A Great Way to Celebrate Summer Berries: Dark Chocolate and Fresh Raspberry Mix-It-Up Muffins

Gluten-Free Fresh Raspberry and Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins

Fresh berries never last long in my household. Between my two boys and I we are able to eat almost our weight in blueberries, blackberries and raspberries during the summer months. Growing up there was a large patch of wild blackberries that we would go every summer to pick. We would collect as many fresh berries as we could carry home and my mother would bake pies and desserts for weeks. I remember being covered head to toe in berry juice and being as happy as can be. My two boys seemed to have inherited my love of all things berries, they will go into the fridge and sneak as many as they can get their hands on. Luckily berries have been inexpensive recently so I have been baking and cooking with them frequently and allowing my boys as many bowls as they can handle (within reason). This week I tried a new recipe for Mix-It-Up Muffins from the June 2013 issue of Parents Magazine.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 10 muffins. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. First, I made two batches of muffins, one gluten-free and one regular. I made half the muffins with carrots and raisins (not pictured) and half dark chocolate-raspberry. As I always do when making muffins I used foil liners. They are so much easier to unstick the muffins from, especially when using gluten-free flours. One step that the recipe leaves out is to roll the berries in a small amount of flour before adding them to the batter. This allows the berries to not 'bleed' into the rest of the muffin batter.

My youngest son was a larger fan of these muffins than my oldest. I would suggest a few changes to the original recipe. First the raspberries ended up a little soggy in the recipe. I would cut the overall amount used or switch to using blueberries and roasted cut-up almonds instead. The recipe would also work well with the dark chocolate chips and dried blueberries, cherries or cranberries. This would also keep the berries from making the muffins soggy. The nice thing about this recipe is that it can be modified very easily to suit your tastes and what you have in your pantry. White chocolate chips, nuts, raisins and dried coconut would all work very well with the original recipe.

For the recipe go to Dark Chocolate and Fresh Raspberry Muffins.  (registration required)