyed. I also had subbed some whole wheat flour and bran, so it doesn't seem like that could have caused your muffins to be blander. Hmmm, maybe your vanilla has weakened, or maybe it's just a case of different people having different opinions on how something tastes. Happens all the time, that's why we have so many recipes in the world! :)

Kari

[Peggy]

I'm am sitting here enjoying one of these muffins as I type this. I made them last night and they are delicious! The best part is I was able to use up my spare buttermilk, ricotta cheese and dried cherries. I was actually about 1/4 cup short on the ricotta cheese so I added some fat-free vanilla yogurt I had to make it a full cup. My yield was #12 very large muffins.

Peggy

[Vicanddi]

Originally posted by pilgrim719
Dianne, sorry I didn't see your reply sooner about a sub for ricotta cheese. Actually, I don't know what you could sub anyway, so I suppose I wouldn't have been much help. :rolleyes: As for the muffins lacking flavor, I didn't find that at all with the ones I made. I think they have a lot of vanilla flavor to them, which I really enjoyed. I also had subbed some whole wheat flour and bran, so it doesn't seem like that could have caused your muffins to be blander. Hmmm, maybe your vanilla has weakened, or maybe it's just a case of different people having different opinions on how something tastes. Happens all the time, that's why we have so many recipes in the world! :)

Kari

I'm just the odd duck on this one, I guess :D :D

[pilgrim719]

Originally posted by Vicanddi


I'm just the odd duck on this one, I guess :D :D

Someone had to be! Thanks for taking one for the team! :p :D

Kari

[Middydd]

After making these muffins twice I figure I should post a review.

The first time I made them I chopped frozen cherries, I think it's my lousy oven but they didn't bake evenly. The flavour was good enough to try again, though.

So I chopped the cherries, rinsed them under running water, dried them in paper towels and let them come up to room temperature.

The result was better, nice fluffy muffins, evenly baked (although it took an extra ten minutes than the specified 25).

I sprinkled the top with demerara sugar. The ricotta really adds some substance to these so they're perfect for a quick filling breakfast.

Definite keeper recipe, love the combination of cherry, vanilla and cherries.

I've <b>got</b> to do something about that thing I call an oven. It's quirky!!