omnomnom | Peach Ricotta Muffins (Reply)

Precisely what the title says... peach ricotta muffins. I had some spare ricotta on hand after making lasagna, and needed to use it for something, and stumbled upon this recipe on the Food Network website. I'm usually not a huge fan of Anna Olsen recipes, but this one is easy, quick, and very tasty! I tweaked it a bit for my own tastes, so that's the one I'll give you, but the original is just as good I'm certain.

You'll need:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup ricotta
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup canned peaches, diced
2 peaches, sliced for garnish
brown sugar, for sprinkling

In a bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In a seperate bowl, blend the brown sugar, ricotta, eggs, oil and vanilla extract. Once blended, slowly add in the other dry ingredients until combined.

At this point, stir in the cup of diced peaches. The original recipe called for fresh peaches, but I didn't want to peel and dice that many peaches so I used canned peaches in a light sauce. I was afraid they would make the muffins too sweet but they actually turned out wonderfully.

Once the peaches are stirred in, spoon into a well greased muffin tin. Then you can arrange slices of peach on each for garnish. I used fresh peaches for this, but canned slices would do just fine too. Sprinkle generously with brown sugar and bake in the oven, preheated to 350°F, for 35 to 40 minutes or until the tops are golden. Mine were in for about 35 minutes and that was plenty of time.

Let them sit for 10 minutes before removing from the muffin tins. This yields 12 standard sized muffins.

I would suggest trying to avoid there being too many fruit pieces near the bottom of the muffin because they tend to stick to the tin and stay behind when you try to remove them if still warm, so letting them sit is important. Keep refrigerated after the first day or two (if you haven't eaten them all by now) or in an air tight container.

Enjoy at breakfast, or as a nice snack!