Get ready to have your mind blown by these amazing Lemon Blueberry Muffins. Soft and pillowy, and with a light and creamy Whipped Ricotta Frosting, you’ll think you are eating a treat from the finest patisserie.
I hear that in many parts of the world the weather has gone suddenly cold. In some places in the US it even snowed. It couldn’t be more different than here in the UK, where we have been blessed with some gorgeous sunny days. Of course, we can’t really make the most of it since lockdown is still in full blow. But it really does have a positive effect to my mood, to be woken up every morning by the sun rays filtering through our bedroom windows, even if I am stuck indoors pretty much all day.
To celebrate this beautiful weather until it lasts (you never know in Britain), I decided to make some zesty lemon blueberry muffins. But these are not just your plain old muffins. I wanted them to have some edge. To look beautiful and special. And this is when the whipped ricotta idea came to mind. I mean whipped ricotta isn’t my original idea. I have often seen it in different food blogs and patisseries. Yet, until a few weeks ago I had never had a go at it myself. So why now?
Get ready for a controversial opinion: I really don’t like the majority of frostings. Buttercream especially is for me a thing of the Evil. It is so sickening sweet, it spoils an otherwise delicious cake. I can count on my fingers the amount of times I have actually enjoyed a butter-based frosting, which led me to the following conclusion: if I am gladly eating your frosting, rather than chomping down a few spoonfuls and tossing the rest on the side of the plate, you are an absolute baking genius. Be proud of your achievements. My loathing for frosting goes so far to the point, that I have often thought with horror about the fact that, should I decided to get married one day, I will literally have to fight to find a bakery that could produce a decent cake with a good frosting. I get anxious even thinking about it.
What I am absolutely not opposed to, though, is cream cheese frosting. That is the only exception. And even then I am fussy (which also makes me think that I am probably really not fun at parties). Cream cheese frosting, in my book, should not be overly sugary. I love it when I eat a carrot cake or a cinnamon roll and can still taste a hint of cheesiness, of salty and slightly sour flavour. Similarly, when I made my Nutella and Mascarpone Cake, I made sure that the cream cheese filling wasn’t overly sweet. Simply because, if I had, I would have not been able to eat it. Or maybe I would have eaten it but I would have not enjoyed it.
So when I set out to make the frosting for these lemon blueberry muffins, I knew that my ricotta wouldn’t have a lot of sugar to deal with. Yet, still quite not happy with the result, I decided to add some lemon juice to it, just to make sure that the frosting wasn’t just plain sweet, but rather had some depth – which, in case you are wondering, it’s quite a big ask for a simple muffin frosting.
So, whether you have the same issues with frosting as I have, or you actually think that a sugary, buttery frosting is the best part of having a slice of cake here are few things you can do to tweak the recipe to your liking:
Omitting the frosting completely: maybe my level of frosting-hate is just a 3 out of 10 for some people. Maybe there is someone out there who would love to shave off any frosting from a cake with a palette knife before packaging it and sending it to supermarkets and customers. Or maybe you haven’t got any ricotta at home and you really cannot be asked to go to the store just for that (you can use some standard cream cheese btw). If any of these statements relates to you, don’t worry: simply leave the frosting out. This is still a very solid muffin. It’s a delicious, lemony treat you will not be able to get enough of, no matter whether it’s frosted or not.
Adding more sugar: I use 4 level tbsp of powdered sugar for 250 gr of ricotta. In the big scheme of frostings, that’s quite low. If you love everything sugar, you can double the amount of sweetener for the frosting. I will not judge you. The only thing though, is that you might need to beat the frosting for a little longer to obtain the same smooth consistency. Not the end of the world.
Whatever your preferences, please do not omit the frosting only because you think you can’t pipe. I really cannot pipe and still managed it. I tried two professional piping bags and screwed every single time. So then I tried with the simple freezer bag trick - making sure I actually closed the zip lock thingy because it has already happened to me that all of the frosting would overflow to my hands as I squeeze the bag – and that kind of worked. But it wasn’t perfect by any means. I adjusted it with a very small palette knife and that did the trick too. But to be totally honest with you, even using a spoon and delicately placing a dollop of frosting onto each muffin sounds good to me. So if what you fear is making a mess, just know that I am the first one to screw things up when it comes to piping.
Ingredients:
Makes 8 muffins
140 gr plain flour
110 gr caster sugar + 1 tbsp for the berries (optional)
The zest of 1 medium lemon + 1 tbsp lemon juice
80 gr fresh blueberries*
90 gr butter
1 medium egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
180 ml milk
1 tsp baking powder
1/4tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the whipped ricotta frosting:
250 gr ricotta
4 tsp lemon juice
4 level tbsp powdered sugar
*Note: it might not sound like much, but 80 gr of blueberries are indeed a lot of berries. I like my muffins to have loads of blueberries, but if you’d rather have less, you can use 50-60 gr instead.
Method:
Preheat the oven to 170 °C.
Sift the flour, the bicarbonate of soda and the baking powder and add them to a large bowl. Add the sugar and the grated lemon zest and mix everything until well combined.
Melt the butter in a medium bowl. To that, add the milk little by little and the egg. Whisk until combined.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture, along with the lemon juice and vanilla extract, and mix until you have a smooth batter. Finally, add the blueberries and fold them gently into the batter, avoiding breaking them.
Line a muffin tin with cupcake paper cups and spoon the batter into each cup. You want the batter to fill just over ¾ of each cup. Basically you want them almost full.
Bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes. When you take them out of the oven they will look quite pillowy and delicate and you might worry that they are still not done baking. Use a toothpick just to make sure they are cooked, but just know that they will become firmer and denser as they cool down.
Once they are no longer warm, make your frosting: to a bowl, add the ricotta cheese, the lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Give them a quick mix with a spoon and then, with an electric whisk, mix them for about 20 seconds, or until you have a smooth frosting. You can also use a standard whisk, and the same process will only take you about a minute or so.
Fill plastic freezer bag with the ricotta frosting and cut a small angle to create a piping bag. Pipe the frosting on the muffins. Alternatively, use a proper piping bag, a palette knife or a simple spoon. Anything goes.
If you are making the frosting, keep these muffins in the fridge for up to 4 days. If you are not making the frosting, you can keep the muffins on the counter for 5 to 6 days.
Enjoy!
Did you ty this recipe? Have you got any questions? We would love to hear from you! Let us know by leaving a comment below. Xx
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