Best muffins - ever!

Lemon-Ricotta Muffins
Good Housekeeping Baking Copyright 1999

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/3 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon peel

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease twelve 2 ½” by 1 ¼” muffin-pan cups or line with paper baking liners. (I used jumbo muffins pans and lowered the heat a bit.) In large bowl, stir together flour, ½ cup sugar, baking powder and salt.
2. In medium bowl, with wire whisk or fork, mix together ricotta, milk, melted butter, eggs and lemon peel. Make well in center of flour mixture and pour in ricotta mixture; stir until just moistened.
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin-pan cups. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over muffins. Bake 20 to 22 minutes, until muffins are golden brown, tops spring back when lightly touched or a toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. Immediately remove from pan; serve warm. Or cool on wire rack to serve later.

These are incredible! I tend to love just about any baked good made with ricotta but I was still surprised how good these were. I probably should have used the zest of one more lemon (I used two and it still didn’t look like 2 teaspoons) but they were still noticeably lemony and they had just the right amount of sweetness for a muffin.

Good Housekeeping Baking is probably one of my favorite cookbooks. It has all the basics plus a few stepped-up recipes, beautifully presented. It even covers pizza and other savory dishes. One look through this book and you’ll be in your kitchen baking, I guarantee.