Up until the other day, I had never experienced the wonders of Costco. I know that’s probably hard to believe, but hey, I’m a small town kid at heart, and as a single person, buying food in bulk is not really worth it. Now, I had been itching to go for awhile [I like grocery stores; I realize that’s probably weird but whatever], and one of my friends who happens to have a Costco membership just moved to St. Louis. And so… my Saturday afternoon fun consisted of a Costco trip. #adultlife*

During my Costco trip, I thought it might be worthwhile to stock up on some of my most commonly used baking supplies: a huge bag of flour; a massive bag of chocolate chips [I was nearly out of chocolate chips, and we all know that running out of chocolate chips is unacceptable]; a big bag of granulated sugar, and a nice sized bottle of pure vanilla extract.

Then I found these giant containers of raspberries: about three times the size of your average raspberry container, for the price of one small container. That’s a good deal for raspberries, which are usually outrageously expensive (but I buy them anyway because I freaking love raspberries).

Mmmm. Raspberries.

I got home with all of my goodies, excited to have finally been to Costco. But then I got to thinking: what am I going to do with all of these raspberries? I could easily eat them all in less than one day, but that seemed boring to me. Then it occurred to me that I had never baked with raspberries before in my entire history of baking (and it’s a long one!). I immediately decided that I needed to make raspberry muffins.

I found these whole wheat raspberry lemon muffins, and I adjusted the recipe a bit for my tastes/what I had on hand. The end result are healthy, whole wheat muffins that are bursting with raspberries, which happen to be even more awesome once baked. Since I can’t always handle that “earthy” taste that whole wheat flour sometimes has, I used a mix of white whole wheat flour with regular whole wheat flour. I am pleased with the end results, and I’m thinking you should try these the next time you find yourself with an abundance of raspberries! They contain maple syrup (and a bit of honey because I ran out of syrup) instead of granulated sugar, so in my mind, they’re suitable for breakfast. 😉 {But who am I kidding? I’ll eat granulated sugar for breakfast any day regardless.. haha.}

Excuse the bluish hue in this picture; I’m still working with a new lens and on my photography skillz in general.

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Whole Wheat Raspberry Muffins

Yield: I got about 10 regular sized muffins.

Ingredients:

– 1 cup white whole wheat flour

– 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

– 1 tsp. baking soda

– 1/2 tsp. salt

– zest of one lemon [about 1 to 1 1/4 tsp.]

– 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

– 1 egg

– 1/2 cup pure maple syrup (you can sub the exact amount with honey if you like)

– 1/2 cup milk

– 1 tsp. vanilla extract

– 1 cup fresh raspberries (you may also use frozen)

Make the Muffins!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners; set aside.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or you can use a hand mixer), cream the butter for a few minutes until it’s light and fluffy.

4. With the mixer on low speed, carefully add in the egg, syrup, milk, and vanilla. Mix until combined.

5. Slowly pour in the flour mixture and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix until just combined.

6. Next, carefully fold in the raspberries with a spatula into the batter until they’re incorporated throughout.

7. Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to fill each muffin cavity.

8. Bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of a muffin.

Recipe slightly adapted from 100 Days of Real Food.

I just love using the pink liners in contrast with the raspberries peeking through the muffins!

Welp. Now I’ve checked two items off my bucket list: 1) I’ve now been to Costco, and 2) I have finally baked using raspberries. Winning.

 

*Can’t believe I just used a hashtag in a blog post… Yikes.