raspberry muffins

Chocolate chips make this raspberry muffin chocolicious.

There is definitely one advantage of growing older. And that is that I don’t have to get up until I’m ready. And, well I can stay up as late as I want watching TV, go anywhere I want to go, when I want to go. I guess there are quite a few advantages. I love going to the movie at 10:30 in the morning and I average 1-2 movies a week (and I do ask for senior rates — didn’t think I would ever be glad to say I wanted “senior rates”).

Do you think “hoarding” is something that happens as we age? I get an upset stomach watching those hoarding shows. I do, on the other hand tend to hoard food; especially berries that I pick in the summer months or in the case of these raspberries that I got for .99 cents and bought 40 cartons to put in the freezer.

So, one Tuesday morning after a good 8 hours of sleep I decided to whip up these muffins to take to my craft circle. Do you see that happening a lot lately? I know they will be eaten. I have to be honest, a few weeks ago, I tried a gluten-free orange muffin and decided to add some extra orange extract. They were AWFUL, tasted like a mouthful of alcohol and when I noticed they were not being eaten, I threw them away. Gluten-free items are not my favorite things to make and I learned my lesson about adding too much extract; and, I would like to be known as that lady who brings “good” stuff.

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If you like cheesecake, you will love these Raspberry Cheesecake Muffins.

This was another one of those Betty Crocker days because by the time I was finished baking, I had flour all over me and my kitchen. I should have been packing for our trip tomorrow) but instead I’m de-stressing and baking. We leave on a 8 day cruise that starts in Amsterdam and ends in Barcelona and then we have 9 days to explore Barcelona, Seville and Madrid. I sure hope I come back with some new recipes ideas to blog about.

I use raspberry preserves with the seeds. I think the preserves with the seeds for some reason have more color than the seedless preserves which are usually kind of brownish.

So I found some great raspberries on sale this week. I get so excited to find raspberries on sale.  Anything less than $3.00 a carton is a steal in my book. My only problem is I will buy them and they will sit in the refrigerator and start getting moldy before I think to use them. Not so with these berries. I bought a couple of packages and the first ones I used to make my Raspberry Nutella Gelato and then I remembered this Raspberry Cheesecake Muffin recipe that I have been holding on to for years and decided to give it a try.

The original recipe did not have the fresh raspberries in the batter  and just called for the raspberry preserves. BUT, how could any recipe not be improved by adding fresh raspberries.

Today was one of those Texas HOT days where I just didn’t want to get out of the house. I really didn’t even want to walk to my garage to my extra refrigerator (I have two in my garage) to fetch some butter and eggs. But, I braved the heat just so I could make these muffins. I think my husband appreciated the effort since I always put the baked goods in the freezer and he can grab something on the way out to his golf game.

The cheesecake topping is fantastic on these muffins. The batter is somewhat thick since there is no milk in the recipe but there is plenty of butter and sour cream to make this a delicious treat.

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