Lemon-Raspberry Muffins

Lemon-Raspberry Muffins

Click here for a printable recipe
Adapted from Living Well Magazine
The directions call for using a vegetable peeler to remove the lemon zest and then combining it in a food processor with the sugar, but I've never felt like I could get the zest fine enough using this method, and I don't really like biting into chunks of lemon peel.  So I prefer to use a rasp grater to zest the lemon and stir this into the sugar to sit while I get the rest of the ingredients together. I've left the original recipe so you can try that method if you'd like. 
I love the texture of these muffins and used white whole-wheat flour, but if you don't have it, just substitute regular all-purpose flour.  And next time I will sprinkle a little raw sugar over the tops of the muffins before baking them.

1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white whole-wheat flour or whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (not thawed) raspberries
raw sugar for sprinkling (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. (My muffins cooked a little too quickly at this temperature, so I may try 375 degrees next time)
Coat a muffin tin with cooking spray.
Use a vegetable peeler to remove the zest from the lemon in long strips. Combine the zest and sugar in a food processor; pulse until the zest is very finely chopped into the sugar. Add buttermilk, oil, egg and vanilla and pulse until blended.
Combine whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture and fold until almost blended. Gently fold in raspberries. Divide the batter among the muffin cups.  If using, sprinkle the tops with a little raw sugar.
Bake until the edges and tops are golden, about 20-25 minutes.  Let cool in the pan 5 minutes before turning out on a wire rack.  Serve warm.