Before you make the muffin batter, make the streusel topping:
Lemon Ricotta Muffins
(Makes a dozen small muffins)
Streusel crumble:
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 6 oz cold butter, diced
- 1 ½ cups flour
For the muffins:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 cup sour cream
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
For the streusel topping:
In a food processor or with a pastry blender, combine all of the streusel ingredients until the butter is almost completely incorporated (a few small butter lumps is fine). With your hands, in a bowl, work at squeezing the blended ingredients and sort of pinching everything together until you have a lot of lovely lumps. It takes a good five minutes of squeezing and gently crumbling to get the right consistency. You want a nice variety of small lumps, just like you would see on top of a coffee cake. Set the streusel aside until you are ready to bake your muffins.
Note: This recipe is very adaptable. If you like, you can certainly add some fresh berries, such as blueberries, raspberries or blackberries, to your muffins for extra excitement.
For the muffins:
In a stand mixer or with an electric beater, mix together the oil and sugar until well blended. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix for about two minutes until light and fluffy. Add the ricotta and sour cream and beat together for another minute. Add the lemon juice and zest and mix well.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add the flour mixture in two additions to the wet mixture and mix until just blended but without any floury lumps.
Preheat the oven to 350 F and line your muffin tins with muffin papers. Spoon the batter into each muffin cup, about ¾ of the way full. Sprinkle a generous amount of the reserved streusel on top of each muffin.
Bake for 15 minutes and then rotate your pans. Continue to bake for another ten minutes or so, until the muffins are firm to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into a muffin.
Remove the muffins from the baking tins promptly so that they don’t get soggy while they cool. Drizzle with the lemon icing once they’ve cooled.
For lemon icing drizzle:
- Juice and zest of 1 lemon
- About ¾ cup confectioner’s sugar.
Mix together the lemon juice, zest, and sugar until blended and still thin enough to drizzle over your finished muffins.
